Theoretical Models of Time-Space: The Role of Transport Networks in the Shrinking and Shrivelling of Geographical Space - Methods for Multilevel Analysis and Visualisation of Geographical Networks - page 56

In addition to the characteristics of metropolises and airport infrastructure, the
number of flights and destinations available as well as the air distances are often used
as indicators to position cities within the global economy ( Grubesic & Zook , 2007 ).
Nevertheless, the development of the air transportation mode from the twentieth
century to now has not led to the replacement of slower transport systems. Each
transport mode has developed within its own space of predominance, which contains
fierce competition in the margins. On the scale of metropolitan space, the road
system is considered the major mode of transport, even when regional specificities
are stressed. The overall picture of mobility involves two distinct levels: the agglom-
eration or local level dominated by cars and the long-distance level dominated by
air. For a complete analysis, this picture must be enriched marginally with the de-
velopment of other transport systems, such as urban public transport and high-speed
rail, which operate as a complement, rather than a substitution for cars and planes.
L'Hostis proposed considering the simultaneous high-speed and lower-speed
transport modes on a continental scale in a single time-space relief cartography
( L'Hostis , 2009 ). This representation is proposed from a different angle of view
(Fig. 4.3 ). While the typical 30 ◦ was used in almost all previous time-space
cartographies ( L'Hostis , 1996 ; L'Hostis et al. , 1993 ; Mathis , 1996 ), this map adopts
a45 ◦ angle of view. As the differential of speed for each subspace reaches a
ratio greater than 6, this angle highlights the dichotomy of time-spaces, which
occurs between the top level high-speed network and the common lower speed non-
metropolitanized space.
In the USA, the air and road transport systems create a complicated time-space
that the relief cartography helps to understand and describe.
After developing cartographic solutions to the problems of distance, we now
interpret the theoretical background of this cartography, relating it to one of the
most fundamental tasks of the geographer: understanding space and distance.

4.1.3 The Theoretical Models of Time-Space, from Shrinking

to Shrivelling

In geography, there are several theoretical models elaborated to understand time-
space. These models consider the movements of contraction or shrinking, conver-
gence, divergence and crumpling or shrivelling. The rhetoric of world contraction
can be considered a fundamental observation. Early references from the ancient
Greeks reveal that they perceived the evolution of vessel techniques at the time-scale
of the life of a human being and linked it to the reduction of distance between places
in the Mediterranean Sea ( Abler, Janelle, Philbrick, & Sommer , 1975 ; Braudel ,
1979 ). In the nineteenth century, maps of now classical French geography depicted
the contraction of the national territory with improvements in their land transport,
while German cartographers mapped the improvements in maritime transport on a
global scale, showing the reduction in travel times between Europe and the rest of