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 60

It is the reduction of the volume due to a loss of substance that provokes the
deformation of the skin of the fruit. In geographic terms, it is then possible to
explain the complicated shape of the map from global contraction due to the high
speeds of transportation. The model generates forces of contraction along air routes
that apply to high-speed nodes, such as metropolises. As L'Hostis proposed ( 2009 ),
“high speeds and metropolitanization make the world shrivel as it shrinks” would
then be a reformulation of Tobler's statement.

4.2 Conclusion

To conclude this chapter we will discuss a social dimension of time-space that can
be understood from the analysis of time-space relief cartography.

4.2.1 A Social Space in Maps: “It Took Me One Hour

to Get There”

Let's consider terminal T2 at the Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport near Paris.
Several people inside the terminal may state “it took me one hour to get there”.
This includes the airline travelers at 600 km/h, the high-speed train travelers at an
average of 250 km/h, as well as the airport employees that went to work by car
through the congested Paris urban region at an average of 20 km/h and those who
came by public transportation at 10 km/h from neighborhoods around the airport.
Each person took 1 h to arrive there, but each moved at a different speed, with a
profoundly differing kinesthetic experience ( Hall , 1966 ).
The first person belongs to the global network; they occupy the Higher
Metropolitan Jobs market, whose concentration is one of the most revealing markers
of metropolitanization ( Rozenblat & Cicille , 2003 ). They progress in the space of
horizontal relations between metropolises, which is the space of globalization. Their
time-space is the top level network space in the relief cartography.
The second person belongs to a multi-polarized urban space, which is made
possible by the “High-Speed Train web” that links the French cities where those
living there are “neighbours of one of the rare global cities” ( Viard , 2008 ).
The third person belongs to the local or slow network. They live inside the time-
space abysses located around the high-speed nodes. They may pass members of
the two other categories, but they do not obtain access to high-speed transportation.
Their time-space has a steep slope. They live in the folds of the crumpled time-space.
Their time-space is nearly orthogonal to that of the metropolitan workers.
The time-space crumpling produces time-distances that coexist and renders the
propagation of movement at differing speeds, with differing means of transportation.