COMCEC Transport and Communications
Outlook 2016
14
3. TRANSPORT BY MODES
As most of the transportation textbooks underline, transportation is a derived demand. People
use transportation services to go work, to visit their relatives and friends, to go shopping, etc.
That is why, the change in the transportation activities can be used as a proxy for changes in
overall economic activities. The rise in the container traffic, for example, is a perfect indicator of
the growth in the trade and manufacturing industry. On the other hand, the change in the air
passenger traffic can reveal how some high-tech and service based industries, which rely more
on air travel, are performing.
The changes in the transport and traffic figures may also signal some other aspects of the
transportation system. The continuously growing traffic figures at an airport, for example, may
imply that a capacity expansion may be needed in the near future. On the other hand, relatively
stable traffic figures of a port may reveal a physical bottleneck which becomes a barrier for
further traffic growths.
In the following sections, the current of state among the OIC geography will be provided with
regard to four transport modes, i.e. road, rail, maritime, and air transport.