Efficient transport hubs and networks are a necessary prerequisite for a highly developed area and its economy. The greatest variety of transport modes, numerous individual locations and the greatest network density can be observed in the densely populated economic core area of the EU. In peripheral regions, traffic is usually limited to a few locations and routes, and the network there is wide-meshed.
The importance of transport networks can be illustrated by case studies, for example the development in the vienna-bratislava area (s. 113.3); until 1990, there were only a few cross-border connections along the iron curtain, whereas today there is an extensive transport network of various carriers along the EU’s internal border.
individual transport
The individual traffic in europe can be processed on the basis of the area signatures for car density and on the basis of the network of trunk roads. In terms of car density, there is a contrast between two areas: western, northern, central and southern europe on the one hand, and the new EU member states, southeastern and eastern europe, and Turkey on the other hand. The only exceptions are Denmark (comparatively low car density) and the Czech Republic, as well as the Baltic states of lithuania and estonia (comparatively high car density). The reasons for this lie, on the one hand, in the history- at the time of the political turnaround in 1990, car density in the former COMECON states was significantly lower than in western europe. Secondly, the level of economic development and the incomes of the population make themselves felt (s. 100.2). In terms of quality (freeway / expressway or highway), the development of long-distance roads is also. other trunk road) and network density, essentially the contrast described above can be observed.
EU concepts for traffic development in europe
In the rail sector, the focus is on developing efficient trans-European networks (TENs) for passenger and freight transport. The european high speed network should be completed by 2050. Freight traffic is to be shifted from road to rail and waterways on a large scale.
Rail, ship and air traffic
The map shows as central traffic area of the EU a strip extending southward from southern england via northern france, paris and the benelux states along the rhine and also including the northwestern german coastal locations of bremen and hamburg. This space corresponds to parts of the blue and yellow banana in economic geographic space models (s. 99.2). In the central transport area of the EU there are..
Six major airports (including the continent’s four largest; s. 45.3),
Several maritime transport hubs (including the four largest on the continent; s. 34.2, 123.3)
Europe’s largest inland port, duisburg (s. 65.5),
Numerous inland waterways and
The continent’s densest network of trunk roads and railroads (v. A. The backbone of the high-speed rail network, s. A. 129.2).
Elaborate structures such as the 50-kilometer-long eurotunnel between france and england, which opened in 1994, underscore the importance of this area.
The central traffic area of the EU is connected by MAIN AXES towards the south of france (rhône rail), northern italy (s. 104.2; alpine transit), scandinavia (via hamburg- copenhagen / malmo), eastern europe (via hannover- berlin- warsaw / krakow) as well as southeastern europe (via stuttgart- munich- vienna- budapest) an.
in the mediterranean region and the black sea, there is an orientation towards individual locations along the coasts with seaports and airports, from which trunk roads and railroad lines provide access to the respective hinterlands. Difficult conditions for traffic development, peripheral location (z. B. In northern scandinavia), for island states (such as iceland), when the respective country was extensive (z. B. Russia) or in mountainous relief (z. B. italy).