GEO 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Traffic Congestion, Distance Decay, 2D Computer Graphics
18 Jun 2018
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CGEO106
Lecture 7
What Time Amounts To
- Time is a fixed quantity
- Rich or poor we cannot “make” more time, only allocate the fixed 24hr amount to better suit our purposes
- The ability to allocate time depends on:
- Demographics
- Economics
- Social Circumstances
- Physical abilities
- Stage in the life cycle
The Arrow of Time
- Space controls what we can do through the friction of distance as manifest in distance decay
- Time also controls what we do through direction and quantity
- Direction: called the arrow of time – you can only move forward
- Quantity: the same for all – cannot “but time” no matter what the saying
Time-Space Diagrams, Paths, Cubes and Prisms
- We can organize time-space using time-space diagrams comprised of paths, cubes and prisms
- Diagrams are comprised of horizontal space axis and a vertical time axis
- Paths are particular sets of locations and movements undertaken in a time space diagram
- Cubes convert the 2D diagrams and paths into more precise 3D time-spaces comprised of 2D space and 1D time
dimensions
- Prisms show how much of the time-space cube is available to you given your many constraints
Time-Space Diagram
- A graphical display of time and space for some period of time (e.g. a day/week)
Time-Space Path
- A graphical display of a daily path for some period of time (e.g. a day/week)
Some Implications of Time-Space
- Time is immutable – it moves at the same pace for everyone
- Only speed can change the amount of space you can access
- More space = more potential opportunities
- More resources (e.g. money) = more options for speeding up
- Improved technology (e.g. roads/vehicles) = improved speed, but… more traffic = decreased speed
- More knowledge of opportunities = better chance of getting them
- Better health = faster speeds and wider time-space prism
- Too young/old = slower speeds and smaller T-S prisms
Types of Constraints on Time-Space
- Capacity constraints: the size of the time-space prism
- Capability constraints: our level of mobility and accessibility
- Coupling constraints: our ability to connect opportunities (the arrow of time)
- Control (authority) constraints: who gate keeps the opportunities?
- Cognitive constraints: out knowledge of opportunities within it
Coupling Constraints on Time-Space
- The ability to couple opportunities in time-space depends on many factors or combinations of factor:
- Do we know the opportunities are there?
- Does the time-space path between them allow us to connect them?
- That is, opportunities cannot be coupled if they:
- Are latent (unknown)
- Start or end outside your prism
- Occur outside your prism
- Overlap in time but not space
- Occur too close in time and too far
apart in space
Time, Space and History
- Over historical time:
- Prisms generally grew much larger
- More and varied opportunities exist
- Distances travelled grew substantially and space “shrank”
- Different areas, different development levels:
- Prisms generally much larger for developed countries
- “Tyranny” of space higher in less developed places
- Generally fewer opportunities in less developed places
- Over the life cycle:
- Prisms are generally smaller for the young and old
Life Cycle Influences on Time-Space
How Far Away is the World?
- Time-space convergence refers to the perception that places have moved closer together due to increases in the
speed at which we can travel between them
- Principally involves discussion of the technological changes that allow such increased speeds of movement
- However, also have time-space divergence – that distances appear to become longer
- E.g. Halifax to Paris (direct flight) in 2001 = 5 hrs, Halifax to Paris in 2012 (via Montreal) = 14 hours
- Traffic congestion has also served to increase time of travel and thus apparent distances
A Global Village?
- A related concept is that of Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village – the notion that the world has become a much
smaller place due to technological changes
- More than half of the world’s population lives less than 1 hour from a major city, but not everywhere:
- 85% of the developed world
- 35% of the developing world
- 95% of the world’s population is concentrated on just 10% of the world’s land
- Only about 10% of the world’s surface is more than 48 hours from a large city
Time-Space Convergence and Distance Decay
- “The first law of geography is that “everything is related to everything else but near things are more related than
distant things” – Tobler 1970
Economic Systems and Time-Space Convergence
- Commuting Time: the medieval workplace-home relationship was on the order of 1 hour of ~5km… today the
same travel time will result in about 50-100km and thus increases the opportunities available to people
- Imports of Commodities: 200 years ago, it took 5 months to import silk from China… today it takes ~10 day,
changing the nature of how we define an expensive product
- Finance: in 1980 currency exchange rates were calculated daily… today they’re set almost hourly depending on
the transaction
TSC and the De-materialization of Money
- The gold standard: “fixed” and “floating” exchange rates
- Production system evaluation and currency THEN
- Exchange rates determined 2/3 times a week
- Improvements in electronics leads to daily rate of exchange
- Then hourly, then instantaneously NOW
- Automatic computer trading
- TSC had come to finance and changed the global economy
- Money is no longer a “thing” at all
- Financial valuation based on production is bypassed
- Fluctuating exchange rates caused by computer trading became and end in themselves RESULT
- Traders make millions by using trade time differences
- Time delays that were inherent in the 1970s were no longer apparent in the 1990s and the global economic
system became vulnerable (e.g. Spread Networks)
Document Summary
Rich or poor we cannot (cid:498)make(cid:499) more time, only allocate the fixed 24hr amount to better suit our purposes. The ability to allocate time depends on: Space controls what we can do through the friction of distance as manifest in distance decay. Time also controls what we do through direction and quantity. Direction: called the arrow of time you can only move forward. Quantity: the same for all cannot (cid:498)but time(cid:499) no matter what the saying. We can organize time-space using time-space diagrams comprised of paths, cubes and prisms. Diagrams are comprised of horizontal space axis and a vertical time axis. Paths are particular sets of locations and movements undertaken in a time space diagram. Cubes convert the 2d diagrams and paths into more precise 3d time-spaces comprised of 2d space and 1d time dimensions. Prisms show how much of the time-space cube is available to you given your many constraints.
