Businesses and consumers have a vested interest in transportation services within this nation. As the pace of life accelerates, the rapid transport of goods to and from different places becomes more and more important. Transportation hubs have developed in response, serving as hubs for shipments traveling by land, sea, and air. These centers are essential to keep goods moving across the country and to and from abroad.
What are transportation hubs?
A dedicated transportation hub or interchange is a place where cargo or passengers are exchanged between the same or different modes of transportation. They include railway stations, bus stations and bus stops, tram stops, airports, ferry moorings and rapid transit stations. Freight centers include trucking terminals, seaports, and sorting yards.
A hub is the center of the hub and spokes distribution model. Each hub allows for the transportation of cargo and passengers from one location to another without the need for direct service between the locations. Delta Airlines pioneered the hub and spoke system for aviation in 1955. During the 1970s, FedEx began using this model for its overnight package delivery services.
Major US transportation hubs
Some of the country’s largest cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia, have become major transportation hubs. Memphis is the home of FedEx and a major hub for various modes of transportation. The largest port on the East Coast of North America, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, experienced near-record levels of cargo volumes during 2010. Home to three airports and one port, Houston is located along the proposed Interstate 69 NAFTA highway.
Exports are responsible for much of the recent economic recovery, which makes shopping malls very important to this nation. In 2012, the main hub for international trade was the Port of Los Angeles. Due to its proximity to the Mexican border, El Paso is a leading center for overland trade as is the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. New Orleans is a major air hub, and Savannah and Charleston are among the major shipping hubs.
Other major hubs include Detroit, where trucks serve as the primary mode of transportation, and Laredo, Texas, the major trucking crossing on the US-Mexico border. The city of Long Beach in California and the port of Houston are other major hub ports New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport handled more than 900,000 tons of international air cargo during 2008, making it a major air hub.
