Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Transport is performed by various modes, such as air, rail, road and water.

The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Infrastructure consists of the fixed installations necessary for transport, and may be roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines or terminals such as airports, railway stations, bus stations and seaports. Vehicles traveling on the network include automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, people and aircraft. Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the procedures set for this purpose including the financing, legalities and policies. In the transport industry, operations, and ownership of infrastructure, are both public and private, depending on the country and mode.

Passenger transport may be public or private. Freight transport has become focused on containerization, while bulk transport is used for large volumes or durable items. Transport plays an important part in economic growth and globalization, but has a deteriorizing impact on the environment. While it is heavily subsidized by governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow, and restrain urban sprawl.

Mode

Human-powered

main: Human-powered transport Human-powered transport is the transport of person(s) and/or goods using human muscle-power. Like animal-powered transport, human-powered transport has existed since time immemorial in the form of walking, running and swimming. Modern technology has allowed machines to enhance human-power. Many forms of human-powered transport remain popular for reasons of lower cost, leisure, physical exercise and environmentalism. Human-powered transport is sometimes the only type available (especially in underdeveloped or inaccessible regions), and is considered an ideal form of sustainable transportation.

Although humans are able to walk without infrastructure, the transport can be enhanced through the use of roads, especially when enforcing the human power with vehicles, such as bicycles and inline skates. Human-powered vehicles have also been developed for highly encumbering environments, such as snow and water, by watercraft rowings and skiing; even the air can be entered with human-powered aircraft.

Animal-powered

main: Animal-powered transport Animal-powered transport is the use of working animals (also known as beasts of burden) for the movement of people and goods. Humans may ride some of the animals directly, use them as pack animals for carrying goods, or harness them, singly or in teams, to pull (or haul) sleds or wheeled vehicles. Animals are superior to people in their speed, endurance and carrying capacity; prior to the Industrial Revolution they were used for all land transport impracticable for people, and they remain an important mode of transport in less developed areas of the world.