The ways in which people and goods are moved on both sea and land has changed significantly during the last century.

The developments of the 20th and 21st centuries have seen an increase in the amount of people and goods transported. Travel times have become shorter and distances have become longer. New records are set in these three categories almost every year. For example, the largest ships today are over a few hundred meters long.

At the same time, the overall amount of travel and transport has also increased. Estimates suggest that the amount of traffic on the planet will continue at a steady rate far into the future.

There are many reasons behind this increase in the amount of travel and transport. Most importantly, they include the following things:

• population growth and the increased need to be able to move people and goods from place to place,
• the increased wealth of developing nations and the resulting diversification of travel and transport in these areas,
• overall technological development and the lowered cost of different modes of transport,
• the need for global distribution of goods and raw materials.