The development of new transport systems has been an important and highly visible component of economic development and spatial reorganization in the past two centuries. The Ideal-Typical Sequence of network development has been a widely used model of transport development. This paper shows that this model has been used in several different ways, with different notions regarding the appropriate use, interpretation, and limitations of the model over time. Students must therefore think critically about ongoing changes to transport and communications systems and their impact on economic and social conditions, as well as how these impacts are represented in models.