Transportation: Brief Review

It has been well established that transport is vital to development. Transport provides accessibility to goods, services, jobs, educational opportunities, friends and relatives. Without viable transportation, the quality of life does not improve and poverty is only prolonged. Furthermore, rural poverty is pervasive and difficult to address. Improving mobility can reduce rural poverty by facilitating women, men, and children to more readily access services (education, health, finance, markets), obtain goods and income, and participate in social, political and community activities. Moreover, mobility requires a combination of appropriate transport infrastructure, improved transport services, and affordable means of transport, both motorized and non-motorized (Starkey, 2002)1.

Investment in transport infrastructure and improved transport service are crucial for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There is now an increased importance attached to measures that will help to achieve the MDGs. Beside economic objectives these emphasize social consideration relating to health, education and women's well being. In part, better road planning can be achieved through more effective public participation, including the active involvement of woman, to help identify the routes that are most wanted by the community and the engineering designs and choices that can maximizes work opportunities for local population (Forum News, 2007)2. Therefore, road selection and designs cannot be left to engineers and planners alone.

On the other hand, the development and provision of rural transport facility and infrastructure are unique matters that cannot be generalized with that of urban transport. The general problems which may emerge when develop and provide sufficient rural transport facility and infrastructure are limited amount of fund and its financial feasibility. Providing rural transport is frequently considered as financially unfeasible as the cost/expenditure is much larger that the revenue. This is the main constraint for the operator in providing rural transport service; besides, (local) government does not have enough financial resource to provide subsidiary. In fact, the more crucial problem in providing rural transport service and infrastructure is their sustainability.