Gruehl Kipke und Heyen-Perschon

Rural mobility

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Authors: Barbara Gruehl Kipke und Jürgen Heyen-Perschon
Appropriate Technology-Forum, 09.11.98

Rural mobility

Most countries lack a master-plan for the transport sector and an integrated approach for the solution of mobility problems . Where possible, the financing of the transport infrastructure should occur from the countries' own resources , which means that the motorised individual and freight traffic must also bear an additional tax load than at present. The problems of the road maintenance are aggravated by low population density and the historical involvement of donors with regard to road development. For these reasons the Road Maintenance Inititative (RMI) program of the World Bank is a valuable source of funds.

The question remains whether even with functioning Road Funds there is enough money to maintain the whole road system (Mason/Thriscutt 1989). Should this not be the case, many rural areas would be isolated. The existence of low cost infrastructure for short distance traffic could be a solution of the problem i.e. short distance traffic is carried out with appropriate means of transportation which is substantially cheaper in production and maintenance, in particular provided that this occurs labour-intensively. Long distance traffic is carried out as before on roads or by rail, provided that these can be maintained profitably.

Nevertheless the structural transport bottlenecks may be considered not only from the perspective of the traffic route construction and the maintenance because there is also a shortage of the means of transportation and services. The per capita rate of motorisation in SSAfrica has stayed the same in the last decades or has presumably even sunk. There can be no question that there is an automatic improvement to the supply of transport infrastructure. (John Howe: "Transport for the poor or poor transport? A general review of rural transport policy in developing countries with emphasis on low-income areas, IHE Delft, ILO, Geneva, 1997, p. 35) John Howe uses the example of India where the possession of appropriate means of transportation is not of marginal importance.. 72% of the tonnage and 69% tkm were moved by animal traction in this case study, while the motorised traffic performed only 10% of the tonnage and 22% tkm in the rural areas.

On account of the character of the road and path network, the mobility needs are substantially more complicated and include above all also transport processes beyond the national road system between the villages, fields and small markets on runways, footpaths and cycle tracks. Normally this happens on foot or with means of transportation of the mid-technical level such as barrows, pack animal and bicycles. An example should clarify this: For the evacuation of 2 metric tons of harvest from the field for a distance of only 3.5 km (average in Makete/Tanzania) one needs to walk 720 km in about 180 hours. This binds a disproportionate lot of manpower which is scarce during harvest periods.

According to our opinion, an investment in the local transport sector with a focus on the low cost means of transportation can create the conditions for an increase in the agricultural production and the marketing chances thereof. Thus an important step would be also done to fight against poverty effectively. Otherwise there is the risk that people in many rural areas are denied access to markets, public health services and so on .

Up to now transport bottlenecks hinder, above all, the economic development of many rural areas. Research done by Airey (Airey, Toney, Transport as a Factor and Constraint in Agricultural Production, Local Level Transport in Sub Saharan Africa, Rural Travel and Transport Project, World Bank, ILO, Ardington, Oxon, 1992.), Sieber (Sieber, Niklas, Rural Transport and Regional Development, The Case of Makete District, Tanzania, Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden, 1996) and Heyen-Perschon (Heyen-Perschon, Jürgen, Sozialgeographische Untersuchung zum Einsatz des Fahrrades als Verkehrsmittel in ländlichen Räumen von Uganda, Fachbereich Geographie der Universität Hamburg, 1997) make it obvious that the possession of low cost means of transportation can provide considerable development impulses.

In sparsely populated areas, the low-cost transport sector can take over a key role in the door-to-door transport. Otherwise the hinterland would remain excluded from many important social services (health care, communication, education).. Their promotion can occur at a reasonable price, reach a considerable portion of the population, is environmental- and resources- friendly and, besides, creates important jobs in these areas.

In conclusion, the study indicates that without improvement of the rural traffic no considerable improvement against poverty can be made since 60-80% of the population live in rural areas. Transport bottlenecks on the farm and to the markets are essential reasons, why the agricultural production stagnates in many countries. Hence, the supply of infrastructure is not sufficient. The means of transportations must be also incorporated. In particular the application of low costs means of transportation does justice to the economic conditions in rural regions. Future solutions are only conceivable with a high proportion of low-cost transport modes.