Rural Mobility

In order to address rural poverty, it is essential that the time and energy that rural dwellers spend on transport activities is reduced and that rural transport services are affordable, or in other words, it is crucial that rural mobility is improved.

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Related Documents (PDF)

• Improving Rural Mobility - Options for Developing Motorized and Non Motorized Transport in Rural Areas: English, French • Local Transport Solutions -- People, Paradoxes and Progress -- Lessons Arising from the Spread of Intermediate Means of Transport: English, French • Design and Appraisal of Rural Transport Infrastructure: Ensuring Basic Access for Rural Communities: English • Options for Managing and Financing Rural Transport Infrastructure: English, French

The information on this page covers the Rural Transport Services (RTS) aspect of Rural Transport. RTS includes the medium range of transport distances from 5 to 200 kilometers, where both motorized and non-motorized means of transport are used, as well as the short range distances from 0 to 5 kilometers, where the predominant mode of transport is walking but where sometimes intermediate means of transport are used. These intermediate means of transport (IMT) cover a wide range of non-motorized and motorized means of transport, bicycles, as well as animals and animal drawn carts are the most common. RTS covers both freight and passenger transport.

Extensive studies on rural mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere have shown that rural dwellers and in particular women spend a large portion of their time and energy for transport activities. The majority of trips are short range - below 5 kilometers - and are related to household needs, such as water and fire wood collection, agricultural activities, trips to the grinding mill or to school and health facilities. Sporadically, longer trips take place for the marketing of produce, shopping of locally unavailable items and for social purposes.

RTS in Sub-Saharan Africa are to a very large extent privately provided. Options for Government interventions should therefore focus on the creation of a conducive environment for such private sector provision of RTS. Such conducive environment includes: (i) the regulatory and institutional framework; (ii) safety and security aspects; (iii) the provision of credits and perhaps (direct or indirect) subsidies; and (iv) the provision of appropriate infrastructure (see the section on Rural Road Management).