Improvement Of Road Infrastructure Research Articles

Towards sustainable pedestrian safety: the Bangladesh context

BackgroundRoad traffic injuries in Bangladesh have now emerged as a serious development challenge and are inhibiting poverty reduction strategies. A major portion of the people killed or seriously injured in...

Market potential and firm-level productivity in Spain

The literature has documented a large degree of heterogeneity across firms in terms of productivity. In this article, I focus on market potential as a source of differences in productivity across Spanish manufacturing firms. Market potential is conditioned by the existing transport infrastructure. Transport infrastructure investment improves accessibility to input and output markets and thus increases market potential. Market potential is measured by travel time through the real transport network and takes into account the immense improvements that have taken place in Spain over the last decades. The results show a significant positive effect of market potential on firm-level productivity, which is robust to various estimation methods. This indicates an important mechanism of how road infrastructure improvements can generate wider economic impacts.

Road connectivity, population, and crop production in Sub‐Saharan Africa

AbstractThis study adopts a cross‐sectional spatial approach to examine the relationship between transport infrastructure, population location, and agricultural production in Sub‐Saharan Africa using new data obtained from geographic information systems (GIS). We find that both population and agricultural production are spatially concentrated near large cities, with 41.4% of population and 23.6% of agricultural production (in value terms) within 2.5 hours travel time to large cities. Taking into account agroecological and other factors, we find a statistically significant association between travel time and agricultural production. Using coefficients estimated for Mozambique, we simulate the effects of hypothetical increases in road investments on travel times and agricultural production, suggesting that improvements in road infrastructure could facilitate a substantial increase in agricultural production.

Spatially targeting the distribution of agricultural input stockists in Malawi

Developing the rural agricultural input markets in sub-Saharan Africa can improve the current low productivity of smallholder farmers. Malawi has seen significant efforts in addressing the availability of agricultural inputs at village level in the last few years; for example, the improvement of rural agro-dealer networks. Nevertheless inputs are still difficult to obtain for many remote smallholder farmers. Spatial analysis can help in the expansion of input stockists, especially agro-dealer networks, by assessing the coverage of existing input outlets and deriving optimum locations for village-level input stockists. We address three research questions. First, what is the locational efficiency of the current village-level stockists of inputs (Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs – Rural Agricultural Market Development Trust trained network of agro dealers and public sector)? Secondly, how many village-level stockists of markets are needed to reach 60% of the population in the central region of Malawi within one hour? Finally we address the potential spatial components of the sustainability of input stockists relating to the potential demand from smallholder farmers and the access to bulk supplies. The problem of finding the optimum location for village-level stockists of markets is addressed in two stages, using spatial analysis in conjunction with location–allocation models. First, the locational efficiency of the existing network of stockists of inputs is determined, followed by the establishment of a set of optimal sites for village-level stockists of inputs. A final step explores the viability of stockists and calculates the population surrounding the stockists taking into account competition from other sources of inputs and the accessibility of the selected stockists to potential wholesalers who are bulk distributors of farm inputs. Our results show that locational efficiency can be assessed in terms of the differential access of households to resources and transport. Often, these differences are not considered in covering problems and can have a large effect on the physical access to inputs. The results can be used to define which areas are inherently difficult to serve with agricultural inputs and could inform efforts to provide incentives to remote areas. Further implications for input policies in Malawi are that improvements in road infrastructure might not directly benefit the poorest farmers (if they are walking) but could serve to reduce the wholesale prices and therefore the retail price. In addition, the improvement in roads might increase the number of potential customers of any particular stockist, with economies of scale allowing the reduction of prices while ensuring a satisfactory profit margin for the stockist. The results of our models imply that Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs may need to train stockists over a wider area to increase the access to inputs of those smallholder farmers with least resources.

The role of nonfarm income in coping with the effects of drought in southern Mozambique

To reduce their dependence on subsistence agriculture, farm households in rural Africa may diversify their income sources by participating in the nonfarm sector. In years of drought, nonfarm income can also be part of the coping strategies. A multivariate sample selection model was used to analyze three years of data from a nationally representative household survey in Mozambique. The analysis was guided by the following three questions. During a drought year: (1) Do households increase their participation in nonfarm activities? (2) Are poorer households as likely as others to participate in and benefit from nonfarm activities? and (3) Which factors are associated with higher nonfarm incomes? The results suggest that households are more likely to engage in at least one nonfarm income-generating activity during a drought year. Although poorer households are more likely to engage in nonfarm activities, they are less likely to participate in nonfarm activities of high return. The results suggest that policies reducing entry barriers (e.g., improved road infrastructure, micro-credit schemes, and livestock promotion programs) and increasing education levels can facilitate income diversification, thus allowing rural households to better cope with the effects of drought. When designing polices, care must be taken to avoid exacerbating income inequality by targeting measures toward poorer and female-headed households.

One Model Fits All? Determinants of Transport Costs Across Sectors and Country Groups

We show with the aid of pooled OLS estimations that investments in improved road infrastructure have the potential to significantly reduce transport costs. However, this result can only be clearly confirmed for industrial countries and is of primary importance for production and transportation of agricultural goods. For developing and transition countries we find other determinants such as weather conditions to be more important in determining transport costs. A key variable, especially in these countries, is corruption. At very high levels corruption has the potential to prevent positive effects from roads on transport costs or to even reverse them. This paper contributes to the literature on infrastructure investment by introducing and applying an internationally comparable measure of transport costs which can be calculated for a large and growing number of countries. We isolate important determinants of transport costs and provide insights into international and sectoral differences concerning the impact of roads on transport costs. We conclude that investment in transport infrastructure can have substantial positive effects especially on agricultural production and the efficient marketing of agricultural products but only if specific conditions are in place.

Peculiarity of road traffic in Azerbaijan

There is a global problem associated with crisis in road safety and transport.My country has the same symptoms of global disease. There are few local programs of different departments. Statistic,...

Development of road infrastructure as a tool of transforming Ibiono Ibom local government area

The need for road infrastructure arises from the fact that there is a greater need for accessibility and smooth movement of abundant agricultural products especially from the rural areas to the markets in urban centres. The improvement of transportation network in the rural area in this regard becomes imperative. This study was conducted to reveal the importance of development of road infrastructure as a panacea for socio-economic advancement in the rural areas. The study area was stratified into three zones i.e Ibiono Central, Ibiono Northern and Ibiono Southern. The Gamma index was used to determine the level of connectivity of each zone in relation to the distribution of socio-economic activity or services in the area. In analysis of the road network connectivity the gamma Index was used. The results indicate a low connectivity, index of 0.26 for zone A, 0.40 for zone B and 0.31 for zone C, in each of the three zones. This implies that there is poor accessibility, poor connectivity, which result in low level of socio-economic activity in the area. The analysis of the socio-economic development variables was carried out based on quality point assigned to the variables. Finally the correlation analysis was employed to determine the relationship between road infrastructure and socio-economic development. The correlation coefficient of 0.87 indicates a strong, positive relationship between road infrastructure and socio-economic activity. From the findings it is recommended that a major road that links all the zones should be constructed while, other roads should be expanded and tarred; new roads should be developed to improve accessibility. Greater community participation in road development and rehabilitation should be encouraged and a comprehensive transportation plan should be put in place at the local government level. It is hoped that this detailed research work will serve as a basis for the improvement and development of road infrastructure in rural areas which is a catalyst to rural transformation.KEY WORDS: Road, Infrastructure, Paved, Unpaved, Socio-Economic Development

Trauma in a Teaching Hospital Outpost: Comprehensive Health Centre, Okoyong, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Road traffic injuries and other forms of trauma have become a major health problem worldwide, but Africa is the worst hit. This study was designed to evaluate the characteristics of trauma injuries in order to offer solutions for planning in terms of policy formulation and implementation. The Comprehensive Health Centre, Okoyong, is a rural outpost of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. Calabar is located about 45 km away in a rural community close to the highway. Trauma patients seen from January 2004 to December 2004 were studied. In total, 76 trauma patients were recorded. The ages ranged from 2 to 50 years (mean 26.1 years) with a male to female ratio of 3:1. Trauma was mainly due to road traffic injuries, 54 patients (71.1%) (motor vehicle - commercial in 28 patients and motorcycle in 26), followed by assault in 15 patients (19.7%). Laceration and abrasion accounted for 87.8% of injuries. The head and neck was the most common anatomical site injured in 49 patients (47%), followed by the lower limbs in 27 patients (26.0%). The injuries involved 39 passengers/pedestrians (72.3%), while a driver/14 cyclists (27.7%) ranked second. Mortality was 2.6%. Trauma was mainly due to road traffic injuries. The development of rural trauma systems and improvements in road and traffic infrastructure would reduce injury, morbidity, and mortality.

Analysis of the Factors that Explain the Non-Completion of the Curriculum : A Study of the Teaching Time in Primary Schools in Madagascar

The present study has been carried out for grade 2 schools in the CISCO Toamasina 2, one of the weakest CISCOs, exposed to problems related to the climate and agriculture. The investigation techniques used were questionnaires, interviews, class observations and the consultation of archive documents in the schools. These have revealed that in these areas, teaching time is seriously curtailed; this is mainly caused by the repeated and extended absences of both teachers and pupils, due to long distances that separate the school from the nearest town, to climatic hazards, or to various family obligations. These unfortunate circumstances all contribute to the non-completion of the curriculum and to poor school results. These problems may be overcome through actions by the Ministry through the sensitization of parents, the improvement of road infrastructure, the training of teachers in class management, and the readjustment of the school calendar. But in return, that will require a moral commitment on the part of parents to send their children to school, whatever the season. This study has also revealed many other problems such as those related to gender, which cause girls to be more often absent than boys during the school year, or those related to teachers’ in service training which does not always address the problems of everyone concerned.

Turnpike trusts and property income: new evidence on the effects of transport improvements and legislation in eighteenth‐century England1

Numerous Acts of Parliament changed the financing of transport infrastructure in eighteenth‐century England. This paper examines the economic effects of turnpike acts, which greatly improved road infrastructure by introducing tolls. It shows that turnpike trusts increased property income in local areas by at least 20 per cent. The findings shed light on why local property owners promoted and managed turnpikes. They also show that turnpike trusts accounted for at least 20 per cent of the total growth in real land rents between 1690 and 1815, and added at least 1.65 per cent to national income in 1815.

Driving Performance, Alignment Consistency, and Road Safety

Road infrastructure improvement is one of the three pillars in the European Union policy aimed at halving the number of fatalities in road accidents by 2010. Increased knowledge and experience have proved that highway consistency analysis is an effective tool in the evaluation of road performance in terms of safety. Recent studies have attempted to provide information relating to the geometric consistency of road alignment by using different approaches based on geometric relation design, differential between design and operating speed, driving performance with instrumented vehicles, and human workload evaluation. This paper presents the results of a naturalistic driving experiment carried out with the University of Catania's Driving Instrumented Vehicle Acquisition System–instrumented vehicle. Representative variables for describing alignment consistency were defined and collected by direct measurement during real-world driving tests. From the seven parameters taken into consideration, the maximum driving speed differential between two successive elements and between the average section speed and the minimum single element speed were chosen as driving performance indicators (DPIs), since they are not correlated and agree statistically with the accident history. On the basis of actual driving behavior by means of DPIs, design inconsistencies were identified along different test courses, and their agreement with safety evaluation criteria and relation design parameters was verified. Comparison analyses among DPIs, speed consistency variables, and relation design parameters have evidenced the effectiveness of the indirect measurement of design consistency and the possibility of defining threshold values for the identification of those elements characterized by acceptable (good), reasonable (fair), or intolerable (poor) alignment inconsistencies.

CuTE: curb tracking and estimation

The number of road accident related fatalities and damages are reduced substantially by improving road infrastructure and enacting and imposing laws. Further reduction is possible through embedding intelligence onto the vehicles for safe decision making. Road boundary information plays a major role in developing such intelligent vehicles. A prominent feature of roads in urban, semi-urban, and similar environments, is curbs on either side defining the road's boundary. In this brief, a novel methodology of tracking curbs is proposed. The problem of tracking a curb from a moving vehicle is formulated as tracking of a maneuvering target in clutter from a mobile platform using onboard sensors. A curb segment is presumed to be the maneuvering target, and is modeled as a nonlinear Markov switching process. The target's (curb's) orientation and location measurements are simultaneously obtained using a two-dimensional (2-D) scanning laser radar (LADAR) and a charge-coupled device (CCD) monocular camera, and are modeled as traditional base state observations. Camera images are also used to estimate the target's mode, which is modeled as a discrete-time point process. An effective curb tracking algorithm, known as Curb Tracking and Estimation (CuTE) using multiple modal sensor information is, thus, synthesized in an image enhanced interactive multiple model filtering framework. The use and fusion of camera vision and LADAR within this frame provide for efficient, effective, and robust tracking of curbs. Extensive experiments conducted in a campus road network demonstrate the viability, effectiveness, and robustness of the proposed method

Policies for sustainable development in the hillside areas of Honduras: a quantitative livelihoods approach

AbstractIn this article, we use data for 376 households, 1,066 parcels, and 2,143 plots located in 95 villages in the hillside areas in Honduras to generate information needed by decision makers to assess the needs and opportunities for public investments, and design policies that stimulate natural resource conservation. We develop a quantitative livelihood approach, using factor and cluster analysis to group households based on the use of their main assets. This resulted in seven household categories that pursue similar livelihood strategies. We use a multinomial logit model to show that livelihood strategies are determined by comparative advantages as reflected by a combination of biophysical and socioeconomic variables. While 92% of the rural hillsides population in Honduras lives on US$1.00/capita/day or less, households that follow a livelihood strategy based on basic grain farming are the poorest because they often live in isolated areas with relatively poor agro‐ecological and socioeconomic conditions. Opportunities for off‐farm work tend to be limited in these areas and household strategies that combine on‐farm work with off‐farm work earn higher incomes. Per capita incomes can be increased by improving road infrastructure, widening access to land, policies that reduce household size and dependency ratios, and adoption of sustainable land management technologies that restore soil fertility. We used probit models to show that the latter can be promoted by agricultural extension programs and land redistribution. Investments in physical assets should be directed toward households that pursue livelihood strategies based on off‐farm employment or coffee production, while agricultural training programs are best focused on livestock producers.

Determinants of fertilizer use on maize in Eastern Ethiopia: A weighted endogenous sampling analysis of the extent and intensity of adoption

Factors influencing the extent and intensity of fertilizer adoption on maize production in Ethiopia were analyzed. A Weighted Endogenous Sampling Maximum Likelihood estimator was used in the specification of a Probit and Tobit fertilizer adoption models. The results have important implications for the formulation of policies and programs targeted to promotion of fertilizer use in small-scale maize production. Those include improved road infrastructure, consideration of weather related crop failure insurance programs, development of drought tolerant cultivars and targeting particular farmer groups.

Fiscal Reform of Fuel Regulation in Brazil: Recent Developments and Environmental Implications

Internationally the fossil fuel-based energy sector now faces increasing uncertainties due to changes in its fiscal regulation, prompted by pressure for environmental regulation. These changes typically eliminate some taxes at the beginning of the oil production chain, but compensate for these by increasing taxation on consumption. In Brazil, fiscal reform proposals focus not on environmental arguments but on the elimination of excess levies and red tape and on increasing equity across income classes. However, liberalization process of oil and gas industries in Brazil has led to modifications in fuels taxation. This article discusses current Brazilian fiscal policy as related to fossil fuels, explaining the nature of recently introduced contribution for economic regulation (Contribuição de Intervenção ao Domínio Econômico, CIDE) and the impacts on price formation. It also shows how those modifications tend to include external costs from activities in the fuel sector; through revenues from a levy earmarked for two purposes: i) funding investments in projects deemed to be environmentally beneficial, and, ii) improvements in road infrastructure aimed at reducing emissions from transportation. Some ideas on how to improve use of the levy to perk up fuel alcohol competitiveness are also discussed.

Individual cyclists’ probability distributions of severe/fatal crashes in large french urban areas

The present article deals with individual cyclists’ probabilities of severe injury or death from a bicycle accident. We use an empirical Bayesian method to conduct an analysis of the fatal/severe probability distribution of a bicycle accident, at the level of individuals, in dense French urban areas. Among intuitive results, it is found that wearing a helmet lowers the average probability of such a crash; it is also shown that young bicyclists are, on average, more exposed to severe and/or fatal crashes. Finally, the results highlight a decrease of attention paid by all types of road users following road infrastructure improvements in favor of cyclists.

A Study of 225 Malayan Pit Viper Bites in Thailand

This study evaluated factors affecting the severity of bite site necrosis and systemic symptoms resulting from envenomation among patients bitten by Malayan pit vipers (Calloselasma rhodostoma) in Thailand. We studied 145 victims prospectively. An additional 80 medical records were obtained for a retrospective study. Collected data included gender of the victims, anatomic locations of bites, where attacks took place, and predisposing factors and how they might have affected the clinical course. Most patients presented with minimal to moderate symptoms. Only eight patients required surgical wound debridement. None required amputation. However, 27 subjects developed permanently swollen limbs, presumably because of lymphatic or vascular injury. Significant coagulopathies were common (52.48%), and the only two deaths were attributable to intracranial hemorrhage. The improved clinical outcomes in the prospective and retrospective groups, compared with older series, might have been attributable to better public education, improved road infrastructure, and more health care facilities. Less reliance on nonprofessional healers and fewer applications of tourniquets also might have influenced clinical outcomes. Malayan pit viper antivenin, manufactured in Thailand, appears to be effective in reversing dangerous coagulopathies.

Combining Longitudinal Household and Community Surveys for Evaluation of Social Transfers: infrastructure rehabilitation projects in rural Georgia

This paper combines longitudinal household and community level survey data to evaluate the effect of infrastructure rehabilitation projects on household well-being in rural Georgia. The panel structure of the data is utilized in an empirical approach to control for time-invariant unobservable factors at the community level by applying propensity score-matched double difference comparison. The results indicate that improvements in school and road infrastructure produce non-trivial gains on village and country levels. School rehabilitation projects produce the largest gains for the poor, while the road projects benefit the poor and non-poor in different aspects of well-being. From a methodological point of departure it is concluded that ad hoc community surveys matched with ongoing nationally representative longitudinal household surveys can provide a feasible and low-cost tool for evaluation of the effectiveness of social transfers.

Financing of forestry from public funds in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia - policy context, organisation and supported activities

The paper describes the policy, legislative and organisational context and structure of financing the forestry from public funds in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia in the 90’s. The first half of the nineties was the period of the most significant changes, whereas more stable and systematic financing of forestry was generally started in the second half of the nineties. The supported activities reflected main problems and challenges facing the forestry in individual countries. In the Czech Republic the substantial support was designed for protective measures and restitution of damaged stands. In Poland, the increase of forest area and restitution of forest stands damaged by air-pollution were the priority. Slovenian budget supported mainly the improvement of road infrastructure, forest management planning, as well as sustainable utilisation of forests through marking of trees for cutting. Estonian forestry received the relatively lowest subsidies allocated mainly to the preparation of management plans and extension services. Subsidies were the most important instruments of support. In Poland, however, tax exemptions and concessions were significantly higher than the value of financial means allocated from the public funds.