We move to work, go shopping, run errands, visit family and friends, and go on vacation. For this, we travel by car, plane, train, boat, bus, bicycle and on foot. Products and services also need to be delivered from one place to another. Oil, machine and electronic components, agricultural products, special deliveries, and other goods arrive by truck, train and plane. The quality of life and economy in rural America depends on an efficient, efficient, complete and coordinated multimodal transport system that provides options for the movement of people and goods and allows rapid transfers between modes when and where they are needed. The need to maintain transport links between rural and urban areas is very important for the economy, public health and safety, and the social structure of rural America.
Effective rural transport planning improves the multimodal and intermodal transportation system and helps ensure that the quality of life and economy in rural America is maintained and improved. It does so by providing a strategic perspective on system investment over an extended period of time. Good rural transport plans consider a wide range of investment, operational and technological options that can meet the multimodal transport needs of transport system users. More importantly, effective rural transport planning provides the users and stakeholders of the transportation system with an ample opportunity to participate in the planning process, thus ensuring the maximum contribution to the desires, visions and instructions for the investment in systems Of transport.
Residents of small towns are more likely to be injured or killed in the transportation system than those in urban areas. The traffic fatality rate on non-interstate rural roads in 2003 was 2.72 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles, compared to a traffic fatality rate on all other roads in 2003 of 0.99 deaths For 100 million vehicle miles5. Roads and railroad crossings are ongoing safety issues as well as maintenance and repair concerns. Finally, despite lower levels of physical activity and active transportation, rural areas have disproportionately higher accident and fatality rates for pedestrians and also worse public health outcomes, with higher levels of obesity than their urban counterparts.