There is a growing optimism in using accessibility as the entry point in rural transport intervention in developing countries. The methodology of such planning is still evolving and there is scope for a more detailed method to identify appropriate measures aimed at addressing accessibility needs. In India, most of the highways are non-access control multilane highway providing median-cut as an only road crossing facility. Most of them are having some adjacent activities along the corridor. These adjacent activities play an important role in socio-economic life of villagers living adjacent to such highways. Apart from the mobility of highway commuters, accessibility of such people living in adjacent village s is very much important for activity-based transportation planning. This paper describes the study which consists of two different sections on National Highway No.8; one with 4 lane wide roads (at village Vav) and other at 6 lane wide road (at village Pipodara) in Surat District, Gujarat, India. Both the locations are non-access control highway providing median-cut as an only road crossing facilities to the villagers. To understand how the people of these two villages access their neighbourhood area of the other side of the national highway; households and pedestrians‟ surveys have been carried out at both locations. Apart from this; speed data, accidents information, traffic volume count on highway and crossing pedestrians‟ counts have been collected. Descriptive analysis shows different factors may have an impact on accessibility i.e. land use, road crossing facilities, width of road, speed of different vehicles, portion of village built up area on the other side of the road along with the type of activities, distance from highway, etc. Neighbourhood Accessibility of Pedestrians (NAP) has been measured considering many variables including the number of road crossings made for different purposes and by different modes. A binary logit model has been developed to see the difference in accessibility at both locations considered for this study. At the end, an understanding regarding interrelationship of accessibility and mobility has been included based on the characteristics of traffic flow and of highway commuters and vehicle ownership of adjacent villagers included in present study.
This paper addresses some of the issues relating to the formulation of an appropriate national rural transport policy for India. Its aim is to provide some ideas for thought and debate, rather than recommend solutions. The relevant issues include: (1) the concept of accessibility; (2) demand versus need in rural transport; (3) the case for access by motor vehicles; (4) the appropriateness of technology borrowed from the developed countries; (5) local transport needs; (6) criteria for investment; and (7) the need for state intervention and financing. Apart from the acute shortage of resources for investment, there are several other reasons why the extensive provision of motor transport in Indian rural areas is not economically justified. Conventional motor transport systems can play only a very limited part in rural areas, and need to be supplemented by low cost vehicles other than cars and lorries. Such vehicles will include both powered and unpowered two- and three-wheeled vehicles. Human and animal powered transport is still widely used. To provide appropriate transport for rural areas in developing countries, the most fundamental change needed is to ensure that transport planning explicitly appraises small farmers' needs and transport mode constraints. Criteria for investment include: (1) saving road users' cost; and (2) increasing agricultural production.
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