Can Transport Alleviate Poverty

Jasmine McGrowder
Shanoy Grady

Department of Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Caribbean Maritime University
TM501: Transport Management
J. Clark
 As stated by James Chen, ‘Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community

lacks the resources and essentials to even obtain the minimum standard of living’ (n.d.). The

resources he mentioned are basic needs such as food, water, clothes and shelter. Other resources

include education, healthcare and an income. Most of which, requires travelling to reach or

access. With that said, it shows that transportation can indeed, and has been a great factor that

mitigates against poverty. Poverty affects those in the rural as well as urban, however it is

prevalent in rural areas, matter of fact the IMF has reported that sixty three percent (63%) of the

world’s impoverished population lived in the rural areas (Chad: Poverty Reduction Strategy

Paper, 2010). What the rural areas lack as opposed to the urban areas is a modernized and an

effective transportation system and good roadways. Therefore, it is believed that transportation

can alleviate poverty. It can do so by offering easier access to Healthcare, education, Jobs and

markets to those wedged far away from these benefits. The how and whys will be expounded as

well as evidence that transportation is an effective means of reducing poverty.

To begin bad health is a contagion effect of poverty. An individual suffering from

poverty is usually subjected to living in an unclean and unsafe environment and are not able to

afford healthcare or access free healthcare other than their community health clinic. Imagine

being terribly sick at midnight in a poor community with rough roads or no roadway for a

reasonable distance to travel before there is available transportation. An efficient transportation

system/network may not be a direct solution; but it is part of the solution. If the roads of poor

communities were to be developed, and taxi operations grew. Then this will mean the

community is now more accessible to free healthcare services offered by hospitals thus

improving the overall health of the poverty-stricken. Babinard and Roberts (2006) reviewed

many studies from around the world to highlight how poor access was a major cause of peri-natal
mortality, with an estimated 75% of mortality resulting from inadequate transport to access basic

health facilities. And, even though there are free community clinics, more than likely they are not

open 24/7 as a hospital would be. Another benefit of a developed transportation system to the

impoverished regarding health care is that it would be more time efficient to access health

service upon emergency, likewise for health service to reach them (ambulances). All in all,

transportation make it easier to access or receive health care services in poor communities.

To add, adequate transportation facilities can reduce poverty by widening the range of

opportunities for employment and education that can be reached. (Plano, 2015) mentioned that

“Creating new or improving existing public transit for communities that most need it can allow

people to access the jobs they need while keeping costs manageable”. This would however be

beneficial to the members of the community especially the men as they would need persons to

construct, maintain, operate and repair the roads. This new development would make it easier for

persons to access jobs in the rural areas which would decrease the unemployment level, increase

standard of living and eventually increase the country’s economic growth. Maritime transport

can alleviate poverty by providing jobs through the cruise shipping industry, when low-income

workers get access to these high-income jobs, they will be able to better provide for their

families therefore improving their standard of living.

In poor communities it is easy to access infant and primary schools because majority of

them are within walking distances. Secondary schools on the other hand are more spaced out,

hence a longer journey time. With the lack of public transportation and the inability to afford

private transportation most children abandon the entire school system after two or three years of

secondary education. (Tenner, 2016), mentioned in an article that “Lack of transportation can

cause students to either be tardy or have numerous absences”, this would result in them not doing
well academically .With a good community to town transportation network or a programme to

provides for the families who can’t afford transportation it would be easier for persons to access

secondary and tertiary education as well as educational facilities such as libraries etc. When

persons from a poor community go out and get a good education, they will be able to get a good

paying job therefore being able to provide for their families hence improving their standard of

living.

Like Jobs, access to a wider market can provide income to those who are victims of

poverty. Farmers/cultivators normally reside in the rural areas where many land spaces are

available given that agriculture is a popular income generator. However they are not given the

opportunity to maximize on their produce, or even improve their production, simply because

they cannot easily access marketplaces that offer efficient tools for agricultural success or, a

wider market where much more potential buyers traverse (urban area, other communities or

foreign market). With an improved transport system, such as good roadways that interconnect

cities and other rural communities coupled with efficient transportation, many more financial

opportunities will be available to the poverty ridden population of both the rural and urban areas

such as worldwide shipping and bulk sale to hotels or huge corporations. Also, a transport

system will significantly increase productivity by cutting down travel time thus allowing more

time to utilize resources and produce more as well as expanding their farm. Spatial analyst on

Travel time supports this, where it stated that, ‘investment in rural roads directly affected

agricultural production… agricultural production in areas more than eight hours travel time from

a town of 100,000 people was only at 5% of its potential, compared with 45% of its potential in

areas less than four hours travel time from a large town (Dorosh et al., 2009). An enhancement in
the agricultural sector means an increase in income, and obviously an increase in income

guarantee’s an increase in standard of living.

To summarize, it is agreed that transportation assists in reducing poverty. This is owed to

the fact that it connects the impoverished to healthcare, education, job opportunities, a greater

market and many other opportunities to be creative, entrepreneurial, exposed and acknowledged.

It was understood that the transport sector provides better roads that leads to essential services

and promotes faster transit incase of emergencies and productivity. The importance of good

transport infrastructure to education access was then revealed as means of making it easier to

progress to secondary and tertiary education institutions. Also, the fact that transportation effects

the increase and access to middle classed jobs, regarding the fact that an improved transport

sector requires higher labour force. Lastly, the access to a wider market due to available

transportation was magnified, which proved that without transportation rural areas has little to no

access to a wider market share from other communities, cities or foreign markets. Ultimately,

transportation plays a great significant role in alleviating poverty world-wide.

 Reference

Chen, J. Poverty. Investopedia. Retrieved 9 November 2020, from

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/poverty.asp#:~:text=Poverty%20is%20a%20state

%20or%20condition%20in%20which,low%20that%20basic%20human%20needs

%20can%27t%20be%20met.

Dorosh, P., Wang, H., You, L., & Schmidt, E. (2009, February). Crop Production and Road

Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Spatial Analysis. Documents & Reports - All

Documents | The World Bank.

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/319731468006253963/pdf/WPS5835.pdf

International Monetary Fund. (2010). Chad: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (p. 18).

Plano, C. (2015). More Jobs Created Through Public Transportation Than Roads.

Retrieved 10 November 2020,

from https://mobilitylab.org/2015/01/22/more-jobs-created-through-public-

transportation-than-roads/

Tenner, L. (2016). Lack of Transportation = Lack of Education. Retrieved 10 November 2020,

from https://medium.com/pedagogical-promise/lack-of-transportation-lack-of-education-

ff0d8650a785