RURAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND RURAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

The transportation systems that serve rural people and their communities continue to dwindle. Local communities affected by the diminution of these transportation resources are under pressure to raise local money to subsidize, almost simultaneously, air service, rail service, and intercity bus lines, to maintain their off-system roads and bridges in usable condition, and to provide whatever forms of public transit may be achievable. The competition for local funds is among the problems to be faced if a small-town and rural-area public transit program is, as seems likely, at last obtained from Congress. Because the lack of accessibility to jobs, training, and other essential services will continue to be an obstacle to a rational rural development policy, comprehensive plan and the maximum feasible coordination of transportation resource must be given high priority. /Author/