Measuring the Impacts of Transportation Infrastructure

The accessibility issue that is brought up by Rietveld and Bruinsma is critical to the success of infrastructure projects as they relate to positive impact on GDP. Over the last decade the link between GDP and political and economic liberalization has been solidified with the examples of China and South Africa. Most of the relationship has to due to the mostly economic liberalization that is required in order to be a part of the global markets and to trade internationally due to the tariff-reducing policies of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In order to continue the World Bank’s promotion of economic and political policies that support open governments and economies, the issue of accessibility must be taken seriously for project planning. Although there is variation in how the level of accessibility is measured within the field, the success of most publicly funded projects depend on detailed feasibility and impact reports.

As part of a working paper, the IBRD released “The economic benefits of road transport projects” as a World Bank report in 1971.The paper provides a model that was used at the time within the Bank, and is still relevant today, as well as an analytical paradigm. Tak and Ray provide economic models for two basic situations and mathematical modules in which to measure the benefits of transit infrastructure in the absence of competing transport, and within the presence of competing transport. The authors also discuss supply and imperfect market conditions within their models. Although Tak and Ray attempt to provide a few models, which represent the social and economic benefit, “the practical difficulties of estimating benefits to normal and induced traffic arising from a road project are often great” (Tak and Ray 1971: 37). Both models show that there are some winners and losers when the roads are built, but that as a whole they allow for a more productive means of transportation, and that there is a chance for growth in GDP, although not a steadily increasing growth rate. The impacts of new transit infrastructure allow for the influx of capital in to areas that were not seen as more profitable investment due to constraints with the movement of goods, or because of the severe lack of sufficient infrastructure (roads, rail, connections) to support the new business venture, or to allow for any growth of an existing business. Although written in 1971, the model still has some practical applications and sets a baseline for how a younger World Bank felt about transport infrastructure projects.

Overall it is clear that the repair, expansion, and development of new transit infrastructure is necessary to facilitate growth and to provide opportunities for new and expanded business models. Although roads would be preferred in the case of the CIS due to the potential for the trucking industry, and as a step towards Westernization, an increase in any form of transit infrastructure, provided it was reasonable accessible would greatly assist the transition of states and would likely work to alleviate extreme poverty in other areas of the world.