* Includes water and land. (All provided data is from the CIA World Fact Book, 2009.)
The table above shows the difference that exists today within the CIS as related to the distribution of transportation infrastructure. Although the percentage of rail seems pretty consistent with the nations that also have natural gas and oil resources, the percentage of roads seems to have wider distribution, with the exception of Azerbaijan who has a historical oil industry. Russia’s low percentage of roads and rail is due to the vast majority of non-developable land and the break up of the USSR leading to much of the rail and industrialized cities being drawn into new boundaries for newly emerging CIS nations.
The percentage of the gross area of the countries covered by roads was higher than expected, but the actual effectiveness of these roads could be debatable depending on linkages, communities, and funding for maintenance. In order to determine the actual effectiveness of the road, in-depth case studies should be considered, comparing the population size in the rural and urban areas in comparison to the roads that service the areas and connect to social and economic necessities.
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