ABSTRACT
There can be few if any countries in which road transport is not now the dominant mode by which people and goods are moved and there is a universality about road transport which does not apply to any other mode. In contrast with railways, road transport is characterised by a very wide range of technologies and levels of sophistication. At one end of the spectrum there is the movement of people, or goods carried by people, on foot over some kind of route, possibly of an unimproved kind. Even in the most advanced economies over the shortest distances there is really no alternative to walking. For some this may be no further than to their car in the garage, the local shop or from the railway station to the office. However, for many, indeed possibly the majority, of people in Developing Countries there may be no alternative to walking, whatever the distance involved and irrespective of the fact that goods may have to be carried.
