General
Anyone wanting to know more about any of the development topics introduced in this website should explore the following sites: the International Forum for Transport and Rural Development (IFTRD), the International Labour Organization (ILO/ASIST), the World Bank, the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP) , which also provides useful detail on rural transport issues, including maintenance, road surfacing, and Basic Access and Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning.
History of road transport
Wikipedia provides a good overview of the history of road transport. There are relatively few sites on the subject. I can suggest the Roads and Road Transport Association in the UK but the seriously interested will just have to get hold of a book (I recommend the titles below). I also suggest browsing among the websites of the numerous transport museums and even visiting one. For example, the London Science Museum provides an interesting survey on the history of steam power.
History of road construction
Road construction history is a very specialised taste. In general books are the best source on the history of road building and road transport systems (see also the list below). The sites of equipment manufacturers, many of which have been in business for one hundred and fifty years and more, are also sources for information on construction and farm machinery. I also recommend this one.
Combatting corruption
Anyone working in development should visit the Ethical Edinburgh and Transparency International sites which are engaged in a courageous war against corruption, endemic in the third world especially in road infrastructure projects, which require heavy and easily plundered investments. Corruption can divert up to 10% of development expenditure from the poor into the pockets of those in power, who do not even reinvest locally, but rather divert it to banks in hard currency countries. Worse, by making nonsense of competition, it diverts funds from the better projects to the second best and even the worst ones. Finally, it undermines both the morale of the ruled and the ethical sense of the ruling and when endemic for a generation or more, destroys state institutions, often substituting dictatorial rule in their place, and leaving the country prey to civil strife and enormous suffering. There are many examples and it is not necessary to dwell on them.
Documents
Finally, the following documents, edited from a presentation and some documents I wrote over the past few years, can be downloaded as pdf files:
References
The three books below are concerned only with the history of transport in the United Kingdom. If anyone knows of similar ones treating road transport history in France, I would be pleased to hear about them.
A History of Inland Transport and Communication by Edwin A. Pratt, David and Charles Reprints, published 1912, UK, reprinted 1970
Roads and Their Traffic 1750-1850, by John Copeland, again published by David and Charles Reprints, UK, 1968
English Local Government: The Story of the King's Highway
,
Sidney & Beatrice Webb, published by Longmans, Green, UK, 1913
The Railway Navvies, Terry Coleman, published by Penguin Books, 1968 (very entertaining)
All of these can be obtained from Abe Books, which incidentally, I strongly recommend as an excellent source for hard-to-get books.
