Objective: Rural transportation accessibility is an indispensable component of the economy and a crucial factor influencing rural economic development.
Methods: To thoroughly examine this relationship, a quantitative study was conducted using a questionnaire tool to gather data. The study assessed the connection between transportation accessibility and rural economic development in Asadabad County, encompassing eight indicators across 30 villages and 368 sample households.
Results: The findings revealed that all indicators of access to the rural transportation system had a positive impact on the rural economic development indicators in Asadabad County. Additionally, a significant relationship was observed between the accessibility of villages to the transportation system and the improvement of their economic development according to their settlement patterns in plain, foothills, and mountainous locations. This suggests that beyond accessibility to the transportation system and the distance of villages to urban and rural market centers, the location of villages also plays a significant role in their economic development. Based on the standardized beta coefficients representing the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable, the results demonstrate that the effect coefficients for each of the rural transportation system indicators are positive and have a significance level of less than 0.05. This confirms the direct and significant influence of each rural transportation system indicator on rural economic development. Further analysis indicates that improving transportation services had the most significant effect (0.341), while expanding transportation infrastructure had the least significant impact (0.270) on rural economic development, according to the Beta values.
Conclusions: The study unequivocally establishes that access to the rural transportation system plays a direct role in fostering rural economic development. The location of villages, in conjunction with their accessibility to the transportation system, further contributes to their economic growth. Therefore, prioritizing the improvement of transportation services and expanding rural transportation infrastructure are key strategies for promoting economic development in these areas.
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