Over the past number of decades rural areas have undergone dramatic changes. They have shared in a general shift to a service-based economy in which the information and knowledge-based industries play an increasing role, bringing both opportunities and threats. However, this pace of change has occurred in a vacuum of appropriate policy responses. In a policy climate of sustainability, rural areas and their dynamics now pose a major challenge. As in its urban
counterpart, transport is a major issue. However, transport in a rural environment is further complicated by innate rural characteristics.
The approach of this research is to view rural transport in the broader and necessary context of
sustainability. Preston and Raje (2007) suggest that the “problems of the
immobile socially excluded should not be analysed in isolation from the mobile included”.