They don't belch smoke, but they do poop
An interesting developing-world transportation idea in South Africa:
[North West] Province officials, working in conjunction with South Africa's bureau of standards, have developed a donkey cart with reflectors, a canopy for cover and padded bench seats that are removable to accommodate wheelchairs or freight. The idea is to soon have fleets of government-sanctioned donkey carts carrying children to distant schools, farmers and their produce to markets, and the sick to clinics, all at low cost and without creating a menace on the rutted tracks that pass for roads in the province's remote reaches.
Better donkey carts? Why not? Often, the most dramatic marginal improvements come on the bottom of the scale: think about how much the investment into donkey-cart research would have produced if focused instead on auto safety or faster trains (probably not much). The cart program in South Africa is just like the advances in
rickshaw design in India that make life better for millions at low cost.
Cheaply remedying underinvestment in improving the most common modes of transport across the world should be a major focus of our aid packages, since better transportation means more access to healthcare, better opportunities for agricultural marketing and a higher chance children can go to school.
Post Author:
rj3 | 12:11 PM |
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