The use of an IMT could reduce the transport burden on women directly by reducing time and effort dedicated to transport and indirectly, by transferring the transport responsibilities to men. Reducing the transport burden of rural women would release their time and energy for more productive and socially beneficial activities. Ensuring the benefits of transport interventions reach women requires foresight and attention to component design during project planning. It needs to be ensured that the choice of IMT intervention is consistent with women's needs, cultural beliefs and economic resources. The full benefit of road projects that link villages to markets cannot be realized unless potential users, and women, in particular, overcome the cost barriers involved in the use or purchase of alternative intermediate means of transport.
Women can benefit from road works as well.
Measures to make it possible include disseminating awareness, extending eligibility conditions and training women to take supervisory positions. The World Bank experience suggests that the beneficial impacts of transport infrastructure on women can be profound. For example, an ex post impact study of a World bank financed rural road paving project in Morocco revealed that a major impact of the project was on girls enrollment in primary education, which more than trebled in the project zones a few years after the completion of the project. In addition to women certain other groups in the society are also transport disadvantaged. These groups are constituted of the elderly, the handicapped and children.