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there are the related issues of technical capacity and local engagement in transportation planning and priority setting. The remoter the rural area, the less likely will be the availability of professional staff resources and technical capacity to work on these complex transportation issues, and the more likely that decisions that have a direct impact on rural communities will be taken at the state level, often without adequate local consultations. 

Matters are made worse by both geographic challenges and the complex system of responsibilities and funding. “Long distances between population centers, steep grades, mountain passes, more dramatic weather events and effects on road conditions, and a dispersed system with high unit costs for service delivery, operations, and maintenance” (FHWA, 2001) provide the operating context for rural transportation. 

Ed Shepard, an 87-year-old resident of Welch, West Virginia, sums up part of the problem: "There's no reason for you to come to Welch. This is nothing but a damn ghost town in a welfare county."  It isn’t just the jobs that have gone, according to Shepard “20 years of the best fishing you ever saw. Nowadays, you can fish but you won't catch any trout. It's like the coal mines. It's all gone."

In fact, even illegal immigrants, who tend to flock to places where they will not face problems with immigration authorities, seem to have sworn off areas like McDowell County. 

Even from an environmental standpoint, it would make sense to relax coal mining regulations in places like Welch, West Virginia. The “Population Bomb” that so troubles many environmentalists is a dud in McDowell County. There is plenty of room for growth in those areas of the county which have already had homes built, utilities installed, and roads paved.

nearly 40 percent of all adults living in poverty use only cellphones, compared with about 21 percent of adults with higher incomes.