The conference presents a unique opportunity to recognize the contributions of Wilfred Owen to the field of low-volume roads and their application to the problems of today and tomorrow. Owen was the transportation expert for the Brookings Institution for about four decades. Besides being interested in the theories and principles of low-volume roads, Owen was vitally concerned with the rural and urban needy throughout the world. He believed that the development of transport and the economic opportunities that would ensue would benefit them significantly. Few have had more impact on the provision and improvement of low-volume roads in developing countries than Wilfred Owen. He was the author of many studies of specific countries in addition to several books. His major emphasis was on the need to identify and grasp the basics of economic evaluation and, more important, the basic premises and goals for investing in transport to facilitate economic development. Owen's second major emphasis was on well-founded and rational planning. He focused on the need for change, including the reorganization of international efforts to address the global transportation problem. In 1983 Wilfred Owen was the keynote speaker at the Third International Conference on Low-Volume Roads. His topics that day included a shrinking planet, integrated global economies, world population growth, global disparities, and development of an international cooperative effort. He had completed his last book shortly before his death in November 2001. This paper is also available on CD-ROM (see C 30152 CD-ROM).
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