Rural communities welcome paved roads, but paved roads hurt rural communities

Barnhill characterizes development as a politically driven process in which the state government rewards local governments with Department of Transportation improvement projects. Rural communities generally responded positively to development (in this case road paving), in part because they could commute to jobs outside the community. However, Barnhill sees paved roads as pipelines to consumer lifestyles that erode the do-it-yourself rural values he treasures.