The Dictator's Handbook by Alastair Smith and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

From Wikipedia:

"The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics is a 2011 non-fiction book by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, published by the company PublicAffairs. It discusses how politicians gain and retain political power."

The writers give an insightful comment on why some public roads are straight or curvy; especially those leading to airports. They note that this is primarily a choice of politics and not topography or economics.

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Chapter 5- Getting and Spending

Building Infrastructure

"straight roads will more often be the province of petty dictatorships rather that representative-and rich-democracies...

The lesson is that when an autocrat needs a road to the airport (a good route of escape) he can just confiscate people’s property, making the road as

straight and as quickly traveled as possible."

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So, roads to market: yes. Roads to get you out of the country: yes. Other roads:no