Driving in Madagascar
The road network of
While most primary roads are in good condition, the World Food Programme has classified nearly two-thirds of the overall road network as being in poor condition. These conditions may make it dangerous to drive at moderate-to-high speeds and dahalo (bandit) attacks pose a threat at low speeds. Many roads are impassable during Madagascar's wet season; some bridges (often narrow, one-lane structures) are vulnerable to being swept away. Few rural Malagasy live near a road in good condition; poor road connectivity may pose challenges in health care, agriculture, and education.
Drivers in Madagascar travel on the
History
There were no roads in Madagascar through the mid-19th century.
Even as late as 1955, passenger and commercial motor vehicles in Madagascar numbered under 30,000.[6]: 50 In 1958, Madagascar's road network spanned about 25,100 kilometers (15,600 mi), almost all of it unpaved.[6]: 48, 50 In subsequent decades, the country relied heavily upon water and air travel for transportation, performing minimal investment and maintenance in its road infrastructure.[7]: 30 Plantations, which were nationalized following a revolution in 1972, have exercised significant influence on road and infrastructure construction within the Sambirano, a river valley in the country's northeast, and maintained primary responsibility for road maintenance on some major thoroughfares there as of 1993[update].[7]: 28–30
Roads
As of 2022[update], Madagascar contains over 4,500 unique roads.[8]: 2 The road network spans approximately 31,640 kilometers (19,660 mi),[9]: 746 representing 5.4 kilometers of road per 100 square kilometers of land (8.72 mi per 100 sq mi).[10]: 5 This is a small road network,[10]: 5 mostly oriented toward Antananarivo.[11]: 65 Last-mile transport, particularly in rural areas, is sometimes accomplished via unofficial roads.[10]: 5 Traffic drives on the right side of the road.[12]
There are three classes of road systems in Madagascar: routes nationales ('national roads'), routes provinciales ('provincial roads'), and routes communales ('communal roads').[fr 2] Routes nationales connect Antananarivo to Antsiranana, Toamasina, Morondava, and Toliara[11]: 65 and make up 11,746 kilometers (7,299 mi) of the country's road network.[13] Most roads of all three types have two lanes and are relatively narrow; many bridges have only one lane.[11]: 73–74 The country's first toll highway, a 250-kilometer (160 mi) road designed to cut the travel time between Antananarivo to Toamasina from the current 10 hours down to a target of 2.5 hours, is under construction as of December 2022[update].[14]
Road conditions
In 2018[update], the
Connectivity challenges
As of 2019[update], only 11.4 percent of rural Malagasy live within 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) of a road in good condition, leaving 17 million without such access.
Means of transport
Vehicle ownership in Madagascar has grown from under 30,000[6]: 50 in 1955 to over 800,000 passenger and commercial vehicles in 2013[update],[9]: 746 during which time the island country's population has risen from about 5 million[6]: 47 to over 28 million.[9]: 744 In reports in 2018 and 2019, the World Bank predicted an increase in car ownership as Madagascar's economy improved.[10]: 5 [15]: 7 A 2022 World Bank paper published in Public Transport found that 6 percent of Antananarivo households surveyed owned private cars, that private car ownership correlated with high income, and that car owners were less likely to use minibuses.[18]: 14, 18, 24
Year | Data | Source |
---|---|---|
1955 | 26,911 (≈ 5.3 per 1,000 people motorcycles
|
Geographical Review, 1958[6]: 50 |
c. 1975[v 2] | 7 passenger cars and 6 commercial vehicles per 1,000 people | The Economist, 1978[19] |
1986 | 3.3 passenger cars[v 3] and 45 commercial vehicles per 1,000 people | Traffic Engineering and Control, 1986[20]: 667 |
2013 | 370,000 vans and trucks (13 per 1,000 people), 162,000 passenger vehicles (5.70), and 280,800 buses (9.877)[v 4] | The Statesman's Yearbook, 2023[9]: 746 |
Taxi brousses
Madagascar's
According to a 2018 study in
Cargo transport
Trans-regional transport of crops relies on trucks. In
Facing a water crisis in Southern Madagascar, in 1993 the national agency Alimentation en Eau dans le Sud (AES)
Safety
The maximum urban
The Intersectoral Committee for Road Safety and Ministry of Transport and Meteorology oversee road safety in Madagascar.
Dahalo (bandits) have attacked vehicles, leading the government to require that vehicles travel in convoys of at least 10 on many roads.[11]: 89 Vehicles seek to travel at higher speeds, but become more vulnerable to attacks when forced by potholes to slow.[11]: 89 Herds of zebu may also pose a hazard to driving.[5] It is customary in Madagascar to blow one's car horn while traveling around road curves in order to notify other drivers of one's presence. Random vehicle checkpoints at which travelers are required to produce identity documents are spread throughout Madagascar.[12][21]
See also
- Muddling Through in Madagascar, a 1985 book by Irish author Dervla Murphy that details public transport and road conditions in Madagascar as they existed in the mid-1980s.
- Transport in Madagascar
Notes
- ^ a b Usually hyphenated in French, a spelling sometimes also used in English.[5][21] French plural taxis-brousse or taxis brousse; English plural taxi brousses[11] or taxis-brousses.[5]
- ^ Also 'municipal roads'.[13]
- ^ French: lignes nationales.
- ^ 'Water supply in the South'.
- ^ 'National gendarmerie'.
References
- (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ^ JSTOR 181188.
- .
- JSTOR 24985918.
- ^ ISBN 9781787011472. Archivedfrom the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
- ^ JSTOR 211701.
- ^ ISBN 9780520918450.
- PMID 36117676.
- ^ SpringerLink.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Madagascar Road Connectivity (PDF) (Report). World Bank. 26 April 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
- ^ (PDF) from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ^ Canada.ca. Government of Canada. 13 January 2023. Archivedfrom the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ^ a b c Styles, Lucy; Koopmann, Karla; Catala, Cristina; Schweikert, Andreas; Trigona, Camilla (30 May 2018). "2.3 Madagascar Road Network". Logistics Capacity Assessments (LCAs) (13th ed.). World Food Programme. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
- ^ Mayotte 1(in French).
- ^ a b c d Madagascar Connectivity for Rural Livelihood Improvement (PDF) (Report). World Bank. 23 September 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
- ISBN 9781351445139 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Madagascar: Safety and security". gov.uk. Government Digital Service (Government of the United Kingdom). 20 January 2023. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
- S2CID 248871279.
- SpringerLink.
- ^ Button, Kenneth (1 January 1992). "Car ownership forecasts for low-income countries". Traffic Engineering and Control. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023 – via Academia.edu.
- ^ Travel.State.Gov. Bureau of Consular Affairs (United States Department of State). 14 June 2019. Archived from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(96)00132-5. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 7 February 2023 – via Academia.edu.
- JSTOR 26392881.
- ^ OCLC 1086320098.