Driving in Madagascar

Madagascar's network of about 4500 roads spans approximately 31,640 kilometres (19,660 mi) and is focused on facilitating transportation to and from Antananarivo. Transportation on these roads, most of which are unpaved and two lanes wide, is often dangerous. Long-distance travel is often accomplished in taxi brousses ('bush taxis'),[fr 1] which may be shared by 20 or more people.

A truck on the Route nationale 9 carrying goods and passengers

While most primary roads are in good condition, the World Food Program has classified two-thirds of the roads as 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 to a road in good condition; poor road connectivity may pose challenges in health care, agriculture, and education.

Drivers in Madagascar travel on the right side of the road. On some roads, the government of Madagascar requires that drivers travel in convoys of at least ten vehicles in order to deter attacks from dahalo. Partial reporting of car collision fatalities and a World Health Organization approximation of a full number suggest that the rate is among the highest in the world. Random police checkpoints, at which travelers are required to produce identity documents, are spread throughout the country.

Crops are transported by ox cart locally and by truck interregionally. Human-powered vehicles, once the only means of road transport, are still found in the form of pousse-pousses (rickshaws). Bush taxis, or taxi brousses, constitute a rudimentary road-based public transportation system in Madagascar. As of 2005, rides on taxi brousses cost as little as $0.10 (equivalent to $0.14 in 2021), and vehicles involved are often overpacked with people, sometimes with the assistant driver riding on the outside of the vehicle. Stops on their routes are generally not fixed, allowing passengers to exit at arbitrary points.

Roads
See also: List of roads in Madagascar
A road map of Madagascar, as of 2003

There were no roads in Madagascar as of the middle of the 19th century.[1]: 11  In 1908, a road was built from Mahatsara to Antananarivo.[2] By 1958, Madagascar's road network spanned about 25,100 kilometres (15,600 mi), almost all of it unpaved.[3]: 48, 50 

As of 2022, Madagascar contains over 4500 unique roads.[4]: 2  Traffic drives on the right side of the road.[5] The road network spans approximately 31,640 kilometres (19,660 mi) as of May 2018,[6][7] representing 5.4 kilometers of road per 100 square kilometers of land (8.72 mi per 100 sq mi).[8]: 5  This is a small road network,[8]: 5  mostly oriented toward Antananarivo.[9]: 65  Last-mile transport, particularly in rural areas, is sometimes accomplished via unofficial roads.[8]: 5 

There are three classes of road systems in Madagascar: routes nationales ('national roads'),[fr 2] routes provinciales ('provincial roads'),[fr 3] and routes communales ('communal roads').[fr 4] Routes nationales connect Antananarivo to Antsiranana, Toamasina, Morondava, and Toliara[9]: 65  and make up 11,746 kilometres (7,299 mi) of the country's road network.[6] Most roads of all three types have two lanes and are relatively narrow; many bridges have only one lane.[9]: 73–74 

Road conditions

The World Food Programme and the Global Logistics Cluster have classified 64% of roads in Madagascar as in poor driving condition, 28% in average condition, and 10% in good condition (navigable throughout all seasons of the year).[6] Seventy percent of the primary roads are in good condition.[8]: 5  The Statesman's Yearbook 2023 states that only about twenty-two percent of all roads in Madagascar were paved as of 2013,[10]: 746  while a 2019 World Bank report states that eighty-one percent of roads were not paved.[11] As natural gravel is not regularly available on the island of Madagascar, many roads are composed of sand lined with crushed stone.[12]: 66  Many of these unsealed roads can only be used in the dry season.[9]: 65–66  Roads in rural areas are often deficient in signage, while bridges are often swept away following rainstorms; during the wet season, road conditions degrade, particularly so in the country's North.[5][13]

Connectivity challenges

Only 11.4% of rural Malagasy live within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of a road in good condition, leaving 17 million without such access.[8]: 5  Unsealed roads are the only way to access many parts of the country by road, including the key southern city of Fort-Dauphin.[9]: 65–66  A 2018 World Bank report, conducted in partnership with the government of Madagascar, concluded that poor road connectivity was one of the major contributors for poor access to health care. The World Bank further linked poor connectivity to challenges in agriculture and education[11]: 4, 6  and identified climate change as having the potential to worsen the road connectivity situation.[8]: 4 

Means of transport
Pousse-pousses

Prior to the construction of the road from Mahatsara to Antanarivo, transportation across the inland highlands was accomplished by porters of the Hova caste (Merina Kingdom–era non-enslaved commoners). After the road was built in 1908, transportation continued to rely on the Hova for a time, for want of oxen or mules to pull the carriages.[2] Some human-powered vehicles remain in use as of 2017, in the form of pousse-pousses (rickshaws).[14]

Vehicle ownership in Madagascar has grown from under 30,000[3]: 50  to over 800,000[10]: 746  since 1955, during which time the island country's population has risen from about 5 million[3]: 47  to over 28 million.[10]: 744  In reports in 2018 and 2019, the World Bank predicted an increase in car ownership as Madagascar's economy improved.[8]: 5 [11]: 7  A 2022 World Bank paper published in Public Transport found that 6% 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.[15]: 14, 18, 24 

Vehicle ownership statistics
Year Data Source
1955 26,911 (≈ 5.3 per 1,000 people[v 1]), including 10,687 cars, 11,517 trucks, and 2,587 motorcycles Geographical Review, 1958[3]: 50 
c. 1975[v 2] 7 passenger cars and 6 commercial vehicles per 1,000 people The Economist, 1978[16]
1986 3.3 passenger cars[v 3] and 45 commercial vehicles per 1,000 people Traffic Engineering and Control, 1986[17]: 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[10]: 746 
  1. Inferred from population figure of about 5 million in same source, p. 47
  2. "Latest available" data as of 1975 or 1976
  3. Inferred from per-head figure of 0.0033
  4. Per-thousand statistics inferred from population figure of 28,430,000 in same source, p. 744

Taxi brousses

Four taxi brousses at a station in Ambositra
Interior of a crowded taxi brousse
See Media related to Share taxis in Madagascar at Wikimedia Commons.

Madagascar's taxi brousses ('bush taxis')[fr 1] are a type of share taxi which, as of 2005, cost US$0.10 per passenger. They comprise a public transportation system that is relatively affordable in Madagascar's poverty.[9]: 61, 68  Most taxi brousses do not embark until all seats are full, although this is not universally true.[9]: 70  While taxi brousses use fixed stops, passengers can also exit at any point along the route.[9]: 73  National lines[fr 5] travel from their origin to their destination directly, disallowing improvised stops along the route.[14] Taxi brousse company fleets range in size from a single vehicle to over a hundred, and may serve one or more urban, regional, or national lines.[9]: 70  A vehicle is staffed by a driver and assistant driver, or two drivers on a very long route. Other people are employed to attract customers and fasten luggage to the vehicle's roof.[9]: 75  According to a 2018 study in Media in Action, most used on paved roads are minibuses, while most on unpaved roads are trucks with benches in the cargo area. They often are filled above capacity, sometimes close to double, with small children riding for free on their parents' laps. The researchers recount that the tight space can lead to conflict among passengers and requires people exiting to either jump out of a window or have everyone in front of them get out too.[9]: 70, 72  The assistant driver, who interacts with passengers and loads and unloads luggage, does not get a seat and either stands against the door or travels on the outside of the vehicle.[9]: 80  Researchers observed that the drivers often appear to eat for free, as part of arrangements between the taxi brousse companies and restaurants they stop at.[9]: 72  As of 2018, taxi brousse companies must register with the government and pay 2.4 million Malagasy ariary in fees and taxes per vehicle. Import of vehicles is taxed at about ten times this amount.[9]: 70 

Cargo transport
A water tanker at a filling station

Interregional transport of crops relies on trucks. In Vakinankaratra, a network of subcollectors buy crops from farmers in their villages and then sell the crops to wholesale collectors, who either have their own trucks or work with truckers they know. Because of the cost of operating a truck, most truckers own more than one truck so as to take advantage of economies of scale. As of 1997, most trucking in Vakinankaratra is conducted by ethnic Asians, who tend to be relatively well-off but, due to a history of ethnic tensions, are wary of assets that could easily be seized. A different class of transporters, the charretiers ('carters'), move crops to markets by ox cart.[19]: 766, 768–769 

Facing a water crisis in Southern Madagascar, in 1993 the national agency Alimentation en Eau dans le Sud (AES)[fr 6] engaged with the government of Japan to acquire 24 tanker trucks for water in 1993. As of 2004, 10 remain officially in service, although researcher Richard R. Marcus was only able to verify the existence of 6. According to Marcus, AES blamed tire issues, while locals alleged corruption.[20]

Safety
A road sign indicating the presence of young children nearby a school

The maximum urban speed limit is 50 kilometers per hour (kph), or in some cases, 80 kph. There is no speed limit on highways or in rural areas.[21]: 185  Wulf et al. in Media in Action reported the speed limit for trucks is 45 kph; taxi brousses may go up to 75 kph but in practice go around 40 kph.[9]: 74  The blood alcohol content limit for drunk driving is 0.08 grams per deciliter. There is a seatbelt law but no child restraint law. Motorcyclists must wear helmets. Children are allowed as motorcycle passengers; children under five may not sit in the front seat of a car.[21]: 185  Handheld phone use is illegal. While a 2018 WHO fact sheet said that hands-free use is legal,[21]: 185  a 2019 sheet from the United States Bureau of Consular Affairs reported that hands-free use is illegal.[18] Nighttime street lighting in the country is of limited availability.[18]

The Intersectoral Committee for Road Safety and Ministry of Transport and Meteorology oversee road safety in Madagascar.[21]: 185  While there are no official statistics on road safety in Madagascar,[8]: 5  it reported 340 people in 2016 who died within 24 hours of a car crash; the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a true total of 7,108 car crash fatalities, or 28.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.[21]: 185  In comparison, the global average is 18.2 and the African average is 26.6; Madagascar has the 24th-highest fatality rate out of 175 countries or regions assessed.[11]: 7  About half of vehicle fatalities are pedestrians.[21]: 185  According to the government of Canada, car collisions in Madagascar may instigate crowd violence. Car collisions in which a participant is injured or killed necessitate a court case, where the parties found liable for damages are required to cover all expenses related to the case; leaving Madagascar is prohibited prior to the completion of the case.[5]

Dahalo (bandits) have attacked vehicles, leading the government to require that vehicles travel in convoys of at least 10 on many roads.[9]: 89  Vehicles seek to travel at higher speeds, but become more vulnerable to attacks when forced by potholes to slow.[9]: 89  Herds of zebu may also pose a hazard to driving.[14] 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.[5][18]

Notes

Madagascar French terms

  1. Usually hyphenated in French, a spelling sometimes also used in English.[14][18] French plural taxis-brousse or taxis brousse; English plural taxi brousses[9] or taxis-brousses.[14] See also: The dictionary definition of taxi-brousse at Wiktionary's French edition.
  2. Singular route nationale.
  3. Singular route provinciale.
  4. Also 'municipal roads'.[6] Singular route communale.
  5. Lignes nationales, singular ligne nationale.
  6. 'Water supply in the South'

References
  1. Tattersall, Ian (2022). "The Itineraries of Alfred Crossley, and Natural History Collecting in mid-Nineteenth Century Madagascar" (PDF). American Museum Novitates. American Museum of Natural History (published 4 April 2022) (3987). doi:10.1206/3987.1. OCLC 1308950568. S2CID 247992222. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  2. "Transportation in Madagascar". Scientific American. 87 (19): 309. 1902. JSTOR 24985918.
  3. Hance, William A. (1958). "Transportation in Madagascar". Geographical Review. 48 (1): 45–68. doi:10.2307/211701. JSTOR 211701.
  4. Prieto-Curiel, Rafael; Heo, Inhoi; Schumann, Abel; Heinrigs, Philipp (2022). "Constructing a simplified interurban road network based on crowdsourced geodata". MethodsX. Elsevier. 9: 101845. doi:10.1016/j.mex.2022.101845. PMC 9478433. PMID 36117676.
  5. "Madagascar travel advice". Canada.ca. Government of Canada. 13 January 2023. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  6. 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.
  7. "Madagascar § Transportation". The World Factbook (2023 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
  8. Madagascar Road Connectivity (PDF) (Report). World Bank. 26 April 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  9. Wulf, Volker; Misaki, Kaoru; Randall, Dave; Rohde, Markus (2018). "Travelling by Taxi Brousse in Madagascar. An Investigation into Practices of Overland Transportation" (PDF). Media in Action. University of Siegen (1): 57–97. doi:10.25969/mediarep/16218. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  10. Springer Nature Limited (2022). "Madagascar". The Statesman's Yearbook 2023. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 744–747. doi:10.1057/978-1-349-96056-9_113. ISBN 978-1-349-96055-2 – via SpringerLink.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  11. 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.
  12. de O.S. Horta, Jose Carlos; Traverso, Carlo R. (1991). "Deterioration and rehabilitation of earth roads in Madagascar". In Blight, Geoffrey E. (ed.). Geotechnics in the African Environment. Vol. 1. Routledge. ISBN 9781351445139 – via Google Books.
  13. "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.
  14. "Madagascar". Lonely Planet: Africa (14th ed.). Lonely Planet. 2017. ISBN 9781787011472. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  15. Iimi, Atsushi (29 June 2022). "Estimating the demand for informal public transport: evidence from Antananarivo, Madagascar". Public Transport. doi:10.1007/s12469-022-00300-9. hdl:10986/37321.
  16. "World equipment" (PDF). The World in Figures. The Economist. 1978. p. 23. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-16437-0_14. ISBN 978-0-333-30468-6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2023 – via SpringerLink.
  17. 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.
  18. "Madagascar International Travel Information". 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.
  19. Barrett, Christopher B. (May 1997). "Food marketing liberalization and trader entry: Evidence from Madagascar". World Development. 25 (5): 763–777. doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(96)00132-5. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 7 February 2023 – via Academia.edu.
  20. Marcus, Richard R. (2007). "Where Community-Based Water Resource Management has Gone Too Far: Poverty and Disempowerment in Southern Madagascar". Conservation and Society. 5 (2): 202–231. JSTOR 26392881.
  21. World Health Organization (2018). Global status report on road safety 2018. Geneva, Switzerland. ISBN 978-92-4-156568-4. OCLC 1086320098.
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