Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
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nor are enforcement rates monitored and managed, Police officers appear to indulge certain
risky traffic behaviours and display a degree of preferential treatment of certain (types of)
drivers.
10.4 Roads and Mobility
The total road network in Cameroon comprises about 230,000 km of road. The rural network is
estimated to comprise some 50,000 km of registered road. The main network (which represents
approximately 80%of the total) is composed of 4,300 kmof paved roads, 11,600 kmof classified
roads and 12,338 km of rural roads (Luca Persia et al., 2015).
The paved roads and the gravel roads are poorly maintained, poorly signposted and generally
have exceeded the usable design life. The untarred rural roads in Cameroon contribute to
crashes that are related to the dry and wet season. During the dry season, road users grapple
with excessive dust which causes visibility problems. In the rainy season road users are
sometimes forced to use the wrong half of the road because of mud or potholes (CONSIA
Consultants, 2013; OSAC Country Council Information, 2014a). During the rainy season, many
gravel roads are not passable by most vehicles.
Pedestrians and livestock share the same roads as motorised vehicles resulting in constant
conflicts and hazards, especially at night. Large logging trucks, as well as other vehicles, use the
roads after dark and often these vehicles travel without lights and are frequently broken on the
side of the road or even on the road. Together with a lack of road signing and lighting, these
conditions make roads in Cameroon dangerous at night.
Like most other central African countries, motorised traffic not only increases during festive and
seasonal periods but also over long weekends where city workers return to their homes in the
more rural areas. According to the Bafia Mobile Gendarmerie Road Safety Unit, road traffic
volumes increase especially during August and December, as do the number of road crashes.
The Department of Public Works has embarked on an extensive programme to rehabilitate the
primary transport corridors linking Cameroon to other countries in the CEMAC region and also
on key strategic internal routes. As part of the CEMAC corridor road safety improvement project
strategic assessments and evaluations (including traffic and safety) have been carried out and
the rehabilitation programme is expected to commence in 2017 and be ready in time for the
Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) football tournament to be hosted by Cameroon in 2019. On some
corridors (e.g. Youande-Doula) preparatory work has already started. The works are to be
funded by Cameroon and her CEMAC partners andwill be undertaken as Build-Operate-Transfer
(public-private partnerships) concession agreements built around very specific and SMART
(Specific; Measurable; Assignable; Realistic and Time-related) service level agreements aimed
at ensuring optimally safe operation of these vital transport corridors.