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Roads connect two different places and make movement from one place to another much easier. Roads may be paved or un-paved and they need to be maintained and repaired over time to keep them in good condition. Looking at the countries with the worst road quality globally, Mauritania tops the list. The quoted road quality scores are out of seven and are from the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018.

Countries With the Worst Road Quality

Mauritania

Mauritania is located in Northwest Africa, and Nouakchott is its capital city. The country has a road quality score of two. By 2010 there was a 1,476,377.95 feet motorway running along the coastal route that connected Nouadhibou to Nouakchott. Mauritania is a large country with a desert or semi-desert climate; this makes it hard to repair and maintain roads. Land travel is difficult due to the poor quality of the roads and getting any assistance when one is stranded on the road is difficult. Public transportation is considered unsafe, and most of the roads in the interior parts of the country are in bad shape. The country has a total of 1,900 miles of surfaced roads with un-surfaced roads adding up to 440 miles and 3,190 miles of unimproved roads.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo had a quality score of 2.1. The country is in central Africa, and its terrain and climate have made it difficult to build and maintain proper roads and railways. Internal wars and mismanagement of national funds have also contributed to the sad state of the roads. The first and second Congo wars that took place in 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 saw the destruction of most of the roads in the county. Road transport is difficult with air transport being the reliable means of transportation in the country, and some of the good roads outside the major cities have been turned to airstrips. In towns outside Lubumbashi, Kinshasa, and Matadi there is limited or no private or commercial transport. Water transport has been one of the major transport means in the country, and it is used in accessing at least two-thirds of the country. Some of the cities within the country are easily accessed through a neighboring country rather than from Kinshasa. Out of the 7,381,889.76 feet of paved highways in the country, only 4,022,309.71 are in good condition.

Haiti

Haiti is an independent state on Hispaniola Island, and it scored a 2.1 in the road quality. Bad roads in Haiti make it difficult to access some parts of the country, making it difficult for a huge percentage of the population to access basic facilities. Most of the transport systems in the country are located in or near the capital city, Port-Au-Prince. The poor economy is one of the reasons for the poor infrastructure. Haiti's economy depends mainly on remittances, which amount to 20% of the GDP, and foreign aid.

Places with No Road Access

The United States has the most extensive road network, followed by India, and the People's Republic of China. Some of the cities that have no road access include Iquitos (Peru) located in the Amazon forest and Supai (Arizona) located in the Grand Canyon, as well as Juneau (Alaska), Rankin Inlet (Nunavut), and Nome (Alaska).