A View of Commercial Motorcycle Transportation in Sub-Saharan African Cities Through the Sustainable Development Lens

The mobility challenges in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have given rise to commercial motorcycle transportation. Nonetheless, its regularisation remains a fierce contest between two categories of stakeholders: critics and protagonists. While the critics base their arguments on the safety and crime concerns associated with it, the protagonists argue based on its support for livelihoods. However, none of these arguments are grounded in the region’s quest for sustainable development. Using the sustainable development prism as an analytical framework, this study unpacks the effects of commercial motorcycle transportation on the region’s sustainable development efforts for evidence-based decision-making. The results of the study are based on a systematic review of literature from reputable academic databases. A synthesis of the literature reveals that commercial motorcycle transportation profoundly impacts SSA’s economic and social sustainability efforts. The roles include livelihood support, revenue to governments and mobility enhancement. Nevertheless, it is associated with health and safety, security and pollution concerns. Based on these and the entrenched mobility difficulties in SSA, the authors conclude that abolishing commercial motorcycle transportation may amount to ‘throwing away the baby with the bathwater’. Instead, the principle of hazard analysis and critical control point could be a valuable concept to developing risk management strategy for commercial motorcycle transportation.