(a) Explain, giving examples, four ways in which physical factors may hinder the development of road transportation (b) Discuss any four factors responsible...

(a) Four ways physical factors may hinder the development of road transportation (with examples):

• Rugged relief (mountains and steep slopes): highlands make road construction difficult and costly, requiring bends, cuttings and bridges, e.g. the Jos Plateau and the Cameroon Highlands.
• Swamps, marshes and flood plains: waterlogged, soft ground is hard to build on and roads are easily flooded, e.g. the Niger Delta mangrove swamps.
• Rivers and lakes: many wide rivers require expensive bridges or ferries and interrupt road routes, e.g. crossings over the Niger and Benue.
• Dense forest and adverse climate: thick tropical rainforest is difficult and expensive to clear, while heavy rainfall washes away and erodes roads (gullying), e.g. in the equatorial forest belt. (Deserts with shifting sand are also acceptable.)

(b) Four factors responsible for the poor railway network in tropical African countries:

• Shortage of capital: railways are very expensive to build and maintain, and poor countries cannot easily finance them.
• Difficult physical conditions: mountains, rivers, swamps and dense forest raise construction costs and limit routes.
• Colonial pattern of construction: existing lines were built mainly to link mines and cash-crop areas to the coastal ports for export, not to connect the interior, so the network is thin and unconnected.
• Low level of economic development and small traffic: sparse population, low industrial output and competition from road transport give too little freight and passenger traffic to justify new lines, and there is a shortage of skilled manpower and technology for maintenance.