The road network of Madagascar, comprising about 4,500 unique roads spanning 31,640 kilometers (19,660 mi), is designed primarily to facilitate transportation to and from Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital. Transportation on these roads, most of which are unpaved and two lanes wide, is often dangerous. Few Malagasy own private vehicles; long-distance travel is often accomplished in taxi brousses ('bush taxis'), which may be shared by 20 or more people.

While most primary roads are in good condition, the World Food Programme has classified nearly two-thirds of the overall road network as being in 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 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, to deter attacks from dahalo, the government of Madagascar requires that drivers travel in convoys of at least ten vehicles. Car collision fatalities are not fully reported, but the rate is estimated to be 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 inter-regionally. Human-powered vehicles, once the only means of road transport, are still found in the form of pousse-pousses (rickshaws). Taxi brousses constitute a rudimentary road-based public transportation system in Madagascar. Rides on taxi brousses cost as little as 200 Malagasy ariary (roughly US$0.10) as of 2005^[update], and vehicles involved are often overpacked, 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.

There were no roads in Madagascar through the mid-19th century. Goods were carried across the island along pathways by porters, while oxen, the only beast of burden available, saw minimal use. After France conquered Madagascar in 1895, French colonial administrators, who did not understand the water and transportation system in place under the Merina Kingdom, immediately began building roads. Porters collectively resisted the creation of roads, continuing a pre-conquest movement in opposition to using horses which saw the stoning of European horse-riders in Antananarivo. In 1901, porters staged demonstrations against the introduction of pousse-pousses (rickshaws), but the latter prevailed when a road between Antananarivo and Toamasina was completed in 1902. Some human-powered vehicles remain in use as of 2017^[update], in the form of pousse-pousses.

Even as late as 1955, passenger and commercial motor vehicles in Madagascar numbered under 30,000. In 1958, Madagascar's road network spanned about 25,100 kilometers (15,600 mi), almost all of it unpaved. In subsequent decades, the country relied heavily upon water and air travel for transportation, performing minimal investment and maintenance in its road infrastructure. Plantations, which were nationalized following a revolution in 1972, have exercised significant influence on road and infrastructure construction within the Sambirano, a river valley in the country's northeast, and maintained primary responsibility for road maintenance on some major thoroughfares there as of 1993^[update].

As of 2022^[update], Madagascar contains over 4,500 unique roads. The road network spans approximately 31,640 kilometers (19,660 mi), representing 5.4 kilometers of road per 100 square kilometers of land (8.72 mi per 100 sq mi). This is a small road network, mostly oriented toward Antananarivo. Last-mile transport, particularly in rural areas, is sometimes accomplished via unofficial roads. Traffic drives on the right side of the road.

There are three classes of road systems in Madagascar: routes nationales ('national roads'), routes provinciales ('provincial roads'), and routes communales ('communal roads'). Routes nationales connect Antananarivo to Antsiranana, Toamasina, Morondava, and Toliara and make up 11,746 kilometers (7,299 mi) of the country's road network. Most roads of all three types have two lanes and are relatively narrow; many bridges have only one lane. The country's first toll highway, a 250-kilometer (160 mi) road designed to cut the travel time between Antananarivo to Toamasina from the current 10 hours down to a target of 2.5 hours, is under construction as of December 2022^[update].

In 2018^[update], the World Food Programme and the Global Logistics Cluster classified 64 percent of roads in Madagascar as in poor driving condition, 28 percent in average condition, and 10 percent in good condition; seven-in-ten of the primary roads fall into the latter-most category, which is defined as being navigable throughout all seasons of the year. The Statesman's Yearbook 2023 states that only about 22 percent of roads in Madagascar were paved as of 2013^[update], while a 2019 World Bank report states that 81 percent were not paved. As natural gravel is not regularly available on the island of Madagascar, many roads are composed of sand lined with crushed stone. Many of these unsealed roads can only be used in the dry season. 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.