About a third of the roads are paved, the rest are dirt or sand, which can be harder to drive on, especially during rainy season. Sixty years ago when Botswana was first gaining its independence, there were only 11 miles of paved roads. Today, there are over 3,000 miles of paved roads, mainly around the edges of the country with the Kalahari Desert in the center.
Only about 24% of people in Botswana own a car, compared with 74% in America. There is not much traffic where I live. There is a steady line of trucks transporting goods from South Africa with up to 1500 of them crossing the Kazungula Bridge into Zambia and countries in Northern Africa.
Depending on the distance needed to be traveled most people walk, if possible, to save money. It is easy where I live to stand on the street and catch a shared taxi. These are usually small cars, which carry four riders and a driver, that will drive you to places 10 miles or less. Typically a ride costs about 10 pula (about 71 cents in USD). If you want to travel to a city that is further away, there are combis, which are 16 passenger vans or buses that charge depending on how far you are traveling.
A cool thing about transportation in Botswana is that the license plates are color coded.
