Balancing ecosystem protection and infrastructure development is fundamental to the sustainable development equation in Africa. Road Ecology is an important tool for informing sustainable outcomes on the continent. While it is still an emerging discipline in Africa, there has been an upward trend in research outputs evident over the last 10 years, with studies across the continent’s regions focused on both the direct and indirect impacts of roads. North African studies have focused equally on direct and indirect impacts but are limited in number. Southern and East African studies have focused predominantly on direct impacts of roads such as wildlife mortality due to collision, and the barrier effect, while West and Central African studies have focused largely on indirect impacts such as landscape change. Road Ecology has, however, been employed in limited ways for informing the robust mitigation of road impacts in Africa, particularly with regards to informing proposed road projects. In a context in which the bulk of road development is yet to come, the potential of the discipline needs to be unlocked for guiding sustainable linear infrastructure development on the continent. There are three focus areas that are central to achieving this: building the capacity for Road Ecology research on the continent; broadening the thematic parameters of the discipline in Africa; and utilizing Road Ecology analysis for better decision-making at an institutional level.