The traffic madness of Accra and how not to solve it

Accra is expanding. Every day there is at least one new car on the road and another person who goes into space. With the apparent lack of proper management of the urban space, it results in an unbearable congestion and traffic jams.

Every day, with the exception of weekends, sometimes no one goes to their place of work without traffic jams holding them for a few minutes to more than an hour.

Tetteh Quarshie, Kawukudi, Okponglo, Lapaz, Dzorwulu, Ofankor, the Ring Road, the Central Business District of Accra, are just a few examples of the notorious neighborhoods of traffic in Accra.

It's worse at night. From 3 pm to 10 pm, thousands of people in Accra experience long periods of traffic, this is the ritual. Effects on productivity

A senior professor at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Business School, Jonathan Annan, revealed in 2017 that Ghana was losing millions of cedis production hours per year. year due to traffic congestion, estimating that it cost about 8.21% of Ghana's GDP.

His statement was based on a jointly published study that examined congestion in city traffic and its impact on the economy.

Study of the effects of traffic on productivity in urban areas of Ghana by Takyi Harriet, Kofi Poku and Anin Kwabena Emmanuel (KNUST)

It was therefore important to me when President Akufo-Addo, in his speech to Parliament on the state of the nation of 2018, said that traffic jams and overcrowding were one of the two challenges of our urban space that makes Accra "unattractive".

The president said: "Congestion and overcrowding make our capital unattractive. People adapt to some disadvantages, but traffic jams are not one of them. We spend too much time in road traffic, it's unproductive, unhealthy and expensive. I fear that one of these days, one more car will join the madness on the roads in Accra and that our city is in a total impbade. "

His observation was perfect as he emphasized his government's commitment to improving the transportation system in the country.

To cope with overcrowding in Accra, he said: "We need to improve the transportation system. [across the country] so that no part of this country feels cut off or can be considered too far from the center. This is one of the most effective ways to stop the unsustainable race in Accra. "

However, he failed to mention explicitly his intention to handle worrying traffic jams throughout Accra, except to say that "we must build roads to open and connect the different parts of the country. Travel times between regions of the country must be reduced. "

Indeed, the construction of new roads and the extension of existing roads seem for a long time to be the first resort of successive governments to try to reduce traffic jams.

The logic is this: by building new roads and expanding existing roads, there can be more cars moving at any time in a specific area.

While this sounds great, it can never be the solution to the deteriorating traffic situation in Accra due to rapid urbanization for a number of reasons, including: Number of new cars versus number / length of roads

The rate at which new cars are introduced into the country and registered for use in Accra is extremely high.

There are certainly more new cars that jump on the roads every week than those that have been removed.

At present, there are more than 2 million cars in Ghana, the majority in Accra.

According to a 2012 report, about 605,700 registered vehicles were in Accra.

In 2018 alone, the DVLA registered more than 84,500 motor vehicles, including buses, the majority of which were used in Accra.

In 2017, about 75,000 vehicles had been registered and about 68,700 the previous year.

This means that on average, about 7,000 new vehicles are put into circulation each year.

These 7,000 new vehicles will require an average of 15 square meters of space each on the road, or 105,000 square meters.

What happens is that, a few months to a year after the construction of a new road planned to facilitate traffic, the problem reappears.

It is true that not widening the roads or building new ones will lead to increased traffic jams, but it is also true that investing only in road infrastructure in Accra will not pay off.

There are better alternatives.

The government has the opportunity to take bold steps to adopt innovative ways to improve the country's transportation system. Bus transportation system

Having a mbadive state-run public bus transportation program will contribute significantly to reducing traffic on the road in Accra.

Fifteen cars on the roads of Accra will carry 75 pbadengers (five pbadengers each) and will therefore occupy about 255 square meters of the road.

However, a bus Marcopolo Viale BRT with a capacity of 80 pbadengers (40 seated and 40 standing) will take about 27 square meters, leaving enough room for the mobility of vehicles without traffic jams.

It is regrettable that successive governments have not been able to put in place a single urban bus system, which would have significantly reduced traffic in Accra.

The metropolitan transit system and its original idea introduced in 2001 by President John Kufuor were a monumental failure. The few buses still in service operate mainly outside the cities, often carrying pbadengers from the suburbs of cities to shopping malls or to the city.

Despite the huge promise of the Aayalolo bus rapid transit system set up under the John Mahama administration, it can now be described as a scam.

After being downgraded from a bus rapid transit system (BRT) to a quality bus system (QBS), it is now reduced to a regular commercial bus that operates only during morning and evening peak hours.

The government must deliberately put in place a public bus transit system that will make it a reasonable choice for driving in a sedan or personal personal car.

With regard to the new system, it will be much more of a social good than removing all the sneaky vehicles that threaten the safety of the city's inhabitants. Rail transport

In many other countries, rail is an integral part of the transport infrastructure. Indeed, it has undeniably proven to be one of the safest, most energy efficient and least expensive ways to travel in cities and between cities.

If Ghana's rail transportation system is rehabilitated so that it is easy to use in the city, it will be able to accept at least 20% of the 80% of commuters who use the road in Ghana.

The Akufo-Addo government has made many important promises in the rail sector, essentially committing to reorganize it.

My limited understanding of what the government does gives me partial satisfaction. Indeed, the rail connection between major cities in different parts of the world is a great idea. However, I think that, to solve the problem of traffic congestion in urban spaces such as Accra, one must also take steps to develop an efficient urban rail transport system. traffic jams on the road.

If the above proposals are taken into account, Ghana will move away from the tradition of investing money in low-value road projects, or even in the implementation of seemingly simple projects, but with a significant impact, which will simplify journeys.

Doing so soon will also prevent Ghana from feeling the greatest fear of President Akufo-Addo: "One of these days, one more car will join the madness on the roads in Accra and our city will be in a dead end", as indicated in his report 2018 State of the Nation.

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By: Jonas Nyabor ([email protected])

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