Choked roads: drivers and mechanics take over

General News of Sunday, July 14, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-07-14

Parking of vehicles on streets and sidewalks has become a common phenomenon in Accra, with unpleasant consequences for commuter and pedestrian movements.

This practice also hampers the mobility of many vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with reduced mobility, especially the visually impaired.

Paragraph 2 (a) of the Accra Metropolitan Area Assembly 2017 Regulations on the obstacle in a public footpath states that a person shall not park a vehicle, goods or other objects in a public trail or roadway.

However, drivers and mechanics continue to flout the law with impunity.

While motorists enjoy the comfort of parking on roads and sidewalks, car mechanics also use both public places as extensions of their workshops.

Depending on how long a mechanic will finish working on a defective vehicle, the vehicle will be left on the sidewalk and on the road.

Sometimes, mechanics abandon vehicles in the streets.

This practice puts people's lives at risk as pedestrians are forced to use the road as a bridge.

Visit

It is a source of visual pollution in the streets such as Brewery Link, Brewery Loop, Akuyea Addy Lane, Angetebu Avenue, Additrom Link and Glover Road, all in the official Adabraka city of Accra, with vehicles parked on the streets. sidewalks and roads.

A dominant practice in the area is that, whenever it's about to rain, people are moving their cars on sidewalks so that flood waters can not get into them.

Some of the vehicles seem abandoned and the owners have no intention of moving them.

The Daily Graphic also estimated that some of the car owners who flout the AMA application regulations in Adabraka are business owners operating in Accra's central business district.

Other places

Other areas visited where cars are parked on sidewalks include the Okponglo section of the Madina-Legon road, the Atomic Junction, part of the Graphic Road and the streets near Madina Polyclinic.

The situation is worse in Abossey Okai, the majority of sidewalks in the enclave of spare parts being overrun by vehicles.

Streets such as Oblogo Road, Okaile Tetteh Road and parts of the Abossey Okai-Korle Bu (West Ping Ring Road) are not far behind.

Lack of sidewalks

The Daily Graphic found that most communities lacked sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to use the road as a trail.

Streets including Paul Tree Avenue, Lily Street, Oak Street, Fertilizer Road and King Kortey Road, all located in Teshie, have no sidewalks.

We have seen many people walk the streets because of the lack of sidewalks.

The situation was not different in the streets of Madina.

workshops

A vehicle sprayer named Charles, whose workshop had encroached on a sidewalk in Adabraka, admitted that the encroachment was against the law, but added that cars were usually removed just after working on them.

A pedestrian, Abigail Antwi, has long said it was a headache to gain access to the sidewalk.

Francis Osei, a young man, said the road had been used as a bridge for many years, as it had become a normal practice. He therefore urged the authorities to act accordingly.

A small shopkeeper who called Aunt Serwaa said he had witnessed a lady run over by a car while she was walking down the road for lack of room on the sidewalk.

Parking place in the city

Gilbert Ankah, WADA's Public Affairs Officer, explained that solutions had been put in place for car owners to ensure pedestrian safety in the city.

He added that the Director General of WADA, Mr. Mohammed Adjei Sowah, had also enjoined all vehicle owners to refrain from parking on the streets and sidewalks and to use rather the reserved parking spaces in the city so that their vehicles are neither blocked nor towed. guards of the city.

According to Mr. Ankrah, there were approximately 3,657 off-street parking spaces and over 1,000 street parking spaces in the city to meet commuters' parking needs.

He indicated that the off-street parking spaces available in the city and their capabilities were at Ridge Car Park, 500; SSNIT Pension House Parking, 627; Accra Financial Center Car Park, 80; SIC Life Mall parking lot, 60; Octagon Parking, 1500; Parking of the city of Accra, 500; Rawlings Park, 320, and Makola Mall parking lot, 310.

He badured that the badembly would continue to empower its metro guards and the Motor Traffic and Motor Transport Department (MTTD) of the police to take measures to ensure safety on the roads.

Efforts to reach the director general of Korle Klottey, Mr. Samuel James Nii Adjei Tawiah, did not produce any results.