The Chief Executive of Top Tech Consult, Cecil Garbrah has warned that Ghana could soon begin rationing the use of major roads in the country if steps are not taken to improve upon the existing road networks.
According to him, �there is this warning that if we don�t have expansion of our road networks, we going to suffer, that is what we are going through now� the issue of roundabout is past� we have over 200 vehicles being registered daily� Where are they going to use?� he asked adding that �I�m sure it will get to Nigeria['s situation]� When I was a little boy, you remember in Nigeria, they said only green cars will be on the roads on Monday, black cars � Tuesdays. Ghana will get to that stage very soon�.
Mr. Garbrah made the comment when he appeared on Multi TV�s current affairs programme PM EXPRESS.
His comments were however rebuffed by the Deputy Director in charge of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the National Road Safety Commission, Rudolph Beckley who said creating more roads will only induce traffic instead of reducing it.
Mr. Beckley explained that instead of road expansion, the country should rather be looking into introducing a mass transit system like the BRT which would lift people en mass at any given point in time.
�The vehicles are increasing in their folds and will continue to increase. The best approach is to put in a public transport system which is available, frequent, reliable; which has all the beauties around and can be called a good public transport system, so that I�ll have the comfort and the confidence to leave my car, coming on board the public transport system and having the same comfort that I have in my car to my office and back�.
Currently, Ghana is said to be registering over 200 vehicles daily despite an increase in road crashes which is estimated to have increased by about 3.1 percent since 2009.
Fatalities resulting from such crashes however have decreased by about 5 percent.
Mr. Beckley noted that lapses in the road system are responsible for the increase in crashes.
He stressed that three key elements are needed to ensure accident free roads and these he said included a vehicle in top shape, the road engineering and the driver.
Commenting on how to curb the road carnage to ensure that the NRSC achieves its target of a single digit fatality figure by 2020, Mr. Garbrah noted that lawlessness on the part of motorists and a blatant disregard for road traffic regulations needed to be dealt with as they contributed to fueling the carnage on our roads adding that a lack of emergency services is also pitching up the fatality figures.
�We have a total breakdown in enforcement. Let us all agree that enforcement is weak and therefore a country that has got the law enforcement being weak will automatically have road crashes moving upwards. Here you are, we have private vehicles fixing sirens on their vehicles, police is seeing it, hearing it but what are they doing about it?� he queried.
Mr. Garbrah added that �people drive on shoulders of the roads, tint their glasses and make calls and still they are not arrested�.
Touching on road engineering, he said this needs to be upgraded since roundabouts have become outmoded and out of use.
Again Mr. Beckley disagreed with Mr. Garbrah on the point that roundabouts are a thing of the past. According to him, roundabouts play a vital role in road transport as they tend to tone down the speed of motorists.
He however agreed that road engineers have a lot to do with regard to traffic flow.
�If you have growing number of vehicles in alarming proportions, no engineering innovation can mitigate the problem overnight. A road network is defined by links but our problem is that we want to use our traditional roads� he noted adding that most motorists tend to use roads because they think �I know this road that takes me from source to destination, but it is time for our engineers to begin looking at links. Because when you provide the road network without defined links, we will still cloak on the same traditional network�.
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