Road Traffic

  It has been the wish and prayer of most drivers that our road networks in this our country will be modernized but it looks like their prayers and wishes never come to pass. Everyday, a new road is constructed and the old ones are upgraded but there has been no improvement. One of our problems in Ghana is Road Traffic and we have tried our best to solve them but there has not been any good result so far.
  Road Traffic consist of vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances using a public way for purposes of travelling either singly or together. The laws which govern traffic and regulate vehicles are known as Traffic laws and the Rules of the road are the laws as well as the informal rules that may have come up over time to ensure the timely and orderly flow of traffic.
  In Ghana, there is a unit responsible for road safety which is the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MMTU) and this unit is under the Ghana Police Service. The unit has other agencies which collaborate with them to ensure safety on the road and these agencies are; National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the Ghana Police Service. The head of the unit, who is the Commander of the unit reports to the Inspector General of Police (IGP). The members of the unit are trained to arrest, spot and warn  road offenders and also to educate road users on the accident-free road practices. They also keep records of all accidents and publish the statistics on quarterly bases in the print or electronic media to make the public aware of it. Traffic control and regulations are done by the personnel of the unit. The unit is also responsible for escorting the President of Ghana as well as state and foreign dignitaries.

A traffic jam on a double lane road

  Organized traffic is mostly done in many jurisdictions with intersections, junctions, traffic signals, signs, interchanges and marked lanes. some jurisdictions have complex and very detailed rules of the road and others rely more on the common senses of the drivers and their willingness to cooperate. In the absence of  lane markings and traffic control signals, uncontrolled traffic comes and drivers tend to keep to the appropriate side if the road is wide enough. Some intersections have no signal or signage and a particular road's traffic tend to flow, that is, it is a busy intersection, that intersection may be dominant and when a break sets in the traffic, the dominance of that road shifts to the other road where vehicles are queued. On business days  in Accra and most  cities, at predictable times of the day, traffic reaches great intensity due to the large number of vehicles using the same road at the same time. Such a phenomenon is called rush hour or peak hour even though the traffic intensity usually exceeds one hour.

Some regulatory signs used on the roads

  Motor vehicles emissions are important contributors to the growth of Carbon dioxide (Co2) concentrates in the atmosphere. Even though  carbon dioxide is non-toxic to humans, it is a major green house gas. Also, Road dust kicked up by vehicles sometimes trigger allergic reactions. Improved air quality can be delivered to areas to relieve them of significant amount of traffic by constructing new roads which will divert traffic from built-up areas.

An audio on Road traffic 

  The joy of driving on our roads now-a-days is gradually diminishing and its about time we do something about it because most Ghanaians use the roads as means of transportation and it is through this same means production takes place in terms of distribution. So if the roads are not good for transporting then production will reduce.

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