Transportation and Roads
The road system in Ghana is something to behold. When we left the airport, the roads were
modern by any standard. I can’t recall
seeing any stop lights, but they may have been there. I do remember round-abouts and lots of
traffic (it was a Wednesday night around 9 p.m. so I can’t figure the reason
for the traffic). There were multi-lane
roads that were well paved, but the further that we got from the city, the less
the traffic, and the greater the change in the roads. While there is a strong police presence
alongside the roads in Ghana (our road to Accra has a permanent police check
station), you don’t see many patrol cars travelling in the traffic (SUVs), and
I’ve been told that there’s no formal ticket system (written ticket, court
date, etc.). I’ve seen no method for the
police to determine the speed of a another car, so in order to keep cars from
going too fast in more residential areas, the Ghanaians rely on the use of
SPEED BUMPS (there are couple of speed limit signs, but no one obeys them that
I can tell). These things are just about
everywhere; they range from three small strips of asphalt across the road separated
by about 5 feet, to the raised bump that’s about 5 feet in width. The real problem with the speed bumps is that
the asphalt after the bump deteriorates because of the added force of the tires
on them, and potholes and ruts result.
This results in cars weaving left and right at the speed bumps to avoid
the potholes – what fun!
Beyond the speed bump method for making cars slowdown in
built up areas, there’s the problem of the unpaved roads. When we first arrived, I could only see the
one main road that took us to/from Accra.
I began to wonder if there were any other paved roads. But as we went to the other school campus
(Adenta) closer in Accra, and as we entered more densely populated areas, a few
other paved roads showed up as lateral roads.
So what about the unpaved roads?
They are ubiquitous, and with rare exception, you wouldn’t call them a
road, but more of a path. Not only are
they narrow, but we’ve been in the wet season, so they are carved in various ways
from the water that has flowed in them (It’s been a few days since we’ve had
any rain, but there are still some nice sized mud holes along them). I never noticed these unpaved back roads,
until we went to church (the church building is located along an offshoot
“path” that connects to an unpaved road (to get to church you have to travel a short
distance along this offshoot path which has a small rivulet running through it
(it’s dry now) that makes for an SUV-only road)), and then went to the other
campus.
We have two methods for getting to the Adenta campus – ride
in with my son-in-law the whole way when he goes to the campus, or pick up the
school bus part way there (Emmanuel drives us to the pick up point at Oyibie
and then it’s on the bus for the rest of the way). The school bus however, is most likely not
the image you’re considering. The bus
can hold about 35 individuals (7 rows of 5 chairs), but only through the use of
jump seats. Each row has two chairs on
each side, and a jump seat in the middle aisle that gets put down once all the
seats are filled up behind the jump seat.
The bus ride wouldn’t be so bad if we stayed to the main paved roads,
but………..when we’re going to the school in the morning, the traffic backs up, so
the driver takes the back roads to get to the school (what fun – there are
times when I wonder if the bus will tip over due to the ruts), and in the afternoon
upon returning to Oyibie, we drop off a number of students along the way which
requires going along the back roads to get to their houses. The ride into the school is about 20 minutes
to Oyibie with Emmanuel, and then about 40 minutes from there to the school in
the bus. But the ride home is about 1
hour, 40 minutes from the school to Oyibie in the bus, and then 20 minutes
home. Of course, in the afternoon, it’s
much warmer (okay, hot), with lots of bodies in the bus, and we don’t go very
fast along the back roads (no, there’s no air conditioning). Ah, the joys of riding a bus again (it’s been
a few years).
So far I’ve seen no accidents, and only one wrecked car
beside the road, though not for any amount of safe driving – passing with
oncoming traffic is quite common since the roads contain large trucks, cars,
tro-tros (private “buses” – some type of Nissan mini-van that crams in 10-15
people in a space for about 8 people), taxis (small Toyota type vehicles that
only hold 3-4 people), all going at varying speeds – the taxis “patrol” the
highway for customers so they go slowly unless they’re transporting people, the
tro-tros are constantly pulling over picking people up or dropping them off,
and the trucks go a wide range of speeds.
It’s a fluid situation! And then
to add to all this mix, the pedestrians walk alongside the road, and don’t
forget the street vendors that line the road (fortunately there are no vendors
that hawk IN the road – that’s only in the busy city intersections). Very few roads have any sidewalk system, so
the pedestrians just do their best, and we all get along!
Oh, and don’t forget the ubiquitous horn – it reminds me of
Italy. Horns are used constantly, but
usually to warn some car/truck pulling out that you are there. At least it’s not as bad as in Italy where
the shortest time interval ever measured occurred at a stoplight that turned
from red to green – the time from the light turning and the driver behind you
honking their horn (okay, it’s a joke).
Michael
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