Ghana: ‘On Our Roads to Havoc’ the Alarming State of Ghana’s Road Network

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Faded road markings, illegible road signages, destroyed crash barriers/guard rails, defective traffic lights and poorly functioning streetlights. These listings do not appear unusual to the Ghanaian road user though they portray bizarre and entropic road network infrastructures.

I reminisce of a couple of accidents headlined in newspapers and blogs. Ultimately the only thought that came to mind is the evitability of these unfortunate incidents. Certainly, the precious lives lost can never be brought back and the trauma that lives with the surviving few can never be erased. However, it is an opportunity to influence what happens on the same section of the road the next time.

Ghanaian drivers are always left to assume the next measure to take on roads due to absent road signages. You might be driving through a town, only to hear shouts from pedestrians that the road allows for just one way access, approaching a speed ramp with no prior warning or perhaps negotiating through a curve with no signages to pre-inform you. O Mother Ghana! Road signs are an essential component of road safety, as they provide vital information to drivers, helping them navigate through unfamiliar territories rather than their intuition.

The lack of proper road infrastructure in Ghana is a ticking time bomb, waiting to unleash its fury. The consequences of such a scenario are too ghastly to contemplate, as such action is required now.

On principal streets, feeder roads and major highways, what should have been bold road markings are fade outs with no information, literally leaving road users clueless. It is even more worrying during heavy rains or bad weather when visibility is poor. Veering off your lane may seem eccentric but where are the road markings to enhance controls in designated lanes?

The lives of pedestrians on notable roads and highways are equally endangered after guardrails/ crash barriers that serve as structures to protect foot passengers and vehicles from skewing off are seen protruding in unalluring directions thus indicating they may have served their purpose at a certain time and therefore need to be changed. I may have had to ditch my Saturday morning walks along the Ayi Mensa to Peduase stretch because of the hazards these crash barriers pose. I may not be an exception as other walkers may have had to because of the sub-parity of the current ones, should any misfortunate incident occur.

Exhibiting brute force may be required not just in a boxing ring but perchance when approaching an intersection with defective traffic lights. There and then no coherence work but high levels of heftiness. You are certainly quick to bless your stars should you survive without a dent or scratch. And oh, “trotro” drivers, trailers and motorbike riders are so good at meandering through these survival zones because of the lawlessness these conditions may have created.

Driving late at nights may be a Herculean task due to poorly functioning streetlights that leave several sections of roads obscure. According to statistics from the National Road Safety, inadequate lighting contributes to over 30 per cent of road crashes. Honestly, several road accidents and robbery attacks could have been avoided should we have benefitted from the ‘luxury’ of well-lit roads.

The importance of a good road network in this country can certainly not be undermined especially in hauling of commodities. A travel to rural areas and I am saddened by the nature of roads, our agricultural produce is carted on to be brought to major towns and cities.

It is, therefore, not surprising to see newly harvested food crops deteriorate extensively before being brought to market centres for sale. The prices of foodstuff do not only include the toil of our noble farmers but charges from repetitive replacements of vehicle parts and the risk incurred on our roads. Unequivocally, these currently conditions force many farmers and wholesalers out of trade because they perpetually watch their toil go down the drain due to the nature of our bad roads. For a food basket like Ghana, do you not think the barest minimum to farming areas are good road networks?

Roadworthy certificates are issued upon satisfactory result from vehicle inspection by the Driver and Vehicle License Authority. As such, it is quite bewildering seeing rickety vehicles on our roads with these certificates embossed boldly on their windscreen. Aside their unprepossessing appearances, the risk they extend to other road users is very much alarming. How much gains can equate to valuable lives should the inevitable happen?

At this point in our lives and with our sporadic levels of development, dualisation of major highways is certainly not hard to envisage and subsequently implement. Aside reducing congestion, the occurrences of head-on collisions would be minimalised and the surge in road accidents on highways across the country would lessen. Alternatively, we need to explore and develop other cost effective and reliable forms of transportation aside asphalt roads like robust railway systems.

Driving through dusty and treacherous potholes from my residence to many parts of Accra and beyond reveals the constant neglect of road infrastructure in Ghana for years. A well-constructed and maintained road network affords users the opportunity to commute easily and safely. Amusingly, the prices of rent and sale of houses and buildings seem to appreciate exponentially once roads are constructed in communities as such buttressing how much of a deluxe, good roads are, in our parts of the world. Unarguably many roads have experienced some facelift across the nation, however, a lot more has to be done to ease the burden of existing bad roads in the country.