The city of Accra is on the verge of joining other cities in especially Europe and the United States where large capacity buses and railway cars are the main features of intra-city transport. The double-decker buses which many previously saw only on Post Cards from London are now a part of Accra roads.
In the advanced economies the mass transit systems are so efficient that many motorists in their bid to avoid cumbersome traffic jams prefer riding on them for their daily movements thus confining their private cars to garages only to be used during weekends and holidays. In December of last year when the New Jersey Mass Transit workers in the United States threatened a strike action it was a major media issue until an amicable solution was found.
As more buses arrive in the country in fulfillment of government's promise of introducing a mass transit system, the need to create friendly lanes for them to operate without much ado, has become paramount.
FACOL Roads, a road construction and maintenance company has been charged with the task of designating the right hand-side lanes of the city's roads as bus lanes. The company it seems is responsible for all markings on the city's roads.
On Wednesday workers of the company were seen busily engaged with the task on the Kojo Thompson Road and in a chat with The Accra Daily Mail one of the workers disclosed that the task is for the whole of the city. As they went about their tasks the lanes on which they worked were blocked, thus causing temporary traffic jams on the other two lanes.
A close look at the inscription showed the following words: BUS LANE. This marking presupposes that the right hand lanes are strictly reserved for buses but whether other motorists especially commercial vehicles would adhere to this is another matter, bearing in mind the degree of indiscipline among such road users.
The FACOL worker who spoke with us said the AMA plans carrying out an education programme on the implication of the BUS LANE inscription for motorists in the city.
The deputy commander of the MTTU of the Ghana Police Service, Mr. Richard Baduwe, Superintendent of Police when contacted on the designation said it is intended to prevent the possible confusion that could arise when the relatively smaller buses in the city jostle for space with the larger mass transit buses some of which have already started operations in the city. He also added that should there be a programme of educating road users about the implications of the Bus Lanes, it would be a collaborative exercise between their outfit and a stakeholder like the AMA.
It would be recalled that some months ago commercial drivers embarked upon a strike action over alleged harassment by MTTU Police personnel. According to them the bus stops in Accra are inadequate and Police personnel are rather rigid as they arrest them when they stop to discharge or pick passengers at NO PARKING points. Since then, however, it seems some new bus stops have been created by the Accra Metropolitan Authority in collaboration with various sponsors, but there is still room for more of such facilities.
A motorist had this to say about the new markings: "It is a good idea provided that the lanes would not be encroached upon by other motorists. I also call upon the authorities to increase the frequency of re-painting the markings on the roads to prevent motorists from swaying onto other lanes and also to have the bus lane mentality engraved in the minds of motorists."
