By James Dickson Fiagborlo, Ho Technical University, Ho. Accra, which is the capital city and main administrative and business centre of Ghana, had a population of approximately 4,010,054 million in 2010. It is expected that the population growth and increasing rates of car ownership will increase the number of cars in the Accra Metropolitan Area […]
The post The Economic Cost Of Traffic In Accra appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.
By James Dickson Fiagborlo,
Ho Technical University, Ho.
Accra, which is the capital city and main administrative and business centre of Ghana, had a population of approximately 4,010,054 million in 2010. It is expected that the population growth and increasing rates of car ownership will increase the number of cars in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) from 181,000 in 2004, to over 1 million in 2023. This is likely to aggravate the already chronic traffic congestion in the cities.
The National Transport Policy identifies the rapid growth of vehicles in recent years as a key contributor to traffic congestion, especially in urban areas. The total vehicle population (excluding vehicles of some security agencies) in Ghana has been growing since 2004. As of 2012, the total number of registered vehicles population in Ghana stood at approximately 1,425,900.
The vehicle/population ratio in Ghana has also been growing steadily, from 31 vehicles per 1,000 population in 2002, to about 44 vehicles per 1,000 population in 2008. In terms of cities, it was estimated that Accra has the highest registered vehicles of 605,739, followed by Tema 256,956, and Kumasi 200,116, as of 2012. The number of vehicles registered each year will continue to rise, due to economic prosperity.
Currently, the highest traffic volumes are found in the Kasoa-Malam Road corridor, which has over 50,000 vehicles per day at certain points, according to the Department of Urban Roads (DoUR). About 10,000 vehicles also enter the Central Business District (CBD) of Accra within the Ring Road in the morning peak hour, and on a typical weekday, 270,000 vehicle trips are made into or out of the Accra central area.
In the morning peak hour, higher volumes of about 16,000 inbound vehicle trips, and 300,000 daily vehicles trips in both directions, cross into the area inside the motorway extension. These vehicle trips consist of 50,000 inbound passenger trips into the Accra central area, and 85,000 trips into the area inside the motorway extension in the morning peak hour.
Approximately 1.3 million passenger trips per day are estimated to enter or leave the area within the Accra Ring Road, and 1.6 million passenger trips into or out of the area within the motorway extension (DoUR).
Eighty-four percent of these passenger trips, according to Urban Roads, are made by public transport. Over half (56%) of daily passengers are carried by trotros, and a further 15 percent by taxi. In Accra, the average number of passengers carried by trotros and taxis per trip is 13 and 2.3 respectively.
The implication of this is that these vehicles are inefficient in terms of congestion caused, and the amount of road space used to transport each passenger. In a situation where the intra-urban journey is short, most of these vehicles also experience inefficiency, in terms of high energy consumption per time, as well as per passenger.
Observing from afar, one is tempted to make the unscientific assertion that so much of productivity is lost to traffic congestions in Accra. It is to offer statistical support and scientific explanations to this assertion, that this article is being written to analyse the economic cost of traffic in Accra.
An analysis of the traffic situation shows that the country suffers monumental loss of productivity and income in a month. For instance, the national minimum wage is about GH¢8.80. This means that on the average, the average minimum monthly earnings of any gainfully employed Ghanaian should be about GH¢176 for one hundred and sixty hours, or twenty working days.
But, in a recent study by the author, it was found that on the average, about two and half hours are lost to traffic every day by individual commuters who used public bus in Accra. This implies that within a working month, fifty hours is lost to traffic in Accra. So, by extrapolation, if an individual gained GH¢176 for one hundred and sixty hours, then fifty hours loss due to traffic will be equivalent to GH¢55.
It is also estimated that about 58 million trips are made into and out of Accra in a month, implying that about GH¢3 billion is lost to the country every month, due to traffic congestion. This does not include loss of productivity and fuel burnt by transport service providers, who spend these extra hours in traffic.
In 2013, other scholars also published findings from a research survey in Kumasi that showed that mobility of people is restricted due to traffic congestion, causing excessive travel delays particularly during peak hours, and negatively affecting productivity.
According to the findings, the negative effects of the transportation system in the Kumasi Metropolis on worker productivity was evident, as the average mandated eight hours a day that people work in the formal sector was reduced by 52.8 minutes, representing an average of 9% loss of productive hours a day, and loss of over two working days in a month.
Traffic congestion on the arterial routes in Accra also leads to 70 percent of major roads operating at unacceptable levels of service at some time during the day (less than 20 km/h). Although considerable scope exists to improve the efficiency of peoples’ movements through a shift from low capacity public transport vehicles to mass transport, with the potential to carry over 100 passengers, the concern is whether this will really work, given the nature of our roads, and the volume of daily traffic congestion on all the corridors in the cities.
Any attempt to shift from one mode to the other, is also likely to face some challenge, due to the pervasive popularity of private cars in Accra, and the country as a whole. It is, therefore, not surprising that in spite of the NI Highway, some levels of traffic are still observed on that corridor.
Therefore, there is the need to incorporate transport policies, such as car-pooling, cycling and mass transport into transport management policies. Currently, government has made commendable progress at introducing the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Accra. Efforts should, therefore, be made to ensure that the BRT system provides high quality service to the users; minimise the time buses are stopped for boarding and alighting by passengers; maximise the vehicle cruise speed; facilitate transfers and enhance the reliability of bus operations.
These will reduce private car usage and to help mitigate congestion during peak periods, and enhance the sustainability of the transport system. Efforts should also be made towards the use of a better demand management strategy, in order to make efficient use of existing transport infrastructure. This is very imperative, as the continual addition of new infrastructures and expansion of existing ones, in an attempt to deal with growing traffic demands, will be undesirable and sometimes difficult, because of socio-economic and environmental constraints.
While it seems modal diversion from private car to public transport, by ensuring that the efficiency of the alternative substitutes is enhanced, sounds more feasible, a critical look should also be taken at differential pricing system, whereby different toll rates for different types of vehicles at different times of the day are used. All these will help mitigate traffic congestion during the peak periods in Accra, to ensure efficiency and sustainability of the transport sector, and increase in productivity.
The post The Economic Cost Of Traffic In Accra appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS