We have noticed news about the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service raising GH¢350,000 from an assortment of traffic offences.
It is an exciting piece of news which underscores the importance of discipline on our intra-city roads, commercial commuters being the main culprits. Some of these vehicles are mobile coffins; their breaking and lighting systems not functioning efficiently and, therefore, posing danger to other road users.
Exercises intended to check these technical anomalies are all but short-lived operations meant by and large for publicity dividends.
The monetary sanctions are not intended to make money for the state but to ensure discipline on our roads, the absence of which has led to avoidable accidents, some fatal.
While we applaud the law enforcement agents for raising so much for the state kitty, we would be quick to express disappointment about the sanctions not doing enough to achieve their objective of maintaining road use discipline.
The Citi TV and police collaboration to restore discipline on the roads is a good initiative but unfortunately it is only symbolic and not enough to alter the rather inappropriate conduct of especially commercial motorists and their motorcycle commuter counterparts.
Both drivers and the law enforcement agents are responsible for the indiscipline associated with our road use. The commercial drivers knowing that they can easily bribe police officers commit the common road offences such as parking at unauthorized places and others with little or no regard for existing traffic regulations.
The road which leads to Pig Farm from Accra Newtown turns right towards the Kotobabi Police Station and left towards Alajo is one place which presents evidence of the recklessness of commercial drivers. A feature of this section of the road is the dangerous parking by taxis. It is regrettable that the Kotobabi Police Station is nearby and the district command’s MTTD detachment there looks on unconcerned.
It is so bad that both pedestrians and motorists trying to change course towards Alajo encounter nightmarish situations, as close to ten or so taxis at any given time line up the turning.
The MTTD must fashion out a means of unravelling traffic knots wherever they do occur in parts of the city where indiscipline is rife.
Putting out numbers so motorists or even pedestrians can call the police as they do whenever a crime is being committed would go a long way in restoring an appreciable level of discipline.
With the okada business now unofficially a feature of our intra-city transport architecture, road use has become even more challenging.
Traffic cops must consider new features of our intra-city transport system with a view to coming up with innovations to address the emerging challenges of okadas, rickety commercial vehicles and bribe-taking cops.