Motorbike commercial passenger transport should not be legalised, motor-tricycles should be legalised but for non-urban road setting and away from major highways.

Recently, the issue of commercial motorcycle transport services (motorcycle taxis), popularly referred to as Okada, has become topical. This is as a result of a comment made by the former President John Mahama, who is seeking to come back to power, that he will legalise the motorcycle taxi business should he win the December 7, 2020 polls. According to the former president, the commercial motorcycle transport services is a reality, it has come to stay and we (the people of Ghana) cannot stop it.

Therefore, his government will legalise the motorcycle taxi business but will regulate it. Currently, motorcycles are only registered as private vehicles in the country. However, commercial motorcycle operation has fast become part of the commercial transport system, albeit illegal, in all parts of the country. Should the country legalise the commercial motorcycle transport business? In this piece, the issue will be addressed from two fronts: safety of the user and mobility, the ability to move freely and easily.

Road Traffic Safety

Safer roads are crucial for the socio-economic development of countries. In Ghana, the available road traffic crash statistics at the Building and Road Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-BRRI) indicate that road traffic crashes kill about 2,000 people and another 6,000 are seriously injured (hospitalised for more than 24 hours) every year.  This figure would have been higher if under-reporting, which includes non-reporting (where the police are not notified of the occurrence of crashes) and under-recording (where crashes are reported to the police but may not be included in the published statistics) are accounted for.  Generally, the road traffic fatalities appear to be on the rise but the rate of increase has slowed-down since the year 2010.

Consistently over the years, pedestrians are the road users with the highest risk of death in traffic constituting 39% between 2016 and 2018. This was followed by users of motorcycles (23%), occupants of buses (16%), cars (11%) and goods vehicles (5%). In the year 2018, pedestrian fatality registered a share of 34% which was the lowest recorded in the country at the time. Since the year 2015, pedestrian fatalities have followed a downward trend which is heart-warming.

On the contrary, motorcycle crashes and their associated deaths have seen a sharp rise over the period. For example, for the year 2018, motorcyclists registered their highest ever annual fatality share of 28%. According to the crash statistics, motorcyclists’ fatalities were seventh in the order of proportions of deaths of all the road user groups in 2002. This, however, continued to move up the ladder and currently, it is the second-highest risky mode of transport, overtaking buses and cars in the process. Considering data for the period 2001- 2018, motorcyclist fatalities increased by 1170% compared to a reduction of 20% for bus occupants and 10% reduction for pedestrians.

Arguably, the sad development is related to a number of factors including the mixed traffic flow environment where motorcyclists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles are lumped up and allowed to compete for space on literally narrow roadways in our urban centres. Besides, some of these riders, who are not properly licensed, also ride without the necessary protective devices such as helmets, despite the existence of legislation that mandates their use on all roads.

It was anticipated that the surge in the use of motor-tricycles for carrying both passengers and goods may have contributed to the increase in traffic fatalities among motorcyclists. For the 2018 data, a differentiation was made between motorcycles (two-wheelers) and the tricycles. Formerly, these two modes were lumped together. It was established that the two-wheelers accounted for almost 90% of all motorcycle fatalities. Tricycles (aboboyaa and auto rickshaw (also referred to as pragya or Mahama can do)) accounted for just 10% of fatalities. 

The reason for the high proportion of deaths among the two-wheelers (i.e., motorcycles) is not far-fetched.  Generally, users of motorcycles are unprotected, compared to occupants of cars who have a shield around them. Moreover, the higher the speed of a vehicle, the higher the likelihood of occupants sustaining a more severe injury in the event of a crash. Risk of death on impact increases rapidly when speed is increased (because of the associated induced, high kinetic energy) and lowers rapidly when speed is reduced.

It is evident that the motorbikes travel at a much higher speed compared to the motor-tricycles. Therefore, the 90% share of fatalities by motorbikes is not surprising. It must be stressed that the heave in motorcyclist fatalities has the potential to derail all the safety gains in the national road safety agenda and urgent action is required to curtail this situation.

Increased speed differences between vehicles (e.g., one traveling at 90 km/h and the other travelling at 30 km/h) are known to increase road traffic crashes. Drivers travelling at high speeds, under such a circumstance, will have to be slowing down and changing lanes frequently in order to overtake the slow-moving vehicles. These manoeuvres, increase overtaking interactions and therefore conflicts in the traffic stream, resulting in increased crashes. Therefore, in view of the low travelling speeds of the motor-tricycles, they should not be allowed to operate on major highways in order to stem the high incidence of crashes  

Mobility

An efficient public transport system is essential for the socioeconomic development of any country. It is the responsibility of the government and local authorities to ensure the free and effective movement of people and goods in both the urban and rural areas.

Urban Setting

Public transport systems include a variety of transit options such as buses, trams (or light rail) and subways. Any city with the sizes and population of Accra and Kumasi requires a mass public transport system in order to ensure free and effective movement of people and goods within the city and beyond.  The public transport system in cities in Ghana leaves a lot to be desired. Privately owned mini-buses and taxis are, mostly, used in public transport in the cities.

Cars (i.e., sedan, private vehicles) constitute a huge percentage of the vehicle fleet in the cities. A careful observation of the level of loading in cars during peak periods indicates that a significant proportion are low-occupancy vehicles. Life would have been easier for all commuters, if people, riding alone in their vehicles, leave them and join public transport or even to carpool. Along with the growing motorization levels, ownership and use of motorcycles has also increased. The deteriorating situation of traffic congestion in the urban areas has led to increased use of motorcycles as viable commercial transport means for the urban commuters to avoid the congested traffic and ensure quick mobility. Unfortunately, as the motorcycle taxi (okada) business continues to flourish, many lives, within the economically active group, continue to perish through road traffic crashes.

The introduction of the “Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)” in Accra, the Aayalolo buses, in the last half of 2016 was a step in the right direction. However, months after the start of its operation, the Aayalolo buses were not able to attract enough patrons and is now fraught with difficulties, struggling to stay in business. Government, needs to fix this problem to improve the urban public transport system. Commercial motorcycle transport services cannotbe a solution to the congestion problem in our cities. Rather, it will exacerbate the problem. The focus of government, if it’s to solve the congestion and its associated problems in the cities, should be to focus on transporting people by group travel systems.

Rural Setting

Notwithstanding the aforementioned, there is a gap in our transport space, particularly, in the rural areas. This gap has been filled with the introduction of the motor-tricycles in our transport mix. Now, motor-tricycles are used in carting cash crops and foodstuffs from the farmgate to the roadside of major highways where they can then be transported to the small towns or final destination. Formerly, this was done by head loading or at best, with hand push trucks.

Again, people in small towns could only travel with motor vehicles on market days, usually once a week, as result of the unavailability of motor vehicles and the poor nature of the rural road network. The motor-tricycle has come as huge relief to people in such communities.  These vehicles are able to access areas, which the conventional motor vehicles are unable to go. Ghana is nowhere near providing access to all-season roads for its citizenry. Any attempt to enforce the existing law in the rural areas will again, reopen the gap which exist in our transport system. This will not be beneficial to the rural communities in general and the nation at large.

Way forward

From the ensuing, motorbikes (two-wheelers) should not be legalized for commercial transport services, particularly in the cities because of its poor safety record and the threat it presents to the national road safety agenda. More people will end up dying.

Motor-tricycles should be legalized but restricted to the non-urban settings and away from the major highways. Permitting the use of motor-tricycles in the urban areas will exacerbate the congestion problem in the cities. Our focus, as a country, should be to transport people by group transport system (e.g., bus rapid transit).

My biggest fear, with these proposals, is how to ensure that the motor-tricycles are restricted to the rural areas, and away from major highways. We have all the road traffic regulations but have not been able to enforce them. Further discourse and amendment of the current traffic regulations to address the apparent pitfalls are long overdue.

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The writer is a transport consultant and a senior research scientist with CSIR – Building & Road Research Institute and can be contacted via email: ackaahwillie@yahoo.com; ackaahwillie@gmail.com