“There is another evil I have seen under the sun. Kings and rulers make a grave mistake” - Ecclesiastes‬

For those of us in Accra and other cities who drive, you will notice this situation where traffic police officers are found at traffic intersections. Most of the time, these officers are found helping to direct traffic at times when the lights are on and functioning, a situation which is very ironical.

There are a couple of traffic lights around town whose functionality is as irregular as the occurrence of earth tremors. With such traffic intersections, you could get there in the morning and find the traffic lights completely off yet without any traffic warden to help direct flow of traffic.

When you get to that point on such a day, it becomes your duty to check the flow of traffic and meander your way through. You could get to that same intersection a day later and find the same set of traffic lights on and working perfectly. In that instance, one is fortunate to have the lights determining the flow of traffic. 

Yet at other times dear friend, you could drive through this same traffic intersection and find the lights functioning and yet with motor traffic officers stationed and determining the flow of vehicular traffic.

When you get to the traffic intersection on such a day, you could notice the lights turned to ‘Green’ and yet the traffic police could cause you to wait for minutes on end before allowing you to have your turn. The traffic signals could also be red but be asked to keep moving.

I have always wondered why we have traffic police determining the flow of traffic in situations where the traffic lights are actively working. As I thought through this strange phenomenon, I wondered if it was because the timing of the lights were not helping with flow of vehicular traffic. You know, before traffic lights are installed anytime, traffic studies are conducted based upon which the traffic lights are engineered.

Essentially, there are three factors that come together to determine how long each of the Red, Green and Amber (Orange) lights stay on or off. These factors are preprogrammed timing schedules, motion sensors and time of day.

This determination is done to ensure that the lights function in tandem with the flow of vehicular traffic at any point in time during the day and night. This is to ensure that the traffic lights ensure effective operation of any set of traffic lights at an intersection. 

The whole essence of the traffic or signal intersection is to assign right of way to conflicting movements of traffic at any intersection. The signals relay messages to road users on what to do and what not to do. Traffic signals eliminate human factor in the management of vehicular traffic management. 

Based on the above, is it not therefore very surprising that after all these strenuous efforts are made to programmers and install these signals, we end up having traffic police men positioned to take over the role of these signal lights!

If you are observant, you’d appreciate that quite a number of our traffic intersections are almost always falling prey to this menace of always having police officers from the Motor Traffic Department (MTD) taking up the role of these lights. Unfortunately as we all know, they are never able to match the efficiency and effectiveness of the traffic lights.

My dear friend, a few weeks ago, as I drove home, I got to the Neoplan traffic intersection at Achimota. The traffic lights were all on and working. For some weeks prior, there were police men directing traffic at that spot even though the lights were functioning. On this particular day, as I got close to the place I noticed that vehicles were being directed to keep moving. Well, it got to my turn and I noticed that the lights were on Greenso I moved. By the time I got to the old building of Peace FM using the main highway, I noticed that I was being tailed by a police on a motor bike. He got to me and I slowed down to hear him out. His charge was that I had failed to stop at the order of an officer when I got to the traffic light. I explained to him that the lights were Green and as far as the road traffic rules were concerned, I had my right of way. He still insisted that since there was a police officer there who had flagged me to stop, his order took preeminence.

Much as I explained myself within the circumstances surrounding the perceived confusion, he simply refused to budge. He wanted to escort me to go make a u-turn at John Teye Memorial School in Pokuase and then to Tesano Police Station for their processes. I was in no mood to budge so I gave him my call card and asked him to trigger a replay of the CCTV footage at the location. If I was at fault, they should process me for the Courts. With that, I then moved on and never heard from them.

Sometime last week, on my way home using the Tetteh Quarshie-Madina road, I noticed an encounter as I got to the Ghana Standards Authority intersection. There, I realized that even though the traffic lights were in good working condition, the policemen were once again here directing traffic. Ahead of me, I noticed that a driver who was following the signals was at the same time being flagged by one of the officers to move on even though the lights were red.

For some reasons, he refused to heed and appeared to be waiting for the green in spite of the tooting of horn from the drivers behind him. He had his way by waiting for the Green. When we got to the Okponglo intersection, the two of us were now driving parallel so I rolled down and asked him for the reason behind his action minutes earlier. Apparently, he had encountered a very rough police officer just a few days before.

This was as a result of confusion as to whether to obey the lights or the MTTD officers when he got to an intersection. He had followed the traffic officer’s seeming instruction to move on only to be stopped thereafter that he had crossed the Redlights. He had since resolved that for as long as the lights were working, he’d follow the lights and not allow any  traffic police officer to misdirect him.

Now my question, my dear friend! Why do we engage scarcely needed police officers the nation needs to prevent and fight crime and deploy them at traffic intersections to direct the flow of traffic when that is the very reason for which the signals are installed? If the view of the Department of Urban Roads is that the flow of vehicular traffic as directed by the traffic signals at any one point are not effective, why do they not take steps to recalibrate the signals to suit the new traffic situation?

Are our State authorities aware that rather than assisting the general public to have smooth usage of our roads, these traffic police and YEA traffic wardens spend most of their time and energies resorting to the harassment, intimidation and extortion from innocent members of the same general public? 

I am fully persuaded that in as much as our authorities had good intentions for the deployment of traffic control police at our road intersections, the presence of police officers at most of these intersections have become more of a menace than a benefit. Clearly, in instances where the signals are fully functional, the presence of officers must be done away with. It is about time that our authorities only deploy these officers to direct flow of vehicles when traffic signals are non-functional.

It is about time we utilize our national resources a lot more judiciously!