Ghanaian Traffic

I’ve written about it before, but sometimes I just have to write more. Traffic in Accra. It’s like none other. I’ve driven in the largest U.S. cities and have never experienced what we go through every single day….although some days are worse than others.

Accra Ghana is mass chaos, with a strange element of organization and respect. It’s not often that I witness road rage, which is not to say that I’m not feeling it daily! In fact, one of the things that just annoys me more than anything are the police vehicles, and sometimes just the police is their personal cars and trucks. It’s not only common, but it’s accepted practice that while everyone else is sitting at a standstill in traffic, the police have more important things to do and places to be, and so they just make their own lane of traffic. In our case, as we are driving against the traffic, Michael is often relegated to driving in the dirt on the side of the road as they pass. Trust me, these vehicles are in no way responding to a call. They are on their way to work, breakfast, or to drop their kids off at school; just like every other citizen on the street. Can you imagine the public uproar that would occur in the U.S. if the very people who are entrusted to enforce the law are consistently breaking same law?

Yesterday, we took off for the Newmont Office during rush hour traffic. Dave was riding shotgun next to Michael, and I was seated in the back behind the driver’s seat. After maneuvering onto Burma Camp Road, which is always an event, we were slowly making our way down the Airport Bypass Road. Traffic slowed more than usual and soon we were driving by a vehicle accident.

This is what the intersection looks like from our road, Second Circular,
trying to get on to Burma Camp.
This is VERY typical, especially during morning and evening rush hour.

 

On the left side of the road, pointing in the direction in which we were driving was a smaller SUV that had obviously been hit by another vehicle by the right fender. The driver, a woman, was standing outside of the vehicle speaking with a gentleman standing next to her, all the while with a big smile on her face. A couple of feet ahead we saw the second car pulled off to the right side of the road. The smaller car didn’t appear to have as much damage, and I suspect it was the man’s car. Fortunately, it didn’t appear that anyone was seriously injured, and so we continued.

As we drove by I said, “It’s really amazing that we don’t see more accidents like this considering the crazy traffic.” Although, in hindsight Dave and I agreed that the traffic in Accra rarely moves at high rates of speed.

This is Airport Bypass Road. We are about a quarter of a mile from the
stoplight where we will need to turn left onto Burma Camp Road.
It will take us about 20 minutes to get to the light.
This was a particularly bad day, but it occurs more and more (about 5-6 times a month),
especially now that we are getting closer to the Christmas season,
as people are coming into Accra from the outlying villages/communities
to either buy or sell their goods.

 

Next we passed through the airport roundabout, for which the purpose is often defeated during the busier traffic times as there is a traffic cop adding to the confusion. To be fair, the roundabout doesn’t work efficiently when the traffic is backed up for two miles, but just watching the traffic controller direct the vehicles is a story in and of itself. Michael fully understands what he is being asked to do, so I guess it’s a good thing he’s in the driver’s seat!

We finally turn right onto Liberation, which is one of the main thoroughfares to downtown Accra. Fortunately, we are going against the morning rush hour traffic, and arrive at the stoplight at which we will take a left turn. This intersection is also manned by traffic cops….usually there are at least three of them standing in the middle of the street, and I’m not exactly sure which one Michael looks at when deciding when it’s time to go, as it doesn’t always coincide with the light. This is a three-way intersection with cars coming from every direction. After we turn left, Michael immediately puts on his blinker as we then take the first right.

As we are turning, we hear this loud bang. Immediately, Dave and I look to the right side of the car. All I can see is a helmet. Dave yells, “Michael! Stop!” Michael stops and then pulls forward out of the traffic. So, the motorcyclist is driving down Liberation, towards us, but takes a right turn at the light. We have the right of way, and Michael, being responsible, has indicated his desire to turn right by using his indicator. Motorcyclists typically drive on the left side of vehicles (between the traffic), but this one decided to drive on the right side of us, and quickly pulled up into Michael’s blindside as he was turning.

Michael got out of the car, approached the motorcyclist who I could see was checking his leg for an injury. He quickly put his helmet back on, and took off. Michael got back into the car and told me later that the man knew he was in the wrong but didn’t want to stick around as we might insist on going to the Police Station and/or ask for him to fix our vehicle.  Fortunately, our car only sustained a long scratch down the side of right passenger side door, and just adds to all of the other scratches. We felt lucky that the man hadn’t been more seriously injured, but was a good reminder that we always have to be ultra-alert on these crazy roads.

Remember the story about the police vehicles? Today, Michael and I were sitting at the light at the four-way stop by El-Wak Stadium - about ¼ mile from home. We were minding our own business, when…”BAM” a police van drives by us and hits our driver’s side mirror. Fortunately, the mirror moves both front and back, and it just moved it backwards. The vehicle did not slow or stop again. This is the second time we have been hit by a police vehicle in virtually the same location. The first time it occurred Michael jumped out of the car and pumped his fist at the vehicle, who did not even slow down, much stop. As we arrived at the intersection that time, Michael pulled to the middle to tell the traffic controllers what had happened, but he was met with resistance and anger. We quickly moved on.

This time, he again pulled to the middle of the intersection. Think about it….the traffic is continuing to move around us and we are sitting smack dab in the middle of the congested traffic. He explains to the cop what happened and that this was the second occurrence. This gentleman, however, was calm and treated Michael with respect. He had Michael pull out of the intersection and park in a place where they could discuss the situation. He advised Michael that if this happened again, take down the vehicle’s license plate number and then report it immediately at the Police Station. Michael was pacified.

In the end, the traffic continues to be my biggest bone of contention in living in Ghana….and that includes intermittent water/electricity problems, smelly burning trash, mosquitos, and being far away from those I love.

The good news here is that the traffic was very light. The bad news?
Check out the enormous load this trotro has on top!
I'm not sure how many people were in the trotro, but there appears
to be bags of rice or some kind of food just packed into the vehicle.
In fact, there are what look to be trotro seats on TOP of the vehicle!
Maybe they had to remove them to make more room??? :)