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Drive left, look right: the political economy of urban transport in Ghana

Drive left, look right: the political economy of urban transport in Ghana International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development Vol. 1, Nos. 1–2, May–November 2009, 33–48 TJUE International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development Franklin Obeng-Odoom* Department of Political Economy, University of Sydney, Merewether Building, NSW 2006, Australia (Received 3 November 2009; final version received 15 December 2009) Car usage in Ghana is growing at an alarming rate. Logically, a growth in total number of cars must be because either (a) population is increasing or (b) car ownership per capita is rising or both. However, these do not sufficiently explain the increasing car population in Ghana. The article argues that the high demand for mobility in the country is an intrinsic part of the political economic track on which Ghana has been travelling since the mid-1980s. This demand is created by, and is in turn stimulated by, the accumulation of capital through economic liberalisation and imperial town planning laws that separate home from work. The result is manifest in human lives lost, environmental conditions worsened and property damaged. The article recommends alternative ways of improving urban transportation in Ghana. Keywords: Ghana; cities; transport; sustainability; political economy 1. Introduction and is no respector of persons, positions or events. Workers stay in their office till late to avoid the THE NUMBER one citizen of Ghana yesterday heavy traffic after work. They set off for work, suffered a worrying traffic jam and was held up which starts at around 9 am, slightly after mid- in a pool of cars for more than half an hour when night to avoid the traffic jam in the morning. he was on his way to the El-Wak Sports Stadium School children have to be woken up at dawn so in Accra to address Muslims during the Eidul-Fitr that their parents could take them to school while celebration. President Atta Mills stunned a highly depleted crowd when he appeared late in an all leaving for work. Traffic congestion is a real white Muslim attire after trekking through the problem in Ghana. However, there are other jammed traffic on foot, abandoning the presiden- problems too. tial fleet of four BMWs and one four-wheel drive Road accidents and environmental pollution on the street . . . When President Mills finally are two of them. Since 1991, over 21,000 people arrived, he apologized to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu; Council have died from road accidents and some 90,000 of Muslim Chiefs, former Vice President Aliu more have been injured (National Road Safety Mahama, Ministers of State, Members of the Commission 2009a). There is an urgent need for Diplomatic Corps and the sparse crowd, confirm- analysis of the causes of these problems, their ing he had been stuck in heavy traffic and had social cost and possible ways to remedy them. moved out of his car to walk to the venue. (Mahama 2009) That is not to suggest that there have not been any studies of the transport sector in Ghana. The above quotation eloquently shows that traffic con- Indeed, many have described the problems gestion in Ghana has reached pandemic proportions showing how serious they are (Turner et al. 1995; *Email: franklin.obeng-odoom@sydney.edu.au; odoomj6@yahoo.co.uk ISSN 1946-3138 print/ISSN 1946-3146 online © 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/19463130903561475 http://www.informaworld.com 34 F. Obeng-Odoom Kwakye et al. 1997; Owusu-Ansah and O’Connor (Obeng-Odoom, 2009a). Currently, the rate at 2006); some have pointed out the weaknesses in the which vehicles are imported into the country institutions responsible for urban transport (Fouracre (10.84) is about three times higher than the rate at et al. 1994; Abdul-Azeez et al. 2009); others have which the national population is growing (3.8). At highlighted the environmental impact of transport- a total vehicular population of 932,540 versus a related emissions (Kylander et al. 2003; Kayoke human population of about 23,000,000, the 2004; Faah 2008) and many more have alluded to the number of vehicles per capita is only 0.04, which benefits of an improved transport system (Hine 1993; suggests that the cars in the country are concen- Turner and Kwakye 1996; Agarwal et al. 1997). trated in few hands. The majority of the popula- Yet, most of these studies are carried out without tion simply cannot afford to own cars; yet the any coherent analysis of the power relations that number of cars in the country is increasing at an shroud the transport problem – the political economy alarming rate. It is useful to consider alternative of urban transportation. Here lies the mandate of this reasons for the growth in the population of cars in study. It integrates the existing studies on the trans- Ghana. port problem in Ghanaian cities within a political Economic liberalisation is one important reason. economic framework. Its originality lies in the rigor- According to the president of the Association of ous reinterpretation of the scattered findings on urban Ghana Industries, ‘Ghana’s economy [has been] transportation in Ghana. The article argues that the depressingly liberalised’ (see Daabu 2009). Figure 1 high demand for mobility in the country is an intrin- shows that, prior to 1983, before Ghana started sic part of the political economic track on which travelling along the neoliberal path, the incremen- Ghana has been travelling since the mid-1980s. That tal changes in the number of cars imported into the demand is created by, and is in turn stimulated by, country was sometimes even negative (e.g. –2184 the accumulation of capital through economic liber- in 1983). The picture was, however, different after alisation and imperial town planning laws that separ- the country was placed on the neoliberal path after ate home from work. The result is manifest in human 1983. Since the onset of free market ideology, on lives lost, environmental conditions worsened and average, over 35,000 cars are imported into the property damaged. Therefore, in terms of contribu- country every year. So neoliberalism is implicitly tion, the research in this article touches on the social, responsible for higher material living standards too, economic and environmental pillars of urban sus- at least for the wealthy. But, of course, merely tainable development. The rest of the article analyses importing cars would not cause traffic jams, unless the causes of the problems, provides a distributional investments and hence jobs are located in ways in analysis of their effects and suggests possible ways which all traffic in the city must move to the same of overcoming these problems. place. Here too, liberalisation is ‘guilty as charged’. Only cities soaked with relatively developed infrastructure like Accra attract private, often mul- 2. Transportation problems in Ghana – causes tinational, investment. According to the Ghana The increase in the number of vehicles in Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), investment gives cause for concern. The argument is popula- in the country continues to grow. Between April tion growth and increasing standards of living are and June 2009, there was an increase of 56.6% in to blame for the rise in the number of cars in cities the number of registered investment projects in the (see, e.g. Shen 1997). country compared to the same period in 2008. In None of these sufficiently describes the monetary terms, this quarter’s investment Ghanaian case. The majority of the people are still amounted to US$111.67 million, a 91.9 % rise over poor and over 80% of the population lives under US$58.19 million, which was the total value for $2 a day. The banks give car loans to only those investment projects in the country in 2008 (GIPC in the formal sectors – under 20% in Ghana 2009). These projects ranged from manufacturing International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 35 1,000,000 900,000 800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 Figure 1. Total number of cars in Ghana (1982–2007). Source: Adapted from National Road Safety Commission (2009b) and Yeboah (2000). to services, agriculture to construction and general alone received over 84% of all the investments trading to tourism. It is important to examine the (see GIPC 2009, p. 2). The failure to regulate the geographical location of these projects. location of capital is an important cause of traffic All the projects were located in the richest congestion. regions in Ghana. In the poorest regions in Ghana – Take, for example, the case of the Accra Mall Central, Northern, Upper East and Upper West along the Spintex Road around the Tetteh- regions – no investor sited a project. Even within Quarshie Roundabout (Figure 2). This Mall is the the regions where these projects were sited, Accra first modern retail and leisure shopping centre in Figure 2. Location map of the Accra Mall. Source: www.ViewGhana.com, 2009. Year 2007 36 F. Obeng-Odoom Ghana. It was constructed by the award-winning is the distribution of the roads among urban, Bentel Associates International of South Africa. feeder and trunk roads. Indeed, all these could be Almost overnight, after it started operation, that in urban areas. However it seems that there are area has become the epicentre of traffic conges- some differences though these are not clearly tion. There is now endless flow of cars onto defined. The Department of Urban Roads, for Spintex Road and Tetteh Quarshie roundabout example, defines its ‘functions’, on its official (Addae-Bosomprah 2009). website, as covering all metropolitan and muni- The consistent increase in supply of roads by cipal assemblies, which means that the rest of the the state has made a bad situation worse. This roads, feeder and trunk, may be in the rural or diagnosis of the problem may be puzzling to those peri-urban interface. Generally, trunk roads are in who feel that more technologically advanced the nature of highways while feeder roads, by def- roads like flyovers hold the key to the transport inition, feed into main roads. problem in Ghana. A recent editorial in The Table 1 shows that the share of urban and Chronicle (2009, emphasis added) observed that: feeder roads have been increasing at an average of 16.52 and 0.3%, respectively. Trunk roads, on the other hand, have been decreasing at an average of The capital city has become a nuisance for both motorists and passengers due to traffic jams. The 5.79% (i.e. –5.79%). From these figures, it is evi- situation is even worst around the . . . Tetteh dent that greater urban road usage is being encour- Quashie Interchange, the Kwame Nkrumah aged. What is not as evident, but not difficult to Circle, and many other parts of the city . . . [but] see nonetheless, is the encouragement of sprawl. with the proposed construction of the flyover cou- As smaller (or feeder) roads are constructed to join pled with the ongoing reconstruction of the motorway extension, Tetteh Quashie-Pantang the main roads, so are smaller settlements encour- Junction roads, Accra’s traffic problems could be aged to join already congested cities. Similarly, by curtailed. . . . . providing more and more feeder roads, the state is, bit by bit, promoting urban sprawl and its associ- Far from this being an outlier, it is a typical ated problems by encouraging the wealthy people response to the traffic congestion problem in Gha- in the city to relocate outside the ‘congested’ naian cities. Indeed as early as 1975, Tamakloe zones. The increase in mobility through capitalist et al. (1975) were making such proposals to development therefore has two consequences. It decongest cities in Ghana. As argued by Stilwell welds rural backwaters into the urban mainstream. (1992), in the Australian case, however, providing more roads only moves the congestion problem around. It is a case of deferring the problem for a different time and/or place. More fundamentally, Table 1. The share of various types of roads in the the construction of more roads may be one of a total road network in Ghana (2000–2007). few cases in which Say’s law, supply creates its Year Urban Feeder Trunk roads own demand, works (Stilwell 1992). With more 2000 5.89 64.30 29.80 roads, there has been the encouragement to private 2001 6.92 67.00 26.08 capital to bring in more cars through a liberalised 2002 8.24 66.10 25.66 market. Yet, ‘let the roads flow’ appears to be the 2003 9.97 64.85 25.18 adopted slogan of the Ghanaian state. 2004 8.56 68.79 22.66 Between 2000 and 2008, a period of only eight 2005 9.41 69.00 21.58 2006 15.44 64.33 20.23 years, the total length of surfaced roads in Ghana 1 2007 15.18 65.31 19.51 has increased by over 72%. As of December 2008, Ghana had a total of about 68,000 km road Source: Adapted from Ministry of Transportation (MOT) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) (2008). network (World Bank 2009). What is more striking International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 37 At the same time, this mobility tears apart a necessarily translate into higher salaries (Fol et al. homogenised urban core (Sawers 1978). 2007). A recent study in Ghana (Hine and Riverson A lot of money – from the Road Fund, the 2001, p. 1) confirms these views. The authors Consolidated Fund and Donor Funds – has been report that: invested in expanding the road network. Between 2002 and 2007 alone, over US$1 billion were sunk In a cross-sectional study of 33 villages in The into the expansion of roads. More significantly, Ashanti Region of Ghana, little evidence was the share of funds going into road development found to suggest that agriculture was adversely affected by inaccessibility, apart from some diffi- have been steadily increasing as a share of gross culty in obtaining loan finance in the more domestic product (GDP) (Figure 3). remote areas. The more accessible villages were The argument often made by politicians and observed to have a higher proportion of people which infects local chiefs and opinion leaders is employed outside agriculture. The improvement that roads that link the country to the city help of existing road surfaces was estimated to have a negligible impact on prices paid to the farmer. rural farmers and provide the required mobility for higher prices for farm produce and, hence, enhance poverty reduction. It is even claimed that What is needed, the authors argue, is only a these new roads may create employment for modest improvement of a footpath to a motorable people in rural areas (see, e.g. Gannon and Liu vehicle path. Even then, the increase in the benefit 1997; Faah 2008). This latter view may be an to farmers may not necessarily warrant the cost of exaggeration because other factors such as class, road construction (Hine and Riverson 2001). skills and qualifications are more important in Turner and Kwakye (1996) also find that, in seeking employment in Ghana. In any case, for the the absence of reliable public transport, the poor, poor, especially the unskilled poor, they tend to especially women and children, do petty trading look for work in their immediate neighbourhoods and door-to-door selling and do not travel outside to cut down on transportation cost, knowing well their communities to look for work. Similar find- that travelling greater distance for work does not ings about kayayoo or head-load carriers and how 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 Percentage of GDP Figure 3. Share of road investment in GDP (2002–2007). Source: Adapted from Ministry of Transportation (MOT) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) (2008) and Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) (2009). Note: The current official name of MOT is ‘Ministry of Roads and Highways’. However, on many of its official reports, it is referred to simply as ‘Ministry of Transportation’. Therefore, the two names are taken as synonyms here. Year 38 F. Obeng-Odoom they live and work in the CBDs in Ghana have by consistently under-investing in public trans- emerged (Agarwal et al. 1997). port, bit by bit the state has promoted a strong Roads may help to provide easy access to cit- desire among urbanites to use private cars either as ies for farmers to sell their produce, even for the owners or as passengers. It is important to analyse infirm to be quickly taken to hospitals, but so the social cost of increasing number of roads, cars would investment in improved urban water provi- and congestion in Ghana. Road accident and its sion improve the welfare of the poor. Thus, for the effects are fairly obvious here. However, pollution state to withdraw from the provision of water (see and transport-related emissions, which could cause Whitfield 2006) – perhaps a more important good – climate change, could also be considered. and lend considerable support for road construc- tion raises some questions about whether welfare is the only reason for state involvement in road 3. Social cost of transportation investment or there are other motives. 3.1. Pollution Unlike roads that are soaked with investment to increase their quantity, rail has only a total of 1300 Increasing vehicular population generally worsens km and the proportion of the few rail lines in opera- emissions although other factors like fuel charac- tion in 2000, 90.2%, reduced by more than half to teristics (e.g. contamination and deposits), opera- 43.7% in 2003. This figure remained the same for tion characteristics (e.g. altitude, temperature and two years (2003–2005) before improving to 44.7% humidity) and fleet characteristics (e.g. engine type in 2006 and 46% in 2007 – overall growing by an and fleet mix) are also important. However, in average of slightly above 1% per annum (Ministry of Ghana, an important determinant of emissions is Transportation and Ghana Statistical Service 2008). the age profile of vehicles because the age of vehi- Public buses fare no better than rail, although cles provides some indications of which properties official rhetoric is that eventually 80% of all passen- (e.g. engine type, the use of catalytic converters or gers in urban areas will be moved by mass trans- other emission control devices) the vehicles pos- portation including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) sess (Kylander et al. 2003; Kayoke 2004). systems. Ghana had a public bus system operated by Only about 8% of the cars imported into state institutions like the Omnibus Service Authority, Ghana are brand new cars. The remaining 92% City Express Service and State Transportation Cor- could be second-, third-, fourth- or even fifth- poration. All these made little contribution to urban hand cars (Linder 2006). Some of the vehicles are transport as they focussed on urban–rural and nation- so old that they have been nicknamed ‘Eurocar- wide journeys (Fouracre et al. 1994). Most of these cas’ (Yeboah 2000, p. 76). These cars, often services have now been privatised or have simply imported by individuals who have relatives or ceased operation (Finn 2008). In 2003, the Metro business partners abroad or shuttle between some Mass Transit Limited was established as a joint gov- developed countries and Ghana, are mostly put to ernment (45% share) and private sector (55% share) commercial use. In a recent study, the National investment. As of 2007, the fleet strength of the Road Safety Commission of Ghana found that ‘A metro mass transport was 779. However, just about significant proportion of the commercial vehicles 51% of these buses were operational, and the rest in the country are old. The age profile is mostly were undergoing repairs (Ministry of Transportation above five (5) years. Only 13 percent are below 5 and Ghana Statistical Service 2008). years, about 34 percent are up to ten (10) years In summary, the state has encouraged people with those up to (15) years and above constituting to own cars in three different ways. First, large over 50 percent’ (National Road Safety Commis- investments in roads have enticed people to drive. sion 2009e, Section 3.6). Second, through the liberalisation of the economy, The quality of the urban environment has been it has become relatively easy to import cars. Third, worsened by pollution – noise and environmental International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 39 – from cars. Vehicular emissions account for 70% and islands; and devastating changes in marine of total emissions in Ghana (World Bank 2009). ecosystems (UN-Habitat 2008, p. 130). These As of 2005, the total greenhouse emission from problems in turn have adverse effects on trans- road transport was 4.6 million tonnes carbon portation. Infrastructure may be disrupted because dioxide equivalent in Ghana as a whole and will of changes in weather patterns, and precipitation increase by 36% if nothing is done to stem the affects road safety by increasing congestion and tide (Faah 2008). In per capita terms, the quantity the frequency of accidents (Koetse and Rietveld of emissions in Ghana is low – an average of 0.3 2009). tonnes of CO per person. In spite of that, the per- Evidently, coastal cities like Accra, Cape sistent increase of emissions, for example, from Coast, Sekondi and Takoradi stand a greater risk 3.8 MtCO in 1990 to 7.2 MtCO in 2007 (UNDP of the rising sea levels than other cities like 2 2 2007) is worrying. Kumasi, Koforidua and Tamale, which are in Cities contribute most of these emissions the hinterland. It does not mean these latter cit- because of the concentration of cars there (see, e.g. ies will be completely insulated from rising sea Kylander et al. 2003). Arku et al. (2008) have levels. Indirect costs arising from network examined the levels and patterns of pollutants in effects exist. Some costs like delays and cancel- the ambient air in two low-income neighbour- lation of journeys to and from the hinterland hoods in Accra and found that particulate matter would be unavoidable. For cities like Cape (PM), a pollutant made up of components like Coast, which are both coastal and tourist cities, acids and metals, has increased with the number they are likely to have a double ‘tragedy’ of vehicles in the city. In the words of the authors, because the fear of flooding from rise in sea lev- ‘holding other factors constant, proximity to heavy els may discourage tourists from visiting tourist and congested traffic resulted in higher PM2.5 centres (Koetse and Rietveld 2009). This will concentration and submicron particle count; this have a severe toll on Cape Coast where tourism effect was statistically significant for PM2.5 and is the major driver of the urban economy (see submicron particle count for congested traffic, and Agyei-Mensah 2006). for submicron particle count for heavy traffic’ Noise pollution is yet another problem. In Gha- (Arku et al. 2008, p. 228). Another study (Kayoke naian cities, the clutter of the block-making 2004) that examined emission levels of vehicles in machine, banging of the blacksmith’s hammer, the Accra-Tema area in Ghana – focussing on car- rumbling in churches and deafening music played bon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic by the audio cassette sellers are worsened by the compounds, nitrogen oxides and PM between shriek of heavy duty vehicles, the roar of traffic and 1995 and 2003 – found a consistent rise in emis- the screeching of cars. According to the Ghana sions levels from 3 million tonnes in 1995 through Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), noise 7 million tonnes in 1999 to 17 million tonnes in complaints outnumbered all other complaints it 2003 (Kayoke 2004, p. 35). Both studies warn received in 2008. In the Accra Metropolitan Area, that, without changing track, Ghana is headed for EPA notes that about 40% of all complaints were disaster. on noise. EPA has also noted that such noise pollu- Atmospheric pollution through vehicle-related tion impairs productivity at work as it impedes emissions like carbon dioxide contributes to accuracy, increases the risk of accidents and greenhouse emissions, to global warming and to quickens one’s feeling of annoyance and irritation. adverse conditions of human life through an Outside work, EPA notes that the noise levels in increase in flood risk and reduced water supply; Ghana interrupts sleep, increases blood pressure, declining crop production, rising cases of vector- heart rate, pulse amplitude, hearing impairment borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever; and generally causes psychological problems displacement of people who live in coastal cities (GNA 2009). 40 F. Obeng-Odoom 3.2. Accidents 2006, the productive age group in ‘all fatalities’ has been consistent at over 74%. Closely related with increasing old cars in Ghana Table 4 shows that over 70% of all fatalities is the increasing number of accidents. since 2000 are men. The combination of this Table 2 shows that between 1991 and 2006, increase in accidents among people of working there were over 9600 road accidents on average age and the high incidence of fatalities among men every year and a total of 154,341 road accidents have adverse effect on the dependency ratio and for that period. These accidents commonly result economic growth in the formal sector of the in death, injury and damage to property. As shown economy. in Table 2, between 1991 and 2006, the number of From Tables 3 and 4, we could try to value the road accidents increased by about 40%. During the human lives lost. Exactly how this can be done is same period, the number of fatalities from road difficult because it is almost impossible to reach a accidents increased by about 96%. consensus on how much human life is worth in The following deductions can be made from monetary terms. A common practice is to value Tables 3 and 4. Table 3 shows that traffic acci- life using the Human Capital Approach, which dents claim more lives in the ‘economically pro- states the value of human life in terms of labour ductive’ population (in our case, 16–65 year earnings. A common criticism of the approach is group) than those in the ‘economically dependent’ that it assumes that human life is worthless after group (0–15 and over 65 years). From 2004 to Table 2. Road accidents in Ghana: injuries, fatalities and damage. Year All accidents Fatal accidents Injury accident Damage only 1991 8,370 724 4,866 3,504 1992 6,922 717 4,515 2,407 1993 6,467 704 4,119 2,348 1994 6,567 632 4,088 2,496 1995 8,313 813 4,897 3,416 1996 8,488 830 4,964 3,524 1997 9,918 864 5,634 4,284 1998 10,990 1,127 5,239 4,624 1999 8,762 979 5,302 3,460 2000 11,714 1,199 6,886 4,828 2001 11,291 1,257 6,829 4,462 2002 10,715 1,245 6,594 4,124 2003 10,644 1,345 6,919 3,725 2004 12,164 1,599 6,348 4,217 2005 11,328 1,391 5,645 4,292 2006 11,688 1,419 7,137 4,531 Source: National Road Safety Commission, 2009b. Table 3. Road traffic fatalities by age group (2004–2006). Year 0–5 6–15 16–25 26–35 36–45 46–55 56–65 over 65 All fatalities 2004 116 272 357 444 280 191 132 83 1875 2005 120 184 276 375 273 138 101 82 1549 2006 124 201 260 363 266 146 108 69 1537 Source: National Road Safety Commission, 2009c. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 41 fatalities per 100,000 population was 8.3%. That Table 4. Road traffic fatalities by gender (2000– 2007). figure has increased to about 8.9% in recent times (see report of the National Road Safety Commission Year Male Female Male share 2007). That means that the BRRI’s figure must be 2000 1091 441 71.21 adjusted upwards for the difference in the rate of 2001 1193 441 73.01 fatalities (8.92 – 8.33 = 0.59%). If that is done, (1 + 2002 1175 480 71.00 0.59) × 1.6, we arrive at a loss in GDP in the order 2003 1280 437 74.55 of 2.54% of current GDP or about $436 million. 2004 1568 587 72.76 2005 1292 463 73.62 Road accidents cost lives and property and 2006 1348 492 73.26 have adverse effect on the general economic 2007 1554 489 76.06 growth in the country. It is striking that the increasing number of road accidents is happening Source: Adapted from the National Road Safety Commission (2009d). at the same time as the increasing vehicular popu- lation in Ghana (Figure 1). A correlation analysis of vehicle registration and accident data from retirement. For our analysis here, we will not 1991 to 2006 shows a strong positive relationship resort to such unrealistic assumptions. between the two, with a coefficient of determina- We could estimate how much of GDP is lost to 2 tion (R ) value of 0.76 (Table 6). To test for pos- the country by capitalising the Gross National sible errors in the computation, a test of Income per capita ($600) using the real GDP growth significance was carried out. This returned a P- rate (6.3%) and assume, for the sake of this analysis, value of 0.00001. This means that the result is sta- that those who died through accidents would have tistically significant (i.e. P < 0.05). worked for a further 20 years before their death. This estimation shows that accidents in Ghana between 1991 and 2006 cost the country over US$ 34 million Table 6. Summary output of correlation in current terms or 0.2% of GDP. See Table 5. analysis. The figure excludes cost in terms of injury, Multiple R 0.870143825 property damage or other administrative costs. A 2006 research by the Building and Road Research R 0.757150277 Adjusted R 0.739803868 Institute (BRRI) of Ghana estimates that road acci- Standard Error 993.2648432 dents cost Ghana US$165 million – including prop- Observations 16 erty damage, human cost, administration cost, loss of P-value 1.18E–05 output, medical cost – or 1.6% of GDP at the time Source: Author’s calculations based on figures (see report of the National Road Safety Commission provided by National Road Safety Commission 2007). At the time of BRRI’s study, the road traffic detailed in Figure 1 and Table 2. Table 5. Estimation of human lives lost through accidents in Ghana (1991–2006) using a modified version of the Human Capital Approach. Labour participation Deaths GNI per Growth rate @ 100% by other Present Total no. Total human life capita rate @ 6.3% (LPR) means values (PV) of deaths (TN) TN × PV × LPR 600.00 2036 100% 0% 2036 16,845 $34,299,481 Source: Author’s calculation based on figures provided by National Road Safety Commission in Table 1 and GDP figures from CEPA, 2009. 42 F. Obeng-Odoom Some words of caution are needed here. The 4. Towards reform relationship between the two variables, although The way orthodox economists propose to solve the strong, is not perfect. More importantly, the corre- problem of transport-related emissions is well lation does not imply causation. The fact that the documented (see, e.g. Stilwell 2008; see also Eng- two variables, vehicular accidents and vehicular land and Bluestone 1971; Fol et al. 2007). There registration, covary does not necessarily mean one should be compulsory antipollution equipment on causes the other. However, it is intuitive to infer all cars and a congestion charge or tax for driving some amount of causal relation in the Ghanaian at particular places or times, urban toll roads case, especially when old vehicles are predomi- among others. Orthodox economists believe that nant in the country. There are other reasons to such measures provide a disincentive for purchas- believe that increasing importation of old vehicles ing cars and driving in already congested areas. and the behaviour of the private sector cause road Such measures have been recommended for accidents in Ghana. Shanghai (Shen 1997) and Ghana (see Ghana Ninety-five per cent of the private owners Academy of Arts and Sciences 1989) and are employ drivers without any test or scrutiny of their already being implemented in cities like London, driving licenses. Also, these entrepreneurs or ‘car Singapore, Stockholm, Oslo and Edinburgh owners’ – as they are called in Ghana – set unreal- (Albalate and Bell 2009). istic end-of-day sales for their employees (the These measures have adverse implications for drivers) (ABLIN Consult 2008), which forces the poor. A flat rate tax is inherently regressive drivers to work long hours and speed over the because it hits the poor the hardest. A congestion legal limit. According to the National Road Safety charge means greater segregation between the rich Commission, about 60% of the drivers travel at an and the poor because certain parts of the city can average speed of 100 km/h for mostly medium to only be visited by the rich, being the ones who can long-distance passenger operations to an average pay the charges. Worse still, a compulsory catalytic of 50 km/h and work for as long as 12 hours a day, device regime will force the poor to pay the same six days a week. Some (20%) could even work as price as the rich for the equipment. Yet, for the poor, long as 20 hours a day with little rest (National it will mean paying more as a share of their income. Road Safety Commission 2009e). Such pressure Such a flat rate becomes less burdensome the evidently leads to road accidents and fatalities. wealthier one gets. In the end, inequality and mar- The problems of pollution, congestion and ginality produce further marginality, inequality and accidents resulting from neoliberal policies are poverty (England and Bluestone 1971; Fol et al. problematic enough at the national level, but 2007). Some policymakers in the USA have such problems also have implications for the glo- advanced a variant of this latter view, noting that it is bal distribution of resources. Selling polluting socially inequitable to make the poor bear the cost of second-hand cars to Ghana is a way of clearing the pollution of the few rich. The solution, therefore, the skies of New York, Berlin and London while is not to let the polluter pay because the polluter can soaking the skies of Accra and Kumasi with toxic pay and the poor need to drive. So rather, the right to chemicals. The rich countries make maximum pollute should be evenly distributed among different profit from selling used cars to poor countries. social groups (Fol et al. 2007, p. 809). This is not only a sale of machines, it is a pact Such analysis, implicitly assuming that car sealed with human life, the lives of the poor in a dependency is natural, is not supported by empirical developing country. Yet, these car and oil com- evidence elsewhere. In Japanese cities, as with Kyoto, panies who reside in New York, Berlin and Lon- bicycles are commonly used as an alternative to cars. don do not miss any opportunity to talk about About the ‘role of nonmotorised transportation and sustainable development. There is the need for public transport in Japan’s economic success’, Hook these dynamics to come to a halt. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 43 (1994) finds that the key role played by public pol- Coasters and ordinary labourers (Tsey and Short icies discouraged automobile use, encouraged bicy- 1995). These are historical observations, and the cle use and channelled other investment into rail. colonial state was different from the postcolonial The willingness to embrace alternatives to cars state. The former had much more resources and depends upon the urban form, social attitudes and technical expertise at its disposal than the latter. public investment in alternative transport technolo- Also, the colonial state was politically insensitive to gies and modes. Neither the thinking that car the people because it was not democratically dependence is natural nor the view that the environ- elected and could decide by state fiat how to use the ment must be sold to save it (Stilwell 2008) makes resources at its disposal. The postcolonial state, sufficient sense. We need alternative measures to especially from 1992 to date, is rather different. It is curb the problems of transportation in Ghana. democratically elected and, in relative terms, sensi- Consideration could be given to banning the tive to the needs of the country. Nonetheless, capital importation of cars. Placing high taxes has not dis- behaves the same way yesterday and today. suaded private individuals from importing these To make the system serve broader social inter- cars, because, on balance, they make huge profit ests, it is crucial that workers manage or control from these less than ideal cars. There is some evid- the management of these rail systems. Recent ence that a ban would drastically reduce the number research by Archon Fung and Erik Wright (2001) of decrepit cars in the country. According to Kayoke shows that ordinary people are able to manage (2004), when the government banned second-hand public schools in Chicago, job centres in Wiscon- car importation in Ghana between 1998 and 2002 sin and public budgets in Porto Alegre. The award (Kayoke 2004), there was a sharp reduction from of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics to Elinor 15.35% in 1998 to 5% in 2003. Since the govern- Ostrom for her work in economic governance – ment lifted the ban, the rate of registration has shot which highlights how ordinary people can up to 10.84 (Table 1). Merely banning car importa- successfully manage common property (see The tion without providing alternatives is not useful. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2009) – Alternatives, in the form of greater public should persuade cynics that workers can success- transport – buses and trains, nonmotorised forms fully manage assets. Whether they can manage the of transport and land-use change – deserve atten- railway system in Ghana needs more detailed con- tion as part of the alternative plan. This three-point sideration in the specific context, of course, but agenda should be part of a bigger plan of changing these conceptual and empirical contributions from track, of changing an economic system that priori- international research suggest that it is at least an tises profit over human need. open question. Rail transport is worth considering. It is Buses also have potential for reducing conges- expensive in terms of physical infrastructure and tion, emissions and accidents. About 70% of trips in the cost of land. Nonetheless, the long-term bene- Ghana depend on buses that use 15% of roads. Com- fits – less congestion, faster travel times, less pare that with 70% of road usage by the less than emissions and a drastic reduction in deaths by road 30% of the population that uses private cars and taxis accidents – outweigh the cost. It can be done – (Global Environmental Facility 2006). Generally, the indeed it was the dominant form of transport in the bigger the buses, the better, as Table 7 shows. Gold Coast, where the rail service was used to help These gains on their own may still not be the British to transport cocoa from rural to urban encouraging enough for people to use them. Buses centres. It was a source of inequality as British must be comfortable. A recent study by Abane workers were provided with better conditions of (1993) shows that in Ghana comfort and reliabil- service, culminating in differential work and ity, even more than access, determine which trans- health conditions between the British workers and port mode people use. Here, a BRT, which uses the ‘Gold Coasters’ and among the elite Gold exclusive right-of-way lanes, rapid boarding and 44 F. Obeng-Odoom Table 7. Size of bus vis-à-vis energy use. Energy use/litre/100 Capacity Energy passengers Type of vehicle (passengers) use/100 km place km Small buses 14 15 1.07 Larger trotros 22 19 0.86 Large bus 100 40 0.4 Source: Global Environmental Facility (GEF), 2006, p. 9. Note: Cheapest buses for intra-city travel (see Obeng-Odoom 2009b for how they operate). alighting, streamlined fare collection and unam- As with bicycles, walking can be encouraged. biguous route maps, would be particularly useful Walking has therapeutic effect on the entire (see GEF 2006). Comfort to people will also mean human body and if done in a conducive atmos- cleaner environment. GEF (2006) estimates that phere – in this case streets designed for it – it there could be a 20% further reduction in fuel use could be healing, would make people save money if buses operate in less congested lanes. It is esti- and help the environment to save itself. Evidence mated that a BRT would cost some US$2–5 mil- has already started emerging (see Abane 1993) lion per km in Ghana (GEF 2006). This is that people in Ghanaian cities will walk – as they extremely low compared to the cost of a Do Noth- always have! – if given the conducive environ- ing Approach (see, e.g. Table 5 for the cost of ment. Concerns about pedestrian safety are genu- human life). ine. Yet, as we have seen, many of these deaths Nonmotorised forms of transport could also be result from old cars and overworked drivers who promoted. Bicycles are particularly useful as they are squeezed by their car owners. Banning these are ecologically friendly, cheap to use and use less second-hand cars and placing fewer cars on the space. Recently, a team from the Earth Institute has roads would evidently reduce road accidents. begun research into using bamboo to produce It is also important to change the land-use pat- Ghana-made bicycles. The pilot project in Kumasi terns to better integrate housing and work. This has already been well received by the residents. harmonisation, however, is unlikely to happen if Using local materials to build the bicycles will private capital is allowed to dictate where it wants make the cost lower, enhance local expertise and to locate. In the housing sector that has been liber- create jobs (Sauvant et al. 2008). A word of caution alised, rows and rows of estates have been is, however, needed. Bamboo is abundant in Ghana developed in areas without basic facilities like and it is a renewable resource. However using bam- police stations (Obeng-Odoom 2009b), contribut- boos for bicycles also has implications for fauna ing to a rise in crime and thus creating fertile and flora. There is the need for aggressive bamboo grounds for the rise of private security companies planting at the community, city and national level if in many big cities like Accra and Kumasi. If the this project is to be undertaken on a large scale. central and urban governments are committed to Whatever it is, bicycle use in Ghana must be change, the continuous accumulation of capital in encouraged by prioritising bicycle lanes in the city, only a few cities – and a few areas in those cities – providing parking space for them and reducing should be rechannelled into alternative spatial taxes on their import. These would encourage forms with more propitious environmental and people to bike to terminals, leave their bicycles social effects. Two ancillary policies would further parked and board trains/buses to continue their jour- strengthen the potency of this recommendation. neys in a ‘park and ride’ system (Kayoke 2004). Work hours should be negotiated and regulated in International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 45 the process of granting planning permission and 5. Conclusion providing business licenses (see also Shen 1997). Logically, a growth in total number of cars must be Flexible work hours could help to break the cur- because either (a) population is increasing or (b) car rent ‘rush or peak hour syndrome’. It should also ownership per capita is rising or both. However, be compulsory for all companies to have huge these are not sufficient explanations for the increas- company buses that could be used by the workers ing car population in Ghana. The rapid rate of car to and from work. growth is a function of government liberalisation There is formidable evidence to suggest that policies and road construction. The former has these measures will improve the quality of the made the importation of cars relatively easy, environment, increase economic growth, reduce whereas the latter has enticed people to buy cars. car accidents and reduce the levels of inequality Both have been fuelled by a poor public transporta- in the country. Empirical studies by Kayoke tion system. Both have caused traffic congestion, (2004) shows that greater use of metro buses which has been worsened by neoliberal planning would reduce emissions by about 50% and a fur- that permits new investment to be sited according to ther 50%, if nonmotorised forms of transport are market and neomarket policies. used. In economic terms, such reductions could Only the rich can afford cars in Ghana. They add about US$20 million to the GDP (Faah buy brand new cars for themselves and import 2008). To put the figure in perspective, it is about second-, third-, fourth- or even fifth-hand cars for 22% of the total FDI component of the invest- commercial use. Drivers of these commercial ment projects registered in Ghana by GIPC vehicles are overworked and overstretched – they between 1 April and 30 June, 2009. Also, acci- have to make unrealistic returns for their greedy dent prediction models built by scholars at the taskmasters. The results are catastrophic, BRRI in Kumasi show that with decreases in adversely affecting the environment, callously flow, improvement in the quality of roads and the claiming human life, unjustly tearing society apart provision of street lights, road accidents would and ultimately slowing down the wheels of eco- reduce (see, e.g. Salifu 2004). nomic growth, redistribution and poverty reduc- These proposals are a part of a bigger agenda tion. There is cacophonous noise that causes to change or substantially modify the underlying several health-related problems; lead, carbon diox- economic system of production that is currently ide and PM emissions soak the urban environment typified by liberalisation and privatised produc- and greenhouse gas emissions dangerously hang tion. The production and consumption of virtually in the urban environment as a result of neoliberal all goods and services by private individuals and transport policies. Year by year, several people legal persons entail decreasing the welfare of all lose their lives through car accidents. Year by others in society. Therefore, maintaining private year, massive amounts of property are lost. Year control of resources is ‘inefficient’ in an economic by year, many people are injured and year by year, sense and inequitable in a social sense. Because all the country misses gains it could have made are affected by every single person’s production towards economic growth and development. and consumption decisions, it is only sensible that These severe costs are unevenly distributed. Invar- all must be able to take part in deciding what is iably, they hit the poor the hardest. There is the produced, how much is produced, for whom it is need to change track. produced and how it is distributed (see England Here, pollution taxes would be as ineffective and Bluestone 1971, p. 52). Local governance is as taxes on importing second-hand cars. Such pol- important here. What has to be determined is the icies are inherently unequal. They create segrega- capacity of the local state to implement such tion and social discord. They literally result in a policies. situation where the rich and mighty can buy their 46 F. Obeng-Odoom way to places where the poor do not have the Matter’, http://www.epa.gov/oar/particlepollution/ (accessed 15 September 2009). resources to go. They force the poor to pay more 4. The definition for ‘fatalities’ used by the National of their income to access basic goods. Urban road Road Safety Commission is ‘number of deaths tolls have similar impacts. All such policies would resulting from road traffic crashes, with the deaths result in selling the environment. being those occurring within 30 days after the More progressive policies are broad ranging crash’. 5. With the advent of ‘greening’ cars, in future, a pol- and could cover the issues of harmonising job and icy of banning all second-hand cars could be residential location and making greater use of pub- replaced with a policy of importing only ‘green’ lic transport and nonmotorised forms of transport second-hand cars. Unfortunately, even this latter like biking and walking. Evidently, such policies policy would not curb the problem of rapid growth mean the banning (not taxation) of all used cars in the rate of car importation. and the immediate rethinking of the idea that more roads create less congestion. Notes on contributor Some would even suggest that these policies Franklin Obeng-Odoom is a Teaching Fellow and should be part of a bigger agenda of gradually Ph.D candidate at the Department of Political Economy, replacing the economic system that privatises profit the University of Sydney. His research interest is in eco- above human need with a more humane economic nomic development, focussing on the political economy system. Although this view could be taken for the of urbanisation and debates in economic development. His research has appeared in journals such as Regional current situation where there are both positive and Studies, Cities, Housing Studies, Development and Hab- negative externalities, there are costs (e.g. time) in itat International. He is on the editorial boards of Jour- this alternative too, as in resolving resource alloca- nal of Sustainable Development and African Review of tion questions through public discussion and polit- Economics and Finance. He co-ordinates discussions on ical processes rather than through the individualised the online academic forum, Urban Dev (http:// urbandev.ning.com/). processes of the market. Also, the capacity of the state to play the role of production and distribution becomes crucial. Evidently, there are no easy References answers. There is, however, the need to balance, in Abane, A., 1993. Mode choice for the journey to Gramsci’s words, the ‘pessimism of the intellect’ work among formal sector employees in Accra, with the ‘optimism of the will. 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Drive left, look right: the political economy of urban transport in Ghana

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International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development Vol. 1, Nos. 1–2, May–November 2009, 33–48 TJUE International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development Franklin Obeng-Odoom* Department of Political Economy, University of Sydney, Merewether Building, NSW 2006, Australia (Received 3 November 2009; final version received 15 December 2009) Car usage in Ghana is growing at an alarming rate. Logically, a growth in total number of cars must be because either (a) population is increasing or (b) car ownership per capita is rising or both. However, these do not sufficiently explain the increasing car population in Ghana. The article argues that the high demand for mobility in the country is an intrinsic part of the political economic track on which Ghana has been travelling since the mid-1980s. This demand is created by, and is in turn stimulated by, the accumulation of capital through economic liberalisation and imperial town planning laws that separate home from work. The result is manifest in human lives lost, environmental conditions worsened and property damaged. The article recommends alternative ways of improving urban transportation in Ghana. Keywords: Ghana; cities; transport; sustainability; political economy 1. Introduction and is no respector of persons, positions or events. Workers stay in their office till late to avoid the THE NUMBER one citizen of Ghana yesterday heavy traffic after work. They set off for work, suffered a worrying traffic jam and was held up which starts at around 9 am, slightly after mid- in a pool of cars for more than half an hour when night to avoid the traffic jam in the morning. he was on his way to the El-Wak Sports Stadium School children have to be woken up at dawn so in Accra to address Muslims during the Eidul-Fitr that their parents could take them to school while celebration. President Atta Mills stunned a highly depleted crowd when he appeared late in an all leaving for work. Traffic congestion is a real white Muslim attire after trekking through the problem in Ghana. However, there are other jammed traffic on foot, abandoning the presiden- problems too. tial fleet of four BMWs and one four-wheel drive Road accidents and environmental pollution on the street . . . When President Mills finally are two of them. Since 1991, over 21,000 people arrived, he apologized to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu; Council have died from road accidents and some 90,000 of Muslim Chiefs, former Vice President Aliu more have been injured (National Road Safety Mahama, Ministers of State, Members of the Commission 2009a). There is an urgent need for Diplomatic Corps and the sparse crowd, confirm- analysis of the causes of these problems, their ing he had been stuck in heavy traffic and had social cost and possible ways to remedy them. moved out of his car to walk to the venue. (Mahama 2009) That is not to suggest that there have not been any studies of the transport sector in Ghana. The above quotation eloquently shows that traffic con- Indeed, many have described the problems gestion in Ghana has reached pandemic proportions showing how serious they are (Turner et al. 1995; *Email: franklin.obeng-odoom@sydney.edu.au; odoomj6@yahoo.co.uk ISSN 1946-3138 print/ISSN 1946-3146 online © 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/19463130903561475 http://www.informaworld.com 34 F. Obeng-Odoom Kwakye et al. 1997; Owusu-Ansah and O’Connor (Obeng-Odoom, 2009a). Currently, the rate at 2006); some have pointed out the weaknesses in the which vehicles are imported into the country institutions responsible for urban transport (Fouracre (10.84) is about three times higher than the rate at et al. 1994; Abdul-Azeez et al. 2009); others have which the national population is growing (3.8). At highlighted the environmental impact of transport- a total vehicular population of 932,540 versus a related emissions (Kylander et al. 2003; Kayoke human population of about 23,000,000, the 2004; Faah 2008) and many more have alluded to the number of vehicles per capita is only 0.04, which benefits of an improved transport system (Hine 1993; suggests that the cars in the country are concen- Turner and Kwakye 1996; Agarwal et al. 1997). trated in few hands. The majority of the popula- Yet, most of these studies are carried out without tion simply cannot afford to own cars; yet the any coherent analysis of the power relations that number of cars in the country is increasing at an shroud the transport problem – the political economy alarming rate. It is useful to consider alternative of urban transportation. Here lies the mandate of this reasons for the growth in the population of cars in study. It integrates the existing studies on the trans- Ghana. port problem in Ghanaian cities within a political Economic liberalisation is one important reason. economic framework. Its originality lies in the rigor- According to the president of the Association of ous reinterpretation of the scattered findings on urban Ghana Industries, ‘Ghana’s economy [has been] transportation in Ghana. The article argues that the depressingly liberalised’ (see Daabu 2009). Figure 1 high demand for mobility in the country is an intrin- shows that, prior to 1983, before Ghana started sic part of the political economic track on which travelling along the neoliberal path, the incremen- Ghana has been travelling since the mid-1980s. That tal changes in the number of cars imported into the demand is created by, and is in turn stimulated by, country was sometimes even negative (e.g. –2184 the accumulation of capital through economic liber- in 1983). The picture was, however, different after alisation and imperial town planning laws that separ- the country was placed on the neoliberal path after ate home from work. The result is manifest in human 1983. Since the onset of free market ideology, on lives lost, environmental conditions worsened and average, over 35,000 cars are imported into the property damaged. Therefore, in terms of contribu- country every year. So neoliberalism is implicitly tion, the research in this article touches on the social, responsible for higher material living standards too, economic and environmental pillars of urban sus- at least for the wealthy. But, of course, merely tainable development. The rest of the article analyses importing cars would not cause traffic jams, unless the causes of the problems, provides a distributional investments and hence jobs are located in ways in analysis of their effects and suggests possible ways which all traffic in the city must move to the same of overcoming these problems. place. Here too, liberalisation is ‘guilty as charged’. Only cities soaked with relatively developed infrastructure like Accra attract private, often mul- 2. Transportation problems in Ghana – causes tinational, investment. According to the Ghana The increase in the number of vehicles in Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), investment gives cause for concern. The argument is popula- in the country continues to grow. Between April tion growth and increasing standards of living are and June 2009, there was an increase of 56.6% in to blame for the rise in the number of cars in cities the number of registered investment projects in the (see, e.g. Shen 1997). country compared to the same period in 2008. In None of these sufficiently describes the monetary terms, this quarter’s investment Ghanaian case. The majority of the people are still amounted to US$111.67 million, a 91.9 % rise over poor and over 80% of the population lives under US$58.19 million, which was the total value for $2 a day. The banks give car loans to only those investment projects in the country in 2008 (GIPC in the formal sectors – under 20% in Ghana 2009). These projects ranged from manufacturing International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 35 1,000,000 900,000 800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 Figure 1. Total number of cars in Ghana (1982–2007). Source: Adapted from National Road Safety Commission (2009b) and Yeboah (2000). to services, agriculture to construction and general alone received over 84% of all the investments trading to tourism. It is important to examine the (see GIPC 2009, p. 2). The failure to regulate the geographical location of these projects. location of capital is an important cause of traffic All the projects were located in the richest congestion. regions in Ghana. In the poorest regions in Ghana – Take, for example, the case of the Accra Mall Central, Northern, Upper East and Upper West along the Spintex Road around the Tetteh- regions – no investor sited a project. Even within Quarshie Roundabout (Figure 2). This Mall is the the regions where these projects were sited, Accra first modern retail and leisure shopping centre in Figure 2. Location map of the Accra Mall. Source: www.ViewGhana.com, 2009. Year 2007 36 F. Obeng-Odoom Ghana. It was constructed by the award-winning is the distribution of the roads among urban, Bentel Associates International of South Africa. feeder and trunk roads. Indeed, all these could be Almost overnight, after it started operation, that in urban areas. However it seems that there are area has become the epicentre of traffic conges- some differences though these are not clearly tion. There is now endless flow of cars onto defined. The Department of Urban Roads, for Spintex Road and Tetteh Quarshie roundabout example, defines its ‘functions’, on its official (Addae-Bosomprah 2009). website, as covering all metropolitan and muni- The consistent increase in supply of roads by cipal assemblies, which means that the rest of the the state has made a bad situation worse. This roads, feeder and trunk, may be in the rural or diagnosis of the problem may be puzzling to those peri-urban interface. Generally, trunk roads are in who feel that more technologically advanced the nature of highways while feeder roads, by def- roads like flyovers hold the key to the transport inition, feed into main roads. problem in Ghana. A recent editorial in The Table 1 shows that the share of urban and Chronicle (2009, emphasis added) observed that: feeder roads have been increasing at an average of 16.52 and 0.3%, respectively. Trunk roads, on the other hand, have been decreasing at an average of The capital city has become a nuisance for both motorists and passengers due to traffic jams. The 5.79% (i.e. –5.79%). From these figures, it is evi- situation is even worst around the . . . Tetteh dent that greater urban road usage is being encour- Quashie Interchange, the Kwame Nkrumah aged. What is not as evident, but not difficult to Circle, and many other parts of the city . . . [but] see nonetheless, is the encouragement of sprawl. with the proposed construction of the flyover cou- As smaller (or feeder) roads are constructed to join pled with the ongoing reconstruction of the motorway extension, Tetteh Quashie-Pantang the main roads, so are smaller settlements encour- Junction roads, Accra’s traffic problems could be aged to join already congested cities. Similarly, by curtailed. . . . . providing more and more feeder roads, the state is, bit by bit, promoting urban sprawl and its associ- Far from this being an outlier, it is a typical ated problems by encouraging the wealthy people response to the traffic congestion problem in Gha- in the city to relocate outside the ‘congested’ naian cities. Indeed as early as 1975, Tamakloe zones. The increase in mobility through capitalist et al. (1975) were making such proposals to development therefore has two consequences. It decongest cities in Ghana. As argued by Stilwell welds rural backwaters into the urban mainstream. (1992), in the Australian case, however, providing more roads only moves the congestion problem around. It is a case of deferring the problem for a different time and/or place. More fundamentally, Table 1. The share of various types of roads in the the construction of more roads may be one of a total road network in Ghana (2000–2007). few cases in which Say’s law, supply creates its Year Urban Feeder Trunk roads own demand, works (Stilwell 1992). With more 2000 5.89 64.30 29.80 roads, there has been the encouragement to private 2001 6.92 67.00 26.08 capital to bring in more cars through a liberalised 2002 8.24 66.10 25.66 market. Yet, ‘let the roads flow’ appears to be the 2003 9.97 64.85 25.18 adopted slogan of the Ghanaian state. 2004 8.56 68.79 22.66 Between 2000 and 2008, a period of only eight 2005 9.41 69.00 21.58 2006 15.44 64.33 20.23 years, the total length of surfaced roads in Ghana 1 2007 15.18 65.31 19.51 has increased by over 72%. As of December 2008, Ghana had a total of about 68,000 km road Source: Adapted from Ministry of Transportation (MOT) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) (2008). network (World Bank 2009). What is more striking International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 37 At the same time, this mobility tears apart a necessarily translate into higher salaries (Fol et al. homogenised urban core (Sawers 1978). 2007). A recent study in Ghana (Hine and Riverson A lot of money – from the Road Fund, the 2001, p. 1) confirms these views. The authors Consolidated Fund and Donor Funds – has been report that: invested in expanding the road network. Between 2002 and 2007 alone, over US$1 billion were sunk In a cross-sectional study of 33 villages in The into the expansion of roads. More significantly, Ashanti Region of Ghana, little evidence was the share of funds going into road development found to suggest that agriculture was adversely affected by inaccessibility, apart from some diffi- have been steadily increasing as a share of gross culty in obtaining loan finance in the more domestic product (GDP) (Figure 3). remote areas. The more accessible villages were The argument often made by politicians and observed to have a higher proportion of people which infects local chiefs and opinion leaders is employed outside agriculture. The improvement that roads that link the country to the city help of existing road surfaces was estimated to have a negligible impact on prices paid to the farmer. rural farmers and provide the required mobility for higher prices for farm produce and, hence, enhance poverty reduction. It is even claimed that What is needed, the authors argue, is only a these new roads may create employment for modest improvement of a footpath to a motorable people in rural areas (see, e.g. Gannon and Liu vehicle path. Even then, the increase in the benefit 1997; Faah 2008). This latter view may be an to farmers may not necessarily warrant the cost of exaggeration because other factors such as class, road construction (Hine and Riverson 2001). skills and qualifications are more important in Turner and Kwakye (1996) also find that, in seeking employment in Ghana. In any case, for the the absence of reliable public transport, the poor, poor, especially the unskilled poor, they tend to especially women and children, do petty trading look for work in their immediate neighbourhoods and door-to-door selling and do not travel outside to cut down on transportation cost, knowing well their communities to look for work. Similar find- that travelling greater distance for work does not ings about kayayoo or head-load carriers and how 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 Percentage of GDP Figure 3. Share of road investment in GDP (2002–2007). Source: Adapted from Ministry of Transportation (MOT) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) (2008) and Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) (2009). Note: The current official name of MOT is ‘Ministry of Roads and Highways’. However, on many of its official reports, it is referred to simply as ‘Ministry of Transportation’. Therefore, the two names are taken as synonyms here. Year 38 F. Obeng-Odoom they live and work in the CBDs in Ghana have by consistently under-investing in public trans- emerged (Agarwal et al. 1997). port, bit by bit the state has promoted a strong Roads may help to provide easy access to cit- desire among urbanites to use private cars either as ies for farmers to sell their produce, even for the owners or as passengers. It is important to analyse infirm to be quickly taken to hospitals, but so the social cost of increasing number of roads, cars would investment in improved urban water provi- and congestion in Ghana. Road accident and its sion improve the welfare of the poor. Thus, for the effects are fairly obvious here. However, pollution state to withdraw from the provision of water (see and transport-related emissions, which could cause Whitfield 2006) – perhaps a more important good – climate change, could also be considered. and lend considerable support for road construc- tion raises some questions about whether welfare is the only reason for state involvement in road 3. Social cost of transportation investment or there are other motives. 3.1. Pollution Unlike roads that are soaked with investment to increase their quantity, rail has only a total of 1300 Increasing vehicular population generally worsens km and the proportion of the few rail lines in opera- emissions although other factors like fuel charac- tion in 2000, 90.2%, reduced by more than half to teristics (e.g. contamination and deposits), opera- 43.7% in 2003. This figure remained the same for tion characteristics (e.g. altitude, temperature and two years (2003–2005) before improving to 44.7% humidity) and fleet characteristics (e.g. engine type in 2006 and 46% in 2007 – overall growing by an and fleet mix) are also important. However, in average of slightly above 1% per annum (Ministry of Ghana, an important determinant of emissions is Transportation and Ghana Statistical Service 2008). the age profile of vehicles because the age of vehi- Public buses fare no better than rail, although cles provides some indications of which properties official rhetoric is that eventually 80% of all passen- (e.g. engine type, the use of catalytic converters or gers in urban areas will be moved by mass trans- other emission control devices) the vehicles pos- portation including Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) sess (Kylander et al. 2003; Kayoke 2004). systems. Ghana had a public bus system operated by Only about 8% of the cars imported into state institutions like the Omnibus Service Authority, Ghana are brand new cars. The remaining 92% City Express Service and State Transportation Cor- could be second-, third-, fourth- or even fifth- poration. All these made little contribution to urban hand cars (Linder 2006). Some of the vehicles are transport as they focussed on urban–rural and nation- so old that they have been nicknamed ‘Eurocar- wide journeys (Fouracre et al. 1994). Most of these cas’ (Yeboah 2000, p. 76). These cars, often services have now been privatised or have simply imported by individuals who have relatives or ceased operation (Finn 2008). In 2003, the Metro business partners abroad or shuttle between some Mass Transit Limited was established as a joint gov- developed countries and Ghana, are mostly put to ernment (45% share) and private sector (55% share) commercial use. In a recent study, the National investment. As of 2007, the fleet strength of the Road Safety Commission of Ghana found that ‘A metro mass transport was 779. However, just about significant proportion of the commercial vehicles 51% of these buses were operational, and the rest in the country are old. The age profile is mostly were undergoing repairs (Ministry of Transportation above five (5) years. Only 13 percent are below 5 and Ghana Statistical Service 2008). years, about 34 percent are up to ten (10) years In summary, the state has encouraged people with those up to (15) years and above constituting to own cars in three different ways. First, large over 50 percent’ (National Road Safety Commis- investments in roads have enticed people to drive. sion 2009e, Section 3.6). Second, through the liberalisation of the economy, The quality of the urban environment has been it has become relatively easy to import cars. Third, worsened by pollution – noise and environmental International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 39 – from cars. Vehicular emissions account for 70% and islands; and devastating changes in marine of total emissions in Ghana (World Bank 2009). ecosystems (UN-Habitat 2008, p. 130). These As of 2005, the total greenhouse emission from problems in turn have adverse effects on trans- road transport was 4.6 million tonnes carbon portation. Infrastructure may be disrupted because dioxide equivalent in Ghana as a whole and will of changes in weather patterns, and precipitation increase by 36% if nothing is done to stem the affects road safety by increasing congestion and tide (Faah 2008). In per capita terms, the quantity the frequency of accidents (Koetse and Rietveld of emissions in Ghana is low – an average of 0.3 2009). tonnes of CO per person. In spite of that, the per- Evidently, coastal cities like Accra, Cape sistent increase of emissions, for example, from Coast, Sekondi and Takoradi stand a greater risk 3.8 MtCO in 1990 to 7.2 MtCO in 2007 (UNDP of the rising sea levels than other cities like 2 2 2007) is worrying. Kumasi, Koforidua and Tamale, which are in Cities contribute most of these emissions the hinterland. It does not mean these latter cit- because of the concentration of cars there (see, e.g. ies will be completely insulated from rising sea Kylander et al. 2003). Arku et al. (2008) have levels. Indirect costs arising from network examined the levels and patterns of pollutants in effects exist. Some costs like delays and cancel- the ambient air in two low-income neighbour- lation of journeys to and from the hinterland hoods in Accra and found that particulate matter would be unavoidable. For cities like Cape (PM), a pollutant made up of components like Coast, which are both coastal and tourist cities, acids and metals, has increased with the number they are likely to have a double ‘tragedy’ of vehicles in the city. In the words of the authors, because the fear of flooding from rise in sea lev- ‘holding other factors constant, proximity to heavy els may discourage tourists from visiting tourist and congested traffic resulted in higher PM2.5 centres (Koetse and Rietveld 2009). This will concentration and submicron particle count; this have a severe toll on Cape Coast where tourism effect was statistically significant for PM2.5 and is the major driver of the urban economy (see submicron particle count for congested traffic, and Agyei-Mensah 2006). for submicron particle count for heavy traffic’ Noise pollution is yet another problem. In Gha- (Arku et al. 2008, p. 228). Another study (Kayoke naian cities, the clutter of the block-making 2004) that examined emission levels of vehicles in machine, banging of the blacksmith’s hammer, the Accra-Tema area in Ghana – focussing on car- rumbling in churches and deafening music played bon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic by the audio cassette sellers are worsened by the compounds, nitrogen oxides and PM between shriek of heavy duty vehicles, the roar of traffic and 1995 and 2003 – found a consistent rise in emis- the screeching of cars. According to the Ghana sions levels from 3 million tonnes in 1995 through Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), noise 7 million tonnes in 1999 to 17 million tonnes in complaints outnumbered all other complaints it 2003 (Kayoke 2004, p. 35). Both studies warn received in 2008. In the Accra Metropolitan Area, that, without changing track, Ghana is headed for EPA notes that about 40% of all complaints were disaster. on noise. EPA has also noted that such noise pollu- Atmospheric pollution through vehicle-related tion impairs productivity at work as it impedes emissions like carbon dioxide contributes to accuracy, increases the risk of accidents and greenhouse emissions, to global warming and to quickens one’s feeling of annoyance and irritation. adverse conditions of human life through an Outside work, EPA notes that the noise levels in increase in flood risk and reduced water supply; Ghana interrupts sleep, increases blood pressure, declining crop production, rising cases of vector- heart rate, pulse amplitude, hearing impairment borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever; and generally causes psychological problems displacement of people who live in coastal cities (GNA 2009). 40 F. Obeng-Odoom 3.2. Accidents 2006, the productive age group in ‘all fatalities’ has been consistent at over 74%. Closely related with increasing old cars in Ghana Table 4 shows that over 70% of all fatalities is the increasing number of accidents. since 2000 are men. The combination of this Table 2 shows that between 1991 and 2006, increase in accidents among people of working there were over 9600 road accidents on average age and the high incidence of fatalities among men every year and a total of 154,341 road accidents have adverse effect on the dependency ratio and for that period. These accidents commonly result economic growth in the formal sector of the in death, injury and damage to property. As shown economy. in Table 2, between 1991 and 2006, the number of From Tables 3 and 4, we could try to value the road accidents increased by about 40%. During the human lives lost. Exactly how this can be done is same period, the number of fatalities from road difficult because it is almost impossible to reach a accidents increased by about 96%. consensus on how much human life is worth in The following deductions can be made from monetary terms. A common practice is to value Tables 3 and 4. Table 3 shows that traffic acci- life using the Human Capital Approach, which dents claim more lives in the ‘economically pro- states the value of human life in terms of labour ductive’ population (in our case, 16–65 year earnings. A common criticism of the approach is group) than those in the ‘economically dependent’ that it assumes that human life is worthless after group (0–15 and over 65 years). From 2004 to Table 2. Road accidents in Ghana: injuries, fatalities and damage. Year All accidents Fatal accidents Injury accident Damage only 1991 8,370 724 4,866 3,504 1992 6,922 717 4,515 2,407 1993 6,467 704 4,119 2,348 1994 6,567 632 4,088 2,496 1995 8,313 813 4,897 3,416 1996 8,488 830 4,964 3,524 1997 9,918 864 5,634 4,284 1998 10,990 1,127 5,239 4,624 1999 8,762 979 5,302 3,460 2000 11,714 1,199 6,886 4,828 2001 11,291 1,257 6,829 4,462 2002 10,715 1,245 6,594 4,124 2003 10,644 1,345 6,919 3,725 2004 12,164 1,599 6,348 4,217 2005 11,328 1,391 5,645 4,292 2006 11,688 1,419 7,137 4,531 Source: National Road Safety Commission, 2009b. Table 3. Road traffic fatalities by age group (2004–2006). Year 0–5 6–15 16–25 26–35 36–45 46–55 56–65 over 65 All fatalities 2004 116 272 357 444 280 191 132 83 1875 2005 120 184 276 375 273 138 101 82 1549 2006 124 201 260 363 266 146 108 69 1537 Source: National Road Safety Commission, 2009c. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 41 fatalities per 100,000 population was 8.3%. That Table 4. Road traffic fatalities by gender (2000– 2007). figure has increased to about 8.9% in recent times (see report of the National Road Safety Commission Year Male Female Male share 2007). That means that the BRRI’s figure must be 2000 1091 441 71.21 adjusted upwards for the difference in the rate of 2001 1193 441 73.01 fatalities (8.92 – 8.33 = 0.59%). If that is done, (1 + 2002 1175 480 71.00 0.59) × 1.6, we arrive at a loss in GDP in the order 2003 1280 437 74.55 of 2.54% of current GDP or about $436 million. 2004 1568 587 72.76 2005 1292 463 73.62 Road accidents cost lives and property and 2006 1348 492 73.26 have adverse effect on the general economic 2007 1554 489 76.06 growth in the country. It is striking that the increasing number of road accidents is happening Source: Adapted from the National Road Safety Commission (2009d). at the same time as the increasing vehicular popu- lation in Ghana (Figure 1). A correlation analysis of vehicle registration and accident data from retirement. For our analysis here, we will not 1991 to 2006 shows a strong positive relationship resort to such unrealistic assumptions. between the two, with a coefficient of determina- We could estimate how much of GDP is lost to 2 tion (R ) value of 0.76 (Table 6). To test for pos- the country by capitalising the Gross National sible errors in the computation, a test of Income per capita ($600) using the real GDP growth significance was carried out. This returned a P- rate (6.3%) and assume, for the sake of this analysis, value of 0.00001. This means that the result is sta- that those who died through accidents would have tistically significant (i.e. P < 0.05). worked for a further 20 years before their death. This estimation shows that accidents in Ghana between 1991 and 2006 cost the country over US$ 34 million Table 6. Summary output of correlation in current terms or 0.2% of GDP. See Table 5. analysis. The figure excludes cost in terms of injury, Multiple R 0.870143825 property damage or other administrative costs. A 2006 research by the Building and Road Research R 0.757150277 Adjusted R 0.739803868 Institute (BRRI) of Ghana estimates that road acci- Standard Error 993.2648432 dents cost Ghana US$165 million – including prop- Observations 16 erty damage, human cost, administration cost, loss of P-value 1.18E–05 output, medical cost – or 1.6% of GDP at the time Source: Author’s calculations based on figures (see report of the National Road Safety Commission provided by National Road Safety Commission 2007). At the time of BRRI’s study, the road traffic detailed in Figure 1 and Table 2. Table 5. Estimation of human lives lost through accidents in Ghana (1991–2006) using a modified version of the Human Capital Approach. Labour participation Deaths GNI per Growth rate @ 100% by other Present Total no. Total human life capita rate @ 6.3% (LPR) means values (PV) of deaths (TN) TN × PV × LPR 600.00 2036 100% 0% 2036 16,845 $34,299,481 Source: Author’s calculation based on figures provided by National Road Safety Commission in Table 1 and GDP figures from CEPA, 2009. 42 F. Obeng-Odoom Some words of caution are needed here. The 4. Towards reform relationship between the two variables, although The way orthodox economists propose to solve the strong, is not perfect. More importantly, the corre- problem of transport-related emissions is well lation does not imply causation. The fact that the documented (see, e.g. Stilwell 2008; see also Eng- two variables, vehicular accidents and vehicular land and Bluestone 1971; Fol et al. 2007). There registration, covary does not necessarily mean one should be compulsory antipollution equipment on causes the other. However, it is intuitive to infer all cars and a congestion charge or tax for driving some amount of causal relation in the Ghanaian at particular places or times, urban toll roads case, especially when old vehicles are predomi- among others. Orthodox economists believe that nant in the country. There are other reasons to such measures provide a disincentive for purchas- believe that increasing importation of old vehicles ing cars and driving in already congested areas. and the behaviour of the private sector cause road Such measures have been recommended for accidents in Ghana. Shanghai (Shen 1997) and Ghana (see Ghana Ninety-five per cent of the private owners Academy of Arts and Sciences 1989) and are employ drivers without any test or scrutiny of their already being implemented in cities like London, driving licenses. Also, these entrepreneurs or ‘car Singapore, Stockholm, Oslo and Edinburgh owners’ – as they are called in Ghana – set unreal- (Albalate and Bell 2009). istic end-of-day sales for their employees (the These measures have adverse implications for drivers) (ABLIN Consult 2008), which forces the poor. A flat rate tax is inherently regressive drivers to work long hours and speed over the because it hits the poor the hardest. A congestion legal limit. According to the National Road Safety charge means greater segregation between the rich Commission, about 60% of the drivers travel at an and the poor because certain parts of the city can average speed of 100 km/h for mostly medium to only be visited by the rich, being the ones who can long-distance passenger operations to an average pay the charges. Worse still, a compulsory catalytic of 50 km/h and work for as long as 12 hours a day, device regime will force the poor to pay the same six days a week. Some (20%) could even work as price as the rich for the equipment. Yet, for the poor, long as 20 hours a day with little rest (National it will mean paying more as a share of their income. Road Safety Commission 2009e). Such pressure Such a flat rate becomes less burdensome the evidently leads to road accidents and fatalities. wealthier one gets. In the end, inequality and mar- The problems of pollution, congestion and ginality produce further marginality, inequality and accidents resulting from neoliberal policies are poverty (England and Bluestone 1971; Fol et al. problematic enough at the national level, but 2007). Some policymakers in the USA have such problems also have implications for the glo- advanced a variant of this latter view, noting that it is bal distribution of resources. Selling polluting socially inequitable to make the poor bear the cost of second-hand cars to Ghana is a way of clearing the pollution of the few rich. The solution, therefore, the skies of New York, Berlin and London while is not to let the polluter pay because the polluter can soaking the skies of Accra and Kumasi with toxic pay and the poor need to drive. So rather, the right to chemicals. The rich countries make maximum pollute should be evenly distributed among different profit from selling used cars to poor countries. social groups (Fol et al. 2007, p. 809). This is not only a sale of machines, it is a pact Such analysis, implicitly assuming that car sealed with human life, the lives of the poor in a dependency is natural, is not supported by empirical developing country. Yet, these car and oil com- evidence elsewhere. In Japanese cities, as with Kyoto, panies who reside in New York, Berlin and Lon- bicycles are commonly used as an alternative to cars. don do not miss any opportunity to talk about About the ‘role of nonmotorised transportation and sustainable development. There is the need for public transport in Japan’s economic success’, Hook these dynamics to come to a halt. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 43 (1994) finds that the key role played by public pol- Coasters and ordinary labourers (Tsey and Short icies discouraged automobile use, encouraged bicy- 1995). These are historical observations, and the cle use and channelled other investment into rail. colonial state was different from the postcolonial The willingness to embrace alternatives to cars state. The former had much more resources and depends upon the urban form, social attitudes and technical expertise at its disposal than the latter. public investment in alternative transport technolo- Also, the colonial state was politically insensitive to gies and modes. Neither the thinking that car the people because it was not democratically dependence is natural nor the view that the environ- elected and could decide by state fiat how to use the ment must be sold to save it (Stilwell 2008) makes resources at its disposal. The postcolonial state, sufficient sense. We need alternative measures to especially from 1992 to date, is rather different. It is curb the problems of transportation in Ghana. democratically elected and, in relative terms, sensi- Consideration could be given to banning the tive to the needs of the country. Nonetheless, capital importation of cars. Placing high taxes has not dis- behaves the same way yesterday and today. suaded private individuals from importing these To make the system serve broader social inter- cars, because, on balance, they make huge profit ests, it is crucial that workers manage or control from these less than ideal cars. There is some evid- the management of these rail systems. Recent ence that a ban would drastically reduce the number research by Archon Fung and Erik Wright (2001) of decrepit cars in the country. According to Kayoke shows that ordinary people are able to manage (2004), when the government banned second-hand public schools in Chicago, job centres in Wiscon- car importation in Ghana between 1998 and 2002 sin and public budgets in Porto Alegre. The award (Kayoke 2004), there was a sharp reduction from of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics to Elinor 15.35% in 1998 to 5% in 2003. Since the govern- Ostrom for her work in economic governance – ment lifted the ban, the rate of registration has shot which highlights how ordinary people can up to 10.84 (Table 1). Merely banning car importa- successfully manage common property (see The tion without providing alternatives is not useful. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2009) – Alternatives, in the form of greater public should persuade cynics that workers can success- transport – buses and trains, nonmotorised forms fully manage assets. Whether they can manage the of transport and land-use change – deserve atten- railway system in Ghana needs more detailed con- tion as part of the alternative plan. This three-point sideration in the specific context, of course, but agenda should be part of a bigger plan of changing these conceptual and empirical contributions from track, of changing an economic system that priori- international research suggest that it is at least an tises profit over human need. open question. Rail transport is worth considering. It is Buses also have potential for reducing conges- expensive in terms of physical infrastructure and tion, emissions and accidents. About 70% of trips in the cost of land. Nonetheless, the long-term bene- Ghana depend on buses that use 15% of roads. Com- fits – less congestion, faster travel times, less pare that with 70% of road usage by the less than emissions and a drastic reduction in deaths by road 30% of the population that uses private cars and taxis accidents – outweigh the cost. It can be done – (Global Environmental Facility 2006). Generally, the indeed it was the dominant form of transport in the bigger the buses, the better, as Table 7 shows. Gold Coast, where the rail service was used to help These gains on their own may still not be the British to transport cocoa from rural to urban encouraging enough for people to use them. Buses centres. It was a source of inequality as British must be comfortable. A recent study by Abane workers were provided with better conditions of (1993) shows that in Ghana comfort and reliabil- service, culminating in differential work and ity, even more than access, determine which trans- health conditions between the British workers and port mode people use. Here, a BRT, which uses the ‘Gold Coasters’ and among the elite Gold exclusive right-of-way lanes, rapid boarding and 44 F. Obeng-Odoom Table 7. Size of bus vis-à-vis energy use. Energy use/litre/100 Capacity Energy passengers Type of vehicle (passengers) use/100 km place km Small buses 14 15 1.07 Larger trotros 22 19 0.86 Large bus 100 40 0.4 Source: Global Environmental Facility (GEF), 2006, p. 9. Note: Cheapest buses for intra-city travel (see Obeng-Odoom 2009b for how they operate). alighting, streamlined fare collection and unam- As with bicycles, walking can be encouraged. biguous route maps, would be particularly useful Walking has therapeutic effect on the entire (see GEF 2006). Comfort to people will also mean human body and if done in a conducive atmos- cleaner environment. GEF (2006) estimates that phere – in this case streets designed for it – it there could be a 20% further reduction in fuel use could be healing, would make people save money if buses operate in less congested lanes. It is esti- and help the environment to save itself. Evidence mated that a BRT would cost some US$2–5 mil- has already started emerging (see Abane 1993) lion per km in Ghana (GEF 2006). This is that people in Ghanaian cities will walk – as they extremely low compared to the cost of a Do Noth- always have! – if given the conducive environ- ing Approach (see, e.g. Table 5 for the cost of ment. Concerns about pedestrian safety are genu- human life). ine. Yet, as we have seen, many of these deaths Nonmotorised forms of transport could also be result from old cars and overworked drivers who promoted. Bicycles are particularly useful as they are squeezed by their car owners. Banning these are ecologically friendly, cheap to use and use less second-hand cars and placing fewer cars on the space. Recently, a team from the Earth Institute has roads would evidently reduce road accidents. begun research into using bamboo to produce It is also important to change the land-use pat- Ghana-made bicycles. The pilot project in Kumasi terns to better integrate housing and work. This has already been well received by the residents. harmonisation, however, is unlikely to happen if Using local materials to build the bicycles will private capital is allowed to dictate where it wants make the cost lower, enhance local expertise and to locate. In the housing sector that has been liber- create jobs (Sauvant et al. 2008). A word of caution alised, rows and rows of estates have been is, however, needed. Bamboo is abundant in Ghana developed in areas without basic facilities like and it is a renewable resource. However using bam- police stations (Obeng-Odoom 2009b), contribut- boos for bicycles also has implications for fauna ing to a rise in crime and thus creating fertile and flora. There is the need for aggressive bamboo grounds for the rise of private security companies planting at the community, city and national level if in many big cities like Accra and Kumasi. If the this project is to be undertaken on a large scale. central and urban governments are committed to Whatever it is, bicycle use in Ghana must be change, the continuous accumulation of capital in encouraged by prioritising bicycle lanes in the city, only a few cities – and a few areas in those cities – providing parking space for them and reducing should be rechannelled into alternative spatial taxes on their import. These would encourage forms with more propitious environmental and people to bike to terminals, leave their bicycles social effects. Two ancillary policies would further parked and board trains/buses to continue their jour- strengthen the potency of this recommendation. neys in a ‘park and ride’ system (Kayoke 2004). Work hours should be negotiated and regulated in International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 45 the process of granting planning permission and 5. Conclusion providing business licenses (see also Shen 1997). Logically, a growth in total number of cars must be Flexible work hours could help to break the cur- because either (a) population is increasing or (b) car rent ‘rush or peak hour syndrome’. It should also ownership per capita is rising or both. However, be compulsory for all companies to have huge these are not sufficient explanations for the increas- company buses that could be used by the workers ing car population in Ghana. The rapid rate of car to and from work. growth is a function of government liberalisation There is formidable evidence to suggest that policies and road construction. The former has these measures will improve the quality of the made the importation of cars relatively easy, environment, increase economic growth, reduce whereas the latter has enticed people to buy cars. car accidents and reduce the levels of inequality Both have been fuelled by a poor public transporta- in the country. Empirical studies by Kayoke tion system. Both have caused traffic congestion, (2004) shows that greater use of metro buses which has been worsened by neoliberal planning would reduce emissions by about 50% and a fur- that permits new investment to be sited according to ther 50%, if nonmotorised forms of transport are market and neomarket policies. used. In economic terms, such reductions could Only the rich can afford cars in Ghana. They add about US$20 million to the GDP (Faah buy brand new cars for themselves and import 2008). To put the figure in perspective, it is about second-, third-, fourth- or even fifth-hand cars for 22% of the total FDI component of the invest- commercial use. Drivers of these commercial ment projects registered in Ghana by GIPC vehicles are overworked and overstretched – they between 1 April and 30 June, 2009. Also, acci- have to make unrealistic returns for their greedy dent prediction models built by scholars at the taskmasters. The results are catastrophic, BRRI in Kumasi show that with decreases in adversely affecting the environment, callously flow, improvement in the quality of roads and the claiming human life, unjustly tearing society apart provision of street lights, road accidents would and ultimately slowing down the wheels of eco- reduce (see, e.g. Salifu 2004). nomic growth, redistribution and poverty reduc- These proposals are a part of a bigger agenda tion. There is cacophonous noise that causes to change or substantially modify the underlying several health-related problems; lead, carbon diox- economic system of production that is currently ide and PM emissions soak the urban environment typified by liberalisation and privatised produc- and greenhouse gas emissions dangerously hang tion. The production and consumption of virtually in the urban environment as a result of neoliberal all goods and services by private individuals and transport policies. Year by year, several people legal persons entail decreasing the welfare of all lose their lives through car accidents. Year by others in society. Therefore, maintaining private year, massive amounts of property are lost. Year control of resources is ‘inefficient’ in an economic by year, many people are injured and year by year, sense and inequitable in a social sense. Because all the country misses gains it could have made are affected by every single person’s production towards economic growth and development. and consumption decisions, it is only sensible that These severe costs are unevenly distributed. Invar- all must be able to take part in deciding what is iably, they hit the poor the hardest. There is the produced, how much is produced, for whom it is need to change track. produced and how it is distributed (see England Here, pollution taxes would be as ineffective and Bluestone 1971, p. 52). Local governance is as taxes on importing second-hand cars. Such pol- important here. What has to be determined is the icies are inherently unequal. They create segrega- capacity of the local state to implement such tion and social discord. They literally result in a policies. situation where the rich and mighty can buy their 46 F. Obeng-Odoom way to places where the poor do not have the Matter’, http://www.epa.gov/oar/particlepollution/ (accessed 15 September 2009). resources to go. They force the poor to pay more 4. The definition for ‘fatalities’ used by the National of their income to access basic goods. Urban road Road Safety Commission is ‘number of deaths tolls have similar impacts. All such policies would resulting from road traffic crashes, with the deaths result in selling the environment. being those occurring within 30 days after the More progressive policies are broad ranging crash’. 5. With the advent of ‘greening’ cars, in future, a pol- and could cover the issues of harmonising job and icy of banning all second-hand cars could be residential location and making greater use of pub- replaced with a policy of importing only ‘green’ lic transport and nonmotorised forms of transport second-hand cars. Unfortunately, even this latter like biking and walking. Evidently, such policies policy would not curb the problem of rapid growth mean the banning (not taxation) of all used cars in the rate of car importation. and the immediate rethinking of the idea that more roads create less congestion. Notes on contributor Some would even suggest that these policies Franklin Obeng-Odoom is a Teaching Fellow and should be part of a bigger agenda of gradually Ph.D candidate at the Department of Political Economy, replacing the economic system that privatises profit the University of Sydney. His research interest is in eco- above human need with a more humane economic nomic development, focussing on the political economy system. Although this view could be taken for the of urbanisation and debates in economic development. 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Journal

International Journal of Urban Sustainable DevelopmentTaylor & Francis

Published: Jan 1, 2009

Keywords: Ghana; cities; transport; sustainability; political economy

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