Making bicycles a safe choice of transportation in Ghana

 

Schoolgirls on bicycles in Ghana, photo credit: UNICEF

The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘vehicle’ as a conveyance for transporting passengers or goods on land or in space. In this case, besides a car, a lorry, trains, and an airplane, a bicycle is also accepted as a means of transport to use on the road.

That means a cyclist has the right to use the road without any horn hooting or harassment of the rider by other road users. Integrated transport policy is not viable without the implementation of structures allowing the development of cycling.

There are many reasons the bicycle is essential to users. The bicycle enables one to get somewhere very fast when there is a traffic hold-up. It is energizing to use a bicycle, and it eliminates stress. 

Among all transport, it is the cheapest, as you don’t need fuel and no license is required. Ecologically, the manufacturing and use of a bicycle, as well as the planning of space for its use, create much less solid waste and no pollution.

In Ghana, bicycles play a major role as a means of transport in the North for farmers who have no other means of getting to their farms and homes. However, at the moment, bicycles are fast emerging as an urban means of transport in Europe.

Transportation is a problem in most big cities. It is therefore not a crime for a cyclist to get to work or wherever he intends to go on a bicycle. However, on the road, some road users think the cyclist has no right at all to be on the street. They torment cyclists with the blaring of horns and even scream at them at times.

It is very frustrating to most drivers when a cyclist is ahead of them or at any inconvenient place along the road, since bicycles can cause traffic on a busy road. 

Some cyclists have contributed to road accidents many times, but that doesn’t mean that they have no right to use the road; after all, are motorists also involved in road accidents? 

Walking through the city of Accra, there is nowhere one can find a bicycle route on the side of the major roads. For example, the Accra–Kasoa road is a very well-constructed road, but it was constructed without any bicycle lane.

In Europe, a circulation plan aiming to develop cycling was approved in the ’80s. Revised annually, it considers the implementation of a network of cycle lanes and the transformation of parking places into bicycle parking. 

This network is built in order to reinforce the safety of cyclists, with stop signposts placed before those for cars and crossroads redesigned for cyclists. 

In Ghana, roads are constructed without any consideration for bicycle users. Nothing is planned in the country by taking the future into consideration.

I believe that if the government implements the construction of bicycle routes in its future projects, there will be a free flow of traffic in the cities, and that would also help to reduce the traffic holdups that motorists are currently facing.

It’s a well-known fact that a lack of finance is one of the major setbacks affecting Africa’s infrastructure and projects. But if a specific project would be a solution or an answer to a problem, then the government should take it into consideration. 

For example, in Europe, to prevent traffic jams and ensure the safety of cyclists, the Netherlands has been successful with bicycle routes running throughout the towns and cities. A journey of about 50 to 100 km could easily be done by bicycle. 

In Trondheim, Norway, a bicycle lift has been put up in the center of the town to facilitate access to another town called Brubakken, and in Belgium, a bicycle tunnel has been built under the sea to link the two cities of Antwerp and Linkeroever. 

It takes ten to twelve minutes to go to Linkeroever from the city of Antwerp, while the bus takes about twenty minutes.

As Ghana gradually matures into a great nation, the government must include the construction of bicycle routes in its future road projects. Bicycles play a very significant role, not only as a means of transport but also as a promoter of good health.

 

Why Bawumia’s boasts ring hollow without a credible job-creation strategy

Vice-President Bawumia, an uptown baby who doesn't know what suffering is

Has any Ghanaian with a good thinking ability ever asked this question: why is Ghana a land with more natural resources than many European countries, yet is far behind in development? 


We can’t continue blaming the colonial masters six decades after independence; therefore, the answer is that Ghanaian politicians are corrupt, inefficient, and lazy. I will repeat, Ghanaian politicians are lazy and corrupt.

This is not the first time I am writing about the useless bragging of Vice-President Bawumia, and it will not be the last because Ghanaians have eyes to see what the government is doing; therefore, Bawumia, it’s not necessary to blow your trumpet to Ghanaians about what the Akufo-Addo government has achieved. In fact, that bragging rather signifies failure.

Ghanaians continue to praise shoddy work, so projects in the country do not last. Ghanaians continue to worship and praise corrupt politicians; therefore, corrupt activities in the country have increased with impunity. 

The Ghanaian government refuses to clean up its dirty, health-threatening hazards and rather promotes tourism. Lord, have mercy on the poor suffering Ghanaians.

Everything is falling apart in the country, yet when you write about it, people without conscience and integrity are the ones to attack with insults. Your insult is encouraging me to write daily without ceasing because I can clearly see the impact of discomfort taking its toll on you.

Go to Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and you will be surprised to see many Members of Parliament and other politicians come to work on bicycles. They have luxurious vehicles, yet some prefer to use bicycles because they believe in human efficiency, development, and job creation, not riding in expensive cars.

How many jobs have Akufo-Addo, Bawumia, and their over 100 ministers created? These ministers receive fat salaries, with free bonuses, including free fuel to fill their vehicles, but what do they do for the suffering Ghanaians? 

If Ghanaians want to know what effective leadership is, I pray that each one of you, once in your life, can be able to visit Europe. If you do, nobody will vote for any Ghanaian politician again.

The fact is, the European government never rests on its oars. European leaders are not lazy like Bawumia and Akufo-Addo. They don’t brag like the lazy Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the pompous-arrogant Minister for Education, Matthew Opoku, because they are intellectually disciplined and intelligent. 

EU leaders sit the whole year planning what to do next to give their citizens' best medical care, education, and employment.

In 2018, France created 188,000 jobs, and last year alone created an additional 260,000 jobs. Thus, unemployment reached its lowest point in ten years in mid-2019. Bawumia, how many jobs has your government created after three years in power? How many banking institutions have risen after almost every bank collapsed in the country?

In Belgium, a few weeks ago, the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, after five years in office, decided not to finish his second term. His decision to step down after five years is to begin a new appointment in 2020, offered by the European Union. 

Charles Michel stepped down as Belgian prime minister after creating  290,000 new jobs. Bawumia, you brag too much. Please, use the time you are wasting bragging to create employment for the frustrated youth who are dying in the Mediterranean every year.

Ghana is richer than many European countries, so why is the country not flourishing? Someone might say Because it is an African country, so are Africans stupid, I will ask.  Frankly speaking, there is corruption also in Europe, but the politicians are not as deeply corrupt as Ghanaian politicians, and above all, they are not as lazy as Ghanaian politicians.

The Ghanaian government has no brain to utilize the resources, instead, the government keeping piling debts on the country and when people criticize, the president which any sensible words have never come from his mouth said, “Even America borrows," but American leaders are not stupid like Ghanaian leaders, so they know what they do with the money, while Ghanaian leaders put the money in their pockets.

Akufo-Addo government talks about projects, including a Cathedral, but in reality, the finances of those projects, whether executed or not, have especially enriched a privileged few close to the government and his family, after receiving taxpayers' money.

Why are many joining political parties in Ghana, especially the NPP? Politics under Akufo-Addo’s government is a lucrative business built on the foundation of corruption, tribalism, and nepotism. 

Verily, I say to you, the time that Ghanaians will cry forty days and forty nights hasn’t come yet, but it will soon come. However, remember that those Ghanaians in the Diaspora, praising the inefficient government in the country can’t help you because they are pure liars and hypocrites, enjoying better lives in where ever they are.

So Bawumia, instead of making too much noise on inefficiency as efficiency, try to revive the depreciating economy of Ghana because you claim to be an economist and above, try to take a special course on how to create jobs for a country,   because the pumpkin heads of the NPP politicians are virtually empty of intelligence and ideas. 

ANTWERP: TRANSPORT MADE MORE EASY BY BICYCLE

Antwerp city bicycles to enhance easy movement



One of the best transport connection systems and flexibility, facilitating easy movement of workers, school children, students, etc, in Europe, can be found in Antwerp. Yet the city planners are not at rest, always trying their best to improve the transportation system.


For example, a new tram line is under construction. That would run from Mortsel to Boechout, both suburbs of Antwerp. Another new line is from Deurne to Wijnegem Shopping Center. 

In June this year, the city of Antwerp introduced several red and white bicycles to facilitate easy movement in the city during rush hours.

"The bicycle hiring has been successful from the start. The customer service every day gets approximately eighty applications for a year card, and the number is increasing every day," Said Ivon Deden, the head of the customer service. 

According to her, by the end of summer, the cycle network will expand to about 85 stations.

There are many benefits to using bicycles as a regular mode of transport. Personal health benefits are very important. 

Cycling keeps the body in shape, reducing the chances of getting any heart problems. Cost benefits are another advantage as a bicycle doesn't attract any parking fees or petrol filling.

 Finally, regarding environmental benefits, a bicycle never pollutes the atmosphere and can quickly take one to their destination during rush hours. 

In Europe, the bicycle plays an important role as a mode of transport in many countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark, France, and Norway.