Legalising ‘Okada’ in the cities won’t be helpful – Transport Engineer

Principal Research Scientist at the Building and Road Research Institute of CSIR and Transport Engineer, Prof. Williams Ackaah has urged government not to legalise the commercialization of motorcycles popularly known as ‘Okada’ in the cities.

Prof. Ackaah believes ‘Okada’ will be best suited for rural areas where roads are in poor state and access to transport is not easy.

He argued that government’s focus should rather be on improving the use of the Bus rapid transit system also known as ‘Aayalolo.’

“Legalising Okada in the city won’t be helpful because what we need to do is to make sure that we are able to allow more people to travel from one place to another more easily and this we need to do either by using the bus traffic transit or using the tricycles.

“In terms of building a modern city, the Okada is not the way to go, we need to concentrate on the BRT system where we need to carry more people in mass instead for resorting to Okada.

“Notwithstanding this, there is still space for Okada users. If you go to the rural areas, there are several places where getting access to vehicles are very difficult, the roads are very bad for four-wheel vehicles to use and so we can get space for them when you go the rural areas or in the very urban areas where the roads are very bad,” he said on Ghana Tonight, March 18.

According to him, per research conducted by Building and Road Research Institute of CSIR, motorcyclists form one third of persons who are more likely to die when it comes road traffic crashes in the country.

He stressed the need for government to consider safety measures and propensity to ensure free mobility before legalizing ‘Okada’.

“In terms of safety, we should make sure that we put in place all the measures which will ensure that it will not contribute to more people dying and this we need to do by doing a lot of consultations.

“The other measure we also need to do is to ensure mobility. That is the ability from people to move from one place to the other more easily and we need to create a balanced border,” he added.

The Minister for Transport, Joseph Bukari Nikpe on Tuesday, March 18 established a 13-member committee to review Section 128 (1), (2), and (3) of the Road Traffic Regulations 2012 (L.I. 2180), which currently prohibits the commercial use of motorcycles and tricycles, commonly known as ‘Okada.’

The committee has been given a three week timeline to assess the regulation and make recommendations on the possible legalization and regulation of commercial motorcycle and tricycle operations in Ghana.

Source: 3news.com