Traffic ‘monster’ on Tema-Dawhenya highway
It is Friday, 3.20 p.m. and I am driving from Tema to Dawhenya. This is indeed the ‘wahala’ those of us who live on the stretch go through daily.
It is the kind of road that is busy and choked all day, getting worse in the evenings. The struggle to join the road in the mornings is no joke.
Entering from the Devtraco Courts junction is particularly a challenge. Police personnel, who should be assisting drivers to enter the road from the Devtraco Courts, for instance, have rather stationed a post at the Agapet Filling Station.
Too many junctions on that highway contribute to the snail-pace traffic. Our children are sure to report to school late if one dares leave home after 6 a.m.
A 30 minutes’ journey from Dawhenya to Tema takes a minimum of one and a half hours. Returning home from 3 p.m. onwards is more frustrating.
There is nothing like “I will wait a while for the traffic to go down before I set off,” because the traffic just does not go down, irrespective of how late!
Sometimes, as one drives through the gridlock, the assumption is that there is a broken-down vehicle or something ahead, only to get ahead and find out that just chaotic driving is the cause.
At the Kpone intersection, tankers and articulated vehicles effectively block the road.
Hawkers take advantage of the congestion at the traffic light intersection to hawk wares, also taking over portions of the road.
They convert the median of the road, hitherto with green lush grass, to storage areas for their wares and have turned it bare and untidy.
They also generate rubbish, from drivers and commuters caught in the traffic, who buy finger foods from them and discard the wrappings.
What do these hawkers do when they attend to the call of nature? Do they wash their hands and sanitise before handling the food items they sell?
Another troubling nuisance is the police motorcades and dispatch riders herding those in V8s, presumably politicians, who intermittently drive against the traffic build-up from Tema towards Dawhenya and beyond.
They make a bad traffic situation worse, as drivers have to squeeze onto a single lane to allow such motorcades free passage.
Finally are the okada riders, who annoyingly add to the frustration of tired drivers as they keep hitting the side mirrors of vehicles.
The traffic on the stretch is so bad that I have had enough time in a similar one, on a hot Friday late afternoon, to write this letter, while on my way back home.
Please help commuters of the Tema –Dawhenya stretch!