I happen to be of the view that, on the road it is pretty easy to tell when it’s my right of way and when it is not, or so my common (or not so common) sense lets me think. That view is being severely challenged.
I am driving along on MY SIDE of the road. By the way, we do drive on the right in Ghana, do we not? So as I was saying, I am driving on MY SIDE of the road, taking care not to drive in the middle even though I could very well follow the good examples about me. Here comes a vehicle from the opposite direction on MY SIDE of the road. Could that mean that driver is driving on the left hand side of the road? At any rate I slow down and open my eyes a little wider – just to be sure. The vehicle keeps coming at me with appreciable haste and so I fast forward to the “now and at the hour of our death” part of the Hail Mary. See, I take my Catholicity seriously. The driver swerves to the right just in the nick of time and wags a finger at me; that was the Artful Dodger on the dusty road near my home!
Now, shift to that very important bit of road I call the tunnel road. This tunnel road I am told was originally a passage for cows around the time of independence. The cows don’t use it anymore; they completed their rite of passage onto main roads decades back. Anyway the tunnel road happens to be an integral part of Ghana’s regular road network and an indispensable national asset now. Only a single lane of cars can get through it at a time. However the frenzied activity preceding entry into the tunnel threatens to miraculously transform the tunnel into a 4-lane route daily and is only contained with strenuous exertions by charity boys. Like the dusty road near my home, it’s never any one’s right of way except the police who in their rush hours manage to trumpet a clearance from whichever direction; giving the lucky side the benefit of a hot pursuit.
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| Tema Motorway |
It is my considered view that the famous Motorway (the first one) is just the sort of thing to deal with artful dodgers and tunnel crashers. I mean roads with at least 20 metres of space between the two opposing sides, preferably populated by thorny shrubs or dug out into vehicle swallowing troughs. On such roads, the only possible mischief left to drivers is to stick to their lanes whether at 20kph, 50kph or 120kph. Never mind the reminder that the inner lane is a fast lane. But I digress. Point is if I had been driving on the Motorway, only spiritual conveyance would have made it possible for the likes of the Dodger to come charging at me on MY SIDE of the road let alone wag a finger at me! Unfortunately the new George Walker Bush Motorway, fine as it is, does not quite take after that or its own name. What’s with that name anyway?
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| Walker Bush Motorway |
It goes without saying that I quite like roads to keep straight and vehicles to do same. I mean we all stay in our lanes and keep at it till we get to our destinations. Needless to say policy makers think differently and contemporary engineers are readily at hand to deliver a variety of artistic contortions. I have to agree with them. Such a thing is practically impossible, so increasingly we have multiple lane roads, flyovers and quite a few round-about types, not meant for sight-seeing though. These innovations have a way of persuading even the most litigant motorist to consensus. And that’s where my misery begins. Whose way it is, is always a game of whose right it is – where rights accrue to the fittest.
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