Back to basics
Growing up, the saying, “When crossing the road, look left, right and left again, before you cross,“ was the road Bible. I remember my father teaching me and my siblings. I remember him taking us through the routine in the neighborhood where we lived.
I remember teachers also teaching it in class.
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Indeed, I remember that there were adverts on television with cartoons demonstrating how to cross the road properly.
Growing up too, it was crossing roads.
Now in my adult years, there are no longer the 'crossing of roads!' We have the 'dashing across roads!'
I remember my father stressing to us never to run across roads as the act of running across could make any eventuality fatal.
Road courtesies
Other road courtesies taught at home and in school, were to walk facing oncoming vehicles.
I never could reconcile that with riding a bicycle, which was to be ridden with the flow of traffic.
Afterall, in my mind, it was usually ridden by an individual, so like all individuals, it had to be ridden against the flow of traffic.
As much as my father explained, I could not understand it, until in my adulthood, when I properly understood that although a bicycle, riders legally enjoyed the same rights and responsibilities like other vehicle users.
Thus, the riding had to be done in sync with all other vehicles.
Going places with mum, she would walk right adjacent to the road, facing oncoming vehicles, with me and my siblings walking right away from the road, having our mother as a bulwark, between the road/vehicles and ourselves.
Perished
Today, it seems all those road prescriptions have perished. Pedestrians dash across roads; most people jaywalk roads as if they are in their living rooms walking to take a remote control; cyclists ride facing the traffic flow and to top it all, we have the tricycles, popularly referred to as 'Pragya', that are a law onto themselves, riding on the shoulders of the road and stopping at anytime, anywhere.
As pedestrians flout the rules and do as they please on roads, fatalities rise.
The statistics are that 40 per cent of fatalities are accidents involving pedestrians.
These days too, Zebra crossings are merely white marks on roads, generally not respected by drivers as an investigative piece “Zebras ‘eat’ pedestrians” in September 2019 by the Daily Graphic showed.
Basics
I believe that just as when growing up, the proper way of crossing the road was taught, re-enforced, and demonstrated, so must it be done now.
The National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), with its public outreach at lorry stations and on some major roads, has to liaise with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to teach road manners to children.
We need to teach children in understandable ways what their responsibilities are as road users.
Teaching them now may result in a generation of responsible road users in the future.
We really do need some road manners!
Writer's E-mail: caroline. [email protected]