Refereed Journals

App-based ride-hailing, as an alternative to traditional taxis, has attracted a lot of interest recently. Ride-sourcing has changed the local passenger transport industry and is seen as a threat to traditional taxis which are mostly, station based or obtained by outstretched arm on the street. Ride-hailing, in contrast, uses the customer's smartphone to detect their location, and instantly connects the customer to the nearest available driver. Little data, however, exists on travellers’ use of ride-sourcing in Ghana. This study aims at examining the spread and use of ride-hailing among the demographic most likely to use it, amidst the complaints of commercial vehicle drivers that ride-hailing is disrupting their business. A stratified random sampling survey was conducted on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) with the aim of understanding the use of these services among young people in Ghana. Four hundred (400) questionnaires were answered and results analyzed using descriptive and chi-square tests to assess statistical significance. Interviews with taxi and ride-hailing drivers were also conducted to ascertain the levels of priority they respectively gave specific factors that influenced travellers in their mode choice. From the results, it can be inferred that young people are inclined towards ride-sourcing because it is convenient and presents a cost advantage over conventional taxis. However, their use of ride-hailing services was not on a regular basis since few reported using the services as their primary mode of transport (7.1%). Respondents also used these services for social trips and more on weekends; suggesting a limited use. Use of ride-hailing overall can be described as consistent with previous studies among young people. It is recommended that to remain competitive, drivers of conventional modes of transport innovate by including ride-matching technologies and prioritizing passenger convenience to remain relevant to younger clientele.

The study was to examine the nature and risk factors associated with road traffic crashes at night in Ghana and identify potential measures to control them. Crash and injury data for the period 2013-2017 were analyzed. The fatality index and fatal crash ratio measures were employed to assess the severity of injuries among traffic participants. Statistical analysis was carried out for the variables using contingency tables and the chi-square (χ²) tests to assess statistical significance. Generally, night-time traffic crashes resulted in severer injury outcomes than crashes in the hours of daylight (χ²(2)=292.7, p < 0.001). The relative risk of death in a night traffic crash was 1.3 times that during the daytime. The risk of death was highest among pedestrians (44%) and motorcyclist (18%) compared to bus/mini-bus occupants (16%) and car occupants (11%) and the observed percentage differences were significant (χ²(14)=2303.2, p < 0.001). Most of the collisions (67%) occurred at the early hours of the night, between 18:00 and 22:00 hours. Poor night visibility coupled with poor visual guidance on roads are the key contributory risk factors associated with night travels. Policies must be geared towards provision of functioning street lights in built-up areas, road line markings, delineators and signage for the highways and arterial roads.

Red light running places the violator and other road users at risk of road traffic crash. The aim of this research was to undertake a baseline study to establish the current rate of red light running in the Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana and to determine the associated risk factors. An uninterrupted road side observational survey was conducted at 10 signalized intersections using pro-forma checklist. A binary logit model was employed to determine the risk factors associated with traffic light violations. Overall, drivers were observed running the red light in 35% of all the red phases studied. From the statistical model, red light running was found to be influenced by the age and gender of the driver, presence of a passenger in the vehicle, vehicle type, junction type, cycle length of the signal and queue length. There is a need for targeted public awareness campaigns on the dangers of red light running. The education on red light violation must be accompanied by sustained Police enforcement of the traffic law to reduce the rate of violation. Automatic surveillance cameras should be installed at all critical signalized intersections to supplement Police efforts to enforce traffic safety laws and regulations.

Benefits assessment of investments in research projects is increasingly becoming important to funding agencies and stakeholders in order to demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of funded projects and to provide guidance for future project appraisal and selection. This paper describes the development of a multi-criteria benefits assessment framework that is based on systems approach and developed using empirical data from rural road improvement projects funded by the UKAid. The framework is a scoring system where the outputs are presented as a report card or scorecard with scores and ratings assigned to the various subsystems. The scores represent the levels of benefits derived from conducting the research and implementation of products generated thereof. The framework is flexible enough to estimate the benefits for each subsystem independent of the other subsystems. The system can also be used as a decision support tool, providing quantitative information to validate funding and management decisions.

Pedestrians constitute the majority of all urban road crashes in Ghana, yet there is inadequate supply of pedestrian facilities, and road-user behaviours have been cited as a major contributing factor to the high crash rates. This study seeks to investigate how pedestrians perceive risk at different crosswalks. The study adopted a mixed-method approach, where secondary crash data for 30 selected crosswalks was correlated with corresponding primary data that consisted of pedestrian surveys. The crash data from 2011 through 2014 was obtained from the database of the Building and Road Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-BRRI) in Kumasi, and supplemented with a survey of 900 pedestrians. The results revealed that pedestrians perceived marked crosswalks to be safer than unmarked crosswalks, but this is contrary to the crash records. Also, most of the crashes were registered for crosswalks located across multilane highways. In light of these results, it is recommended that the safety features of crosswalks be re-examined, while restricting indiscriminate crossing by channelling pedestrians to designated protected crossing points, installing traffic control devices and other speed-calming devices at identified high-risk crosswalks, and signalising crosswalks that are located on multilane roads. It is also recommended to intensify road safety campaigns and public education on safe road-crossing practices, while enforcing traffic safety laws to influence road-user behaviours.