Taxis all over the world have a reputation for being the king of the roads they ply, but the emergence of motorised tricycles in Ghana is threatening to radically turn the country’s transport system on its head.
By David Allan Paintsil
These new forms of transport in the country of Kwame Nkrumah are slowly but surely pushing taxis to the periphery and essentially out of business thanks to the cheap fares associated with them.
Tricycles plying the roads charge GHC1.00 for town trips while the average taxi driver collect GHC1.30 pesewas.
This little difference in fares is causing a huge shift, motivating people to patronize tricycles whose numbers are on a steady increase.
Aside from the monetary side of things, tricycles literally take their passengers to their doorsteps, cutting the time between commuting and reaching a destination.
The three-seaters hit the Ghanaian transport system last year thanks to an Indian movie called Kumkum Bagyia with lead character Pragia who uses tricycle.
The movie airs on local television channels in Ghana, whetting the craze for tricycles which are easy to drive and manoeuvre in small side-streets and can navigate Accra’s thick traffic with ease.
Pragia as it is popularly called in Ghana, originates from India and some unemployed youth are capitalizing on it to earn a living.
Kwesi Mensah, a tricycle rider told APA that he could make GHC100.00 on a good day and GHC50.00 on bad day.
And taxi drivers like John Barnes are already feeling the heat.
There has been several demonstrations by taxi drivers in Accra and cities like Tamale against their colleagues on three wheels.
Barnes decried the emergence of tricycles as the beginning of a crisis for the taxi industry as it is known in Ghana, ruing the fact that commuters are gradually ignoring them because of cheap fares charged by the motors on three wheels.
He claimed most tricycle riders are not licensed to operate and worse still flout traffic regulations thereby causing accidents.
Barnes’ claims may carry some credibility because the government is in the process of determining the fate of tricycles on Ghana’s roads.
A bill on either integrating them into the transport system or stopping their operation altogether has been submitted to Parliament for debate.
Perhaps taxis may still bounce back as the kings of the road by the time MPs decide on the benefits or otherwise of having motorised tricycle plying Ghana’s roads.
DAP/as/APA