Spatial and Land Use Planner, Dr Benedict Arkhurst, has said that Ghana’s efforts to develop an efficient public transport system have been held back by changing government priorities and a lack of continuity in implementing long-term transport plans.

He said the country had already developed several plans aimed at addressing congestion and improving public transport, but successive governments had failed to make those plans a consistent priority.

Speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show on Friday, August 28, as part of Joy Sustainability Month programme on Ghana’s trotro revolution and the case for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Dr Arkhurst said the problem was not necessarily the absence of plans, but the failure to ensure that existing strategies were carried forward when a new government took office.

“The challenge is that I've seen that there's the link between what the plans are and also the priorities of the government of the day,” he said.

He explained that the country's transport plans had been developed through processes that involved identifying the causes of congestion and proposing solutions.

“If you look at these plans that have been prepared for the past 10 years, they are plans that have gone through the process. We've been able to diagnose what actually the problem is, then based on that we came out with proposals to be able to solve the issue of congestion within our inner cities,” he said.

However, he said governments often come into office with their own priorities, which can result in existing transport strategies being overlooked.

“A government can come into office, it has its own priorities without regards to what is already existent as the strategy for building an efficient public transportation system,” he said.

Dr Arkhurst said the current emphasis on road infrastructure was an example of the challenge facing the implementation of Ghana's broader transport strategy.

He said while expanding roads could be important, more attention was needed on how people moved within urban areas, particularly in addressing congestion and building a reliable public transport system.

“I was looking at how the issue of congestion feature in the bigger picture of the Big Push because we are looking at maybe intercity road infrastructure, but in terms of the inner city, the congestion and building a public transportation system, if you look at the strategy, there's nothing on that,” he said.

Dr Arkhurst said that Ghana already had several policy documents that provide a long-term framework for the development of transportation infrastructure.

“We have a plan, a transportation master plan. We also have a Greater Accra Regional Spatial Development Framework. We have a National Spatial Development Framework which looks at how we should develop our transportation system in the next 20 years,” he said.

The challenge, he explained, is that these plans do not always remain at the centre of government policy when administrations change.

“Governments are governed by their manifestos, and the manifestos are translated into policy frameworks,” he said.