I read somewhere that being a conscious black person is exhausting. I will like to go further; being a conscious black person in an African country is a mental health problem waiting to happen. The news will constantly remind you of how much work needs to be done and sometimes you will wish that you had a magic wand to make certain individuals disappear. You however know it is not an individual problem, but a multiple system failure of gargantuan proportions. Let’s take the news about footbridges to understand the nuances that are so frustratingly lost.
In recent years, there have been major road constructions in Ghana with some road designations being changed from single carriage to dual carriage, allowing for higher tonnage of traffic as well as easing traffic conditions on several routes. There are several issues with such developments including the use of eminent domain to convert certain private properties into public spaces. There are several cases of people not being compensated or having to go years without receiving their due. As with most governments, there are cases of favoritism and nepotism with regards to the compensation dynamics or sometimes with what properties need to be demolished. There are also evidently inappropriate contract processes. Progress comes at a cost and fair is sometimes sidelined for the greater good. The ethics of this is something we may have to discuss later.
With such developments also comes the idea of inclusive design, considering the diversity of end-users and their varying needs. Ghana, and in fact the world, has had a long history of ignoring certain classes of people in their designs. The disabilities act in Ghana for instance, is less than a decade old and is still not being implemented. There are still new public buildings receiving permits without ambulatory facilities. Some also present designs showing all the necessary facilities in order to get a permit, and then build to whatever specification they deem fit, ignoring the laws and codes that are supposed to guide us in catering for everyone. As a building services consultant, I have had to on several occasions remind clients about their obligations to not just the law, but the diversity of their potential clients. The cost involved in bringing a building to code is mostly not even up to a percent of the cost of the building. The appeal of tradition and the allure of cost savings are mostly too strong to ignore. This plays into the idea of privilege which we will look at later.
In including diversity in our road designs, we have to look at the different groups of users, potential traffic of each group, project cost, spatial constraints, and a host of other considerations. Lets just say, it is a complicated juggling act. The ideal design will be multiple carriage roads with cycle lanes, emergency lanes, and pedestrian underpasses. However, this is expensive. In the ensuing tug-of-war, some things will have to give. In already developed communities, such a road design will require the use of eminent domain, and expensive and sometimes inefficient process with the potential for abuse. One could argue that we should have had these plans already drawn and the spaces available for future growth of the community but that will be a discussion for another time. Yes, I will agree that there is a lack of vision in our planning of our communities but that lack of vision is an indication of our lack of ambition for our communities in the first place.
Space for pedestrians, cyclists, and emergency vehicles will all come at a cost and possibly will require the use of eminent domain. Underpasses will have to be also sacrificed for overpasses depending on cost. I will iterate that in the grand picture, making such allowances will always seem expensive initially but compared to the overall project cost, it mostly comes to fractions. The case of the Madina footbridge tells a story of how frustrations and cynicism can lead to unnecessary arguments and accusations. It also tells a story of how science and math literacy is essential for a populace that wants to be governed.
Before we get into Madina, lets look at another location to provide a history of how information was processed. In the construction of the N1, footbridges were provided at various points, away from high traffic intersections to avoid causing an overlap of human and vehicular traffic. People refused to use them because they were “too far” and many died crossing at random points. Many still die because they will rather risk jay-walking than use over-passes. A solution was provided; extra traffic lights to allow for easy crossing. Yet still, many still jay-walk. In the case of Madina, the footbridge was cited at a high traffic area to avoid the mistakes of the past (I suppose). There were several delays in construction which we can agree, led to unnecessary deaths, prompting the blockage, demonstrations and response by government to quickly construct the footbridges. The triangle of constraints for all projects is time, scope and cost. Whenever one point of the triangle is moved, it affects at least one of the other points. Due to pressure from the populace, time was a constraint. Automatically, whatever scope was initially planned will be affected and so will the cost. The engineers will have to work within the provided constraints. To understand all this and then how the final solution came about out of many others including spiral and mechanical stairs is to also be privileged. We will come to that discussion next.
I find that as a society, we are quick to pass judgments, make comments, and jump to conclusions on any and all subjects irrespective of whether we have any knowledge on the subject matter or not. That is a double edged sword; on one hand it means that we want to engage in national discourse, and on the other hand it means that opinions, and most times, misinformation, can be passed of as facts. In our haste also, we lose sight of the internal machinations and checklists that as progressives we need to go through before speaking on issues. We forget to check our biases at the door, ask ourselves whom will be hurt in our zeal, how our actions may feed into the oppression machinery, and whether our privilege blinds us to seeing things from a different perspective. There is another line we also have to be careful we don’t cross. Asking questions is always the right thing to do, however, allowing cynicism to overshadow your quest for answers will always come of as patronizing, insensitive, and most times ignorant.
The privilege question is also obvious when the people raising the loudest objections are not themselves end-users; neither pedestrians who will use foot bridges, nor any of the minorities whom ramps are designed for, that is, wheelchair users, cyclists and motorists. There are no simple answers when it comes to development or progress. Unless we are willing to listen to the people on the ground who will be affected directly, analyze our options through scientific and economic lenses, ask for expert opinions, and be humble to recognize our privilege and biases, we will be stuck in a cycle of wasting precious progressive capital in fighting the wrong battles.
Kwabena Antwi Boasiako (April 2019)
Kwabena Antwi Boasiako is the current President of the Humanist Association of Ghana and a Building Services Professional.