I recently traveled to Awutu Breku in the Central Region and on my way back I observed something that took my mind to my economics classroom. What I observed was the traffic jam on the Kasoa to Accra stretch of the road. The traffic jam as most people will attest to is not unusual, especially in Accra and its surrounding suburbs. Also, I observed the activities of hawkers who were obviously doing well with their trade. This second observation too is not new for I have observed it for the past four years of my stay in Accra. The only difference this time round was that these observations got me thinking like the economist-in-progress that I am.
Have you not heard severally
how people have spoken adversely of the usual traffic jam situation in Accra
and how it leads to a decline or better put, a slowdown in the potential growth
of GDP? The argument has been that people spend so much time in traffic jam so
they are unable to work optimally hence a slowdown in the potential growth rate
of the economy. I am almost certain that if “traffic jam” were a politician she
would never win any election in Accra because she is very much unpopular.
I am tempted to believe that
this sentiment about the traffic jam situation is held basically by the wealthy
and not by the typical less-formally-educated or less wealthy majority people
in Accra. It looks like arguments against traffic jams have been imported into
our country without contextualizing it. For example in New York traffic jams
may be more costly to society than in Accra. This is because in Accra traffic
jams are income generation stimulators hence, despite the unavoidable costs of
traffic jams, traffic jams also lead to generation of income hence growing our
GDP. Inasmuch as I believe that things can be better than they currently are, I
want residents of Accra and all who care about us to see some good in the
traffic jams that occur daily in our city.
As a metropolis, the biggest
and most populated city in Ghana; being also the commercial headquarters of
Ghana, Accra can do little about its traffic situation in the short to medium
run. Unfortunately we are quick to blame street hawkers who only attempt to bring
some good out of a bad situation. It is unarguable that traffic jams do not
occur because street hawkers are but street hawkers are because of traffic
jams, therefore, they are not to blame for traffic.
I want to make a case for traffic
jam and suggest that it is good or at least not so bad.
The hawkers in the street
are obviously making money. This money is what they spend on keeping their
homes. I dare to conjecture that there are possibly over 200000 hawkers in
Accra. Statistics puts the human population of Accra at 2,291,352, (Wikipedia,
’’Accra”, accessed 18th April, 2014) 56%of whom are below 24 and 51%
whom are women. It is not wild to conclude that most of the hawkers are women
and older than 24. Unlike other parts of Ghana, children are not seen hawking
on most of the streets of Accra. This could be due to the risk on the streets
of Accra and the campaign against child labour. All things being equal, most of
these street Hawkers win bred for at least four people; themselves, a spouse,
two children and or two other relatives. Based on these statistics I estimate that
about 800,000 people, 34.91% of Accra’s human population depend directly on
income from street hawking. These people spend their income on food, clothing,
and rent in slums or similar settlements. I dare to posit that about 50,000
traders who are not hawkers trade in clothing, food and food stuffs. A large
portion of the clothing of these hawkers and their dependents are made by
tailors and seamstresses who form a substantial part of the economy of Accra. I
would not attempt to estimate the multiplier effects of their expenditure, but
this could be very large. With the springing up of savings and loans companies
whose major customers are mainly hawkers or people whose major customers are
hawkers and their dependents; much of the savings which are borrowed by
investors and lent out to people in the formal sector come from activities of
these hawkers or from prior multiplier effects of hawkers.
The wealthy members of Accra
also benefit from street hawking or ‘’traffic jam hawking’’. These days, one
could buy all the ingredients they need for fufu whiles in traffic jam. One
could buy Cassava, plantain, tomatoes, palmnuts, pepper, and even fish. One can
get ready made food nicely packaged while caught up in traffic jam; Electrical equipment,
books, chairs, music and video CDs. In fact there are whole malls on various
sections of the streets of Accra. This, I believe, offers convenience to many a
road user.
I do not pretend that there
are no costs to traffic jam; the much talked of delays when people need to go
and transact businesses or attend some very important function or even to seek
health care. Also the amount of fuel that is burnt in traffic jams is quiet
substantial and this could be costly to owners of vehicles. The increased risk
of pedestrian accidents is also a cost worth considering.
But we can observe in
reality that most of the vehicles that cause or get caught up in traffic jams
are private vehicles. We can agree that private vehicles are a luxury and that
it is only wealthy people who can buy private vehicles. Traffic jams can thus
be viewed as a form of income redistribution that is carried out automatically
by market forces. It takes money from the rich in society and by its mechanisms
puts this money in the hands of the relatively poor members of societies. It
delays the rich from going to make more money or slowing down the rate at which they make money and creates a market for street
hawkers to make sales. Given the benefits that traffic jams bring to hawkers
and the ripple effects of those benefits, the costs paid by the wealthy in traffic
jam is only one of the deadweight losses society bears in undertaking income redistribution.
I will not attempt to conclude on the overall
desirability of traffic jams in Accra. To make such a conclusion there has to
be an empirical measurement of costs and benefits which I have not done.
I hope that this piece will help many people
to broaden their analysis of the consequences of traffic jams in Accra and urge
a formal research into the cost and benefits of traffic jams in Accra. Next
time when you think of traffic jams in Accra, think holistically of society.
Comments
Post a Comment