OPERATE FROM DESIGNATED BUS STOPS (PAGE 29)

The Western Regional Director of the Road Safety Commission, Mr Bismark Boakye, has called on members of the general public to be law-abiding to ensure that reckless driving and parking in the metropolis are reduced to the barest minimum.
He asked members of the general public to pick transport only at designated bus stops and authorised places.
Mr Boakye said if the passengers managed to walk from their home to the roadside, then they should be able to go to the bus stops to board vehicles to their destinations.
He said it was to provide security and safety on the road that every major and minor road had designated places where drivers could pick and off-load passengers.
He expressed regret that while the commission blamed drivers for loading and stopping at the wrong places, members of the general public whose interest and safety was being protected also condoned the behaviours of the drivers.
He said drivers and other motorists had relegated the safety and defensive aspects of the job to the background because of competition.
“Where the driver thinks first and foremost about money, he will definitely ignore the safety of the passenger,” Mr Boakye said.
According to Mr Boakye, much as drivers had the right to their daily bread they must employ tact and care in driving to ensure that the driver and his passengers arrived alive.
“The good driver is the one who arrives alive, ” Mr Boakye said.
Mr Boakye appealed to drivers to operate from the lorry stations, saying that because drivers had abandoned the stations they encouraged members of the public to stand anywhere to board vehicles to their workplaces and added that if all drivers moved to street corners to load, there would be nowhere for other road users.
He said there was no magic solution to a problem and that the only solution was in motorists especially commercial drivers and members of the public, changing their attitudes and making use of the bus stops.
When the Daily Graphic went to the metropolis to find out why the drivers were operating along the shoulders of the roads and not from the designated bus stops some drivers said their vehicle owners had given them targets to meet.
They said joining the queue at lorry stations would not allow them to meet those targets.
One driver said: “I have no option but to ‘sweep town’ to meet my target, get money for fuel and also something for my family at home. We are not happy loading on the street corners for the police to be chasing us around but we have no option.”
Passengers for their part said it was faster for them to get home by standing by the roadside than to move to the station where they would have to wait long hours before they got transport home.