RESTRUCTURE THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS

By: Regina Asamoah
Ghana Institute of Journalism

Have you ever wondered why you sit in traffic for hours after a hard day’s work when going to any destination of your choice? What is the essence of a traffic light? Are they really serving their purpose? Have these questions ever clicked your mind as you sit in a heavy traffic?
Decades ago, traffic lights were constructed to control the movement of vehicles. Every traffic light has a vehicle sensor and it often operates on timers. This means every traffic light is structured base on a time setting with the consideration of the number of vehicles. This calls for the need for restructuring of the time setting of our traffic lights since there has been a drastic increase in the number of vehicles we have today.
It then means the traffic lights are not really serving their purposes of controlling the movement of cars but rather generating congestion of vehicles on our roads which has been termed by people as ‘traffic’.
Time settings of our traffic lights ought to be looked at to prevent the heavy traffic one has to endure almost everyday. Aside restructuring the time settings of traffic lights, other damaged traffic lights ought to be repaired. Also the time settings of traffic lights could be changed probably every year based on the statistics of increased number of vehicles in the country.
I believe if this is done it would curb the problem of massive and rampant traffics in every street, round about as well as juctions.Also this will save the student, the worker and the traveler much time thereby reducing stress and save precious hours, man could invest to increase productivity.
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