Following public concerns by some motorists that there are inadequate or non-existing road signs in various areas in Ghana, directing or alerting motorists especially at a time cameras (Traffitech-Gh) have been deployed to enforce traffic laws, the Police Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) has provided information on how to use landmarks.
In line with this, the MTTD has reminded motorists and cyclists that the non-availability of a speed limit sign on a certain road, physically installed by a road engineer is not an excuse to engage in speeding above limits.
The MTTD has explained that inculcated in the Road Traffic Regulation are four lawful landmarks for speed limits on Ghanaian roads where there are no physically installed speed limit signs by road engineers.
Emphasising that the deployment of the new camera technology (TRAFFITECH-GH) was aimed at deterring motorists and cyclists from engaging in speeding above the limits, which is currently one of the leading causes of many road crashes in Ghana, the MTTD has said already, the intensified public education campaign and the issuance of electronic caution notices had contributed to a reduction in road crashes, injuries and deaths.
According to the Director of Education, Research and Training at the MTTD, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Alexander Kwaku Obeng, apart from the cameras, which were aimed at ensuring that people use subjective sense of apprehension knowing that the MTTD systems are SMART, there were also the landmarks, which have equally been captured in the Road Traffic Regulation 2026, L.I. 2519, Regulation 211 (General speeds).
Explaining, in a radio interview monitored by Graphic Online on Accra based Joy FM on Tuesday [Nov 3, 2026] morning, ACP Obeng acknowledged that there are inadequate speed limit signs on many Ghanaian roads but insisted that, in the absence of the road engineer installing speed limit signs, there is a conventional rule where landmarks are used to determine speed limits.
This, he said all motorists and cyclists are supposed to be abreast with, since it is part of the education and tests before driving licences are issued.
Highlighting them, he said in Ghana, the signs for driving on the roads are two;
-
Prior to 1968, when the UN imposed the one road engineers deployed on the road
-
There was the one that our forebears [ancestors] bequeath to us which is driving by sight with landmarks, and it is also incorporated in our Road Traffic Regulation 2026, L.I. 2519, Regulation 211 (General speeds)
Anywhere you are driving in Ghana and the road engineer has not posted the speed signs as contained in the 1968 Vienna Convention Road Safety Resolution, then all the time use the Ghana landmark signs for speeding, he said.
They are;
-
50kph - That when you are driving on the road in a built up area, that is a road with buildings indicating that human beings have gregariously congregated there, they live there, look at the speedometer for your speed to read 50kph in that corridor.
-
30kph - And that when you are in that same community area and you see where community members congregate to go for their health services, educational services, things that pertains to supernatural worship, either Christian and other services, where they embark on certain processions, and they go for their commercial services (market), look at your speedometer and it should be 30kph.
-
90 kph - Another landmark is that when you leave a settlement, a built up area, and you are in an open field road, on either side, grassland or trees, forested area, human beings are not there, [you may call it highway], look at your speedometer and you can increase your speed to 90kph if the nature of the road allows you to do that, as normally there maybe curves and all that.
-
100 kph - And then on motorway, when the speed signs are not there, and it is indicated since 1965, and it is a road constructed between Tema through Accra, 100 kph. That is our landmark speed signs.
According to ACP Obeng, "that is our landmark speed signs. Please don't let anybody go and deceive you, that drivers are not magicians.
He insisted that "drivers are magicians because... this is supposed to be used in addition to the speed limits installed by road engineers."
- Related articles
- TraffiTech-GH comes alive - Police hopeful system will result in drastic drop in road fatalities
- TraffiTech: MTTD explains how during an emergency, motorists rushing patients to hospital can contest speeding fines
Writer's email:
