Traffic snarls in Bangladesh capital Dhaka cost $4.6bn a year in lost time, fuel and health consequences, among other elements, UNB reports quoting United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
That is the annual income of over a million citizens but many people felt they had no choice but to commute by cars and scooters, since public transport seemed too unreliable, UNDP says in its 2015-16 Results Report.
Bangladesh entered a solution pioneered by UNDP with Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation and
Go-BD, a local start-up. It placed GPS (global positioning system) trackers on buses, linked to a mobile app showing where the buses are and how the traffic is flowing (or not).
By the end of 2015, commuters had used the app nearly 34,000 times on one bus route alone, with some commenting that is has become the best way to navigate around their congested city.
UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific released the report at the UN Headquarters in New York, US last week.