First, let us examine what a reasonable practical system might look like.
The basics
The following rules are not simple but they establish the framework needed:
Get as many cars off the roads as can be achieved
Establish a disciplined bus system
Encourage high usage automobile systems like Uber or taxis
Make it expensive to use a car in Dhaka. That should include government departments who should not be exempt from paying for licenses to enter congested areas. Nor should diplomats be excused from paying such fees
The PM is doing her best to provide relief to the citizens of Dhaka. However, in the anxiety of donors and bureaucrats to spend a great deal of money improving the urban transport system, common sense has been abandoned.
The key problem is the uncooperative behaviour of the owners of bus companies. However, the PM has the power to force these persons to comply to ensure that the misery experienced by citizens of Dhaka is reduced.
With a few months of serious work with the bus operators, I think it will be possible to greatly improve the quality of the bus systems.
A proper plan for improving traffic should begin by understanding that we are trying to improve the experience of ordinary citizens, not the rich using their cars.
The same number of cars are going to drive around with or without these fancy systems. What these systems try to do is to improve the bus system by providing an alternative rapid route, either by offering special bus lanes or by using a train to move part of this journey length at a higher speed.
A realistic plan would have seven components:
1. Improve the quality of walking on the city streets
2. Introduce a disciplined bus system
3. Complete the two elevated expressway systems as soon as possible
4. Get the trucks travelling to and from Chittagong off the streets and onto the elevated expressways
5. Establish a backbone bus system running up and down the elevated expressways and delivering or collecting bus riders at bus stops at the exits and entrances to the expressways
6. It would be a very good action to have this backbone system to have electric buses and appropriate solar systems to recharge the batteries on the buses
7. Make access to the congested areas of Dhaka more expensive for passenger vehicles and minibuses
Here is a sketch of how to implement these components:
Dhaka TribuneWalk this way
First, for the walkers' benefit, fix the sidewalks and remove vendors. In many places the sidewalks are broken; these are easy to fix. For the crossovers over large highways use escalators to lift people up and down; also maintain these. A private company could do all of this. At street crossings put in stop lights for the walkers, giving people plenty of time to cross. If the cars have to wait -- tough.
These actions will cost less than $100 million and improve conditions for the large number of walkers. Some reports indicate that 25% of trips within urban areas are walkers. Improve conditions and more people will walk.
Fix the bus system
Organize the bus system on specific routes; make the owners keep the buses clean and nice looking. Insure that the buses are clearly marked as to what route they are on. Build bus stops covered with a roof against the rain. Discipline the buses with stiff fines if they pick up or let off passengers anywhere but at the bus stops.
Bus stops should be spaced close enough so passengers can get to their destinations with reasonably short walks. At big bus stops have announcements of which bus is arriving. Hire bus inspectors to ride the buses to check on crew behaviour. There are many good ideas that the reader will identify.
Perhaps the best approach is to have all buses owned by the government and rented to the operators. Each operator would be given a few routes. The operator rents the bus and is responsible for maintenance, fuel, operations, etc.
Tough regulations and proper enforcement will result in a reasonably good bus system that will take care of most of the long intracity trips that are needed as well as the short trips that comprise most of the passengers' travel plans.
Elevated expressways
The next step is the completion of the elevated expressways promptly. The government has to find some way to insure the financing of the first elevated expressway.
This may require renegotiation of the existing agreements. But the current pace of work is far too slow.
You may ask why the financing has failed for the first elevated expressway? The World Bank and the ADB refused to give serious consideration -- and without the blessing of one of the two development banks the international banks would not participate.
Taking care of trucks
Easy access to the elevated expressway for truck traffic is one of the essential improvements. Traffic experts can work out ways to do this. Everyone benefits from efficient management of the truck traffic.
Trucks will always be the dominant shipping mode for the RMG and textile products and improving the logistics for these sectors is a continuing urgent policy objective. Parenthetically, believing that the train can compete with the truck on a 200 km haul is another fairy tale.
Buses again
Establishing a bus company to operate up and down the elevated expressways is straightforward. But the operating company should be a private company. This company should have exclusive rights to run on the elevated expressways, a change from the existing conditions of the agreements.
A separate company can be contracted to construct a solar power plant for the buses using the expressway. The authorities must identify a suitable land area for the plant and then award to a private company the right to construct and operate these facilities for recharging the electric buses.
And now to cars
Entry into some parts of Dhaka by a car should require the car to have a special license, purchased by the car owner. Using a sedan or minibus in Dhaka should be made very expensive so as to reduce the use of such vehicles.
Impossible, you say! I say that the society should put in place a system that helps the bottom 95% of the society. If the rich want to have a car -- then let them pay. Getting enough cars off the street will enable the buses to travel more rapidly. Of course, Uber or taxi services should be encouraged for those that want transport in cars.
Conclusion
To improve transportation in Dhaka city can only be accomplished by a means that will fit with the existing habits and organization of the city.
The argument is that the large project approach will not achieve good results. But given that substantial resources have been spent for the first part of the BRT and the metrorail there is no alternative but to complete the first phase and examine the impact on the transportation system.
But the most important actions are to make the bus system work, complemented by improving conditions for those who walk.
In addition, raising the costs of passenger cars going into congested areas would increase the average speed of the buses.
If we focus on these last three, we might be able to make a dent in the traffic woes of Dhaka's denizens, the vast majority of whom, we must recall, travel by foot or by bus.
Forrest Cookson is an economist who has served as the first president of AmCham and has been a consultant for the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.