According to London-based Economist Intelligence unit yearly survey, Dhaka was ranked the second least liveable city in the world last year. In 2017, it was ranked as fourth, which shows that the situation, within a year, has deteriorated even more.
Another study, commissioned by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, says that traffic congestion in Dhaka eats up around 5 million working hours every day, which costs the country $11.4 billion every year. Of course, traffic jam is all but expected in a country where, on average, 45,000 people live in 1-kilometre spaces in its capital city.
Every megacity experiences bad traffic jams at certain hours of the day, but in Dhaka, the traffic situation transcends time and space, resulting in an unsafe and inefficient city despite its natural beauty and geographical advantage.
I mean, the city even witnessed a string of protests by students after two school-children were killed by an errant bus -- if that isn’t disheartening, I don’t know what is.
What causes it?
Illegal parking of vehicles on roads, one of the biggest contributors to our traffic problem, causes cars and other vehicles to come to a standstill. Many intercity trucks and buses are parked in Mohakhali, Sayedabad, Gabtoli, Tejgaon, Malibagh, and other busy areas. The Housing Ministry and police do not enforce their regulations and monitoring in this matter, which leads to the problem being further exacerbated.
When local buses and seating buses takes people from random, unallocated places, it bars other vehicles from passing and causes immense traffic jam.
Most commercially hired drivers are uneducated -- and even unqualified in some cases -- which leads to a degree of callousness when they drive their buses and trucks on the main roads. These offending motorists constantly, flagrantly, break the laws, running red lights and stopping right over zebra crossings, preventing commuters from crossing the roads with any semblance of security.
When vehicles change lanes without any indications, it becomes difficult for others to move. It may sound obvious, but traffic police have to be strict in enforcing traffic laws.
Decentralization can also play an important role. Not every institution -- as in private universities, corporate offices, and the innumerable private banks -- needs to be operating in Dhaka, they can be set up or relocated to other districts around the country. This would not only reduce the number of people living in Dhaka, but would also ensure a fair balance of jobs for people in other cities.
A lack of coordination amongst traffic police is yet another culprit. Ideally, a special task force under an experienced and honest magistrate should be monitoring these traffic police officials in Dhaka. In addition, the number of CCTV cameras can be increased to monitor the traffic situation.
If traffic police officials do not carry out their tasks properly, they should be handed higher fines and stricter punitive actions needed to be taken against them.
The late Mayor Annisul Huq proposed an idea of only one bus company being given the permission to operate in one area of the city. If this idea is properly implemented, it would surely reduce the highly risky “bus driving competitions” which result in so many accidents and deaths.
Time for an unpopular opinion: All rickshaws should be banned from the streets of Dhaka. This would reduce the numbers of slow-moving vehicles, and more people can travel in buses with reasonable ticket prices. These rickshaw-pullers can make their living in other smaller rural cities, where they have less people with less commuting options.
However, rickshaws are difficult to remove, as the political party leaders and student wings of political parties do huge business using them in their political programs.
Traffic jams alone cause immense loss of time and money, impacting our economy greatly. Governmental officials should take urgent steps to decentralize certain branch offices of most institutions to other cities.
The British 12-point system, which has a provision to nullify driving licenses as punishment, can be considered for Bangladesh, while more awareness towards the traffic issue can always help.
Muhammed Rubayet is a Master’s student at the University of Southampton.