Efforts to stop Dhaka pedestrians from jaywalking have not been successful, despite several high-visibility programmes to stem the tide of illegal road-crossing that leaves two dozen people dead each month.
The negligence of the authorities concerned, mismanagement of the unplanned traffic system, lack of public awareness and heedlessness of the public all conspire to keep Dhaka’s intersections trapped in a state of chaos.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) traffic department, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have initiated a variety of costly projects to bring jaywalking to a stop, but all to no avail.
According to urban planners, thousands of pedestrians in the capital jaywalk every day on the busy city roads, particularly during the rush hour.
The pervasiveness of the problem poses serious risks to the lives of pedestrians and contributes to intractable traffic congestion on the city’s busy intersections.
The Accident Research Institute at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology says 380 deaths occur on the streets of Dhaka every year, 75 percent of whom are pedestrians.
Urban planners and traffic experts said pedestrians’ tendency to flout traffic rules is at the heart of the problem, adding that the absence of useful underpasses, footbridges and pavements makes jaywalking seem necessary for many.
They said the illegal occupation of footpaths by parked vehicles, makeshift shops, hawkers and construction materials force pedestrians off the overhead footbridges and onto the roads.
Dhaka’s two city corporations are responsible for maintaining thoroughfares for pedestrian and vehicular traffic while the DMP traffic division is charged with managing the flow of traffic.
Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, a noted civil engineer and transport expert, said: “The key reason for jaywalking in Dhaka is that most residents come from the rural areas and are not used to following traffic rules. Also footbridges are utterly unplanned so pedestrians are not keen on using them.”
Professor Nazrul Islam, an urban planner and researcher, said: “Around half of the capital’s residents – some 90 to 95 percent of the poor and low-income group – go to work on foot. Roughly ten million people live within an area of about 150 square kilometres in Dhaka’s two city corporations.
“The number of footbridges and underpasses in the city is simply too few to meet pedestrian needs.”
He added that traffic police should pay more attention to implementing traffic rules.
Jaywalkers have recently started to exhibit risky behaviour with many using their mobile telephones while crossing the road.
Sabbir Hossain, a Mirpur businessman, said: “I never feel like using the footbridge because virtually everyone just crosses the road.”
The confessed jaywalker said he felt encouraged to break the rules because traffic police say nothing.
Duty Sergeant Md Marikul Islam disagreed with this, saying: “The police do tell pedestrians to cross on the footbridges, but they refuse to do so.
“Sometimes we force the pedestrians to use the footbridges. But thousands of people cross these intersections daily. If so many people refuse to follow the rules, what can we do?”
Referring to the highly publicised mobile court drive against jaywalkers in November last year, Marikul said: “When we get strict with jaywalkers, journalists and human rights types become anxious over their punishment.”
In November last year, the DMP and Dhaka deputy commissioner’s office jointly ran a week-long drive to strictly enforce the law, including handing down six-month jail sentences against jaywalkers.
DMP Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Mosleh Uddin Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that eradicating jaywalking is virtually impossible because everyone is impatient to cross the road and nearly nobody obeys the rules.
“The public should respect law enforcement agencies and traffic rules, otherwise it is difficult to control the traffic in a city as densely populated as Dhaka,” he said.
