City traffic system turns for the worse

As the ongoing operation clean street has failed to produce any tangible result, not to speak of disciplining the chaotic traffic, nation’s capital Dhaka is increasingly feeling the pain of a traffic system gone awry.
Traffic police, embedded Ansars and ‘community police’ are routinely out on the streets to ‘control traffic’, but what is noticeably absent is proper policing with the operation clean street entering its 16th day. City’s bus drivers continue to be as unruly as ever by obstructing the flow of traffic under the eyes of traffic policemen, rickshaws and three-wheeler vans plying on the wrong side of the road and entering the ‘no-go’ zone will impunity. To add to an already messy situation, footpaths are illegally occupied and vehicles are parked in busy streets throughout the city.
Ramshackle buses with no rear light or indicator or parking light, which should have been discarded as unfit are visible on the thoroughfares in large number. Dhaka traffic is nightmarish.
The unending traffic jam almost everyday of the week poses a threat to mobility. Huge traffic congestion results in loss of hundreds of thousands of man-hour and financial loss.
Despite the mobile courts under the clean street drive, traffic in different key areas of the city like Motijheel Commercial Area, Paltan, Bijoynagar, Gulistan, Naya Paltan, Shahbagh, New Market, Elephant Road, Science Laboratory, Moghbazar, Farmgate and Malibagh areas, virtually comes to a standstill at frequent intervals.
Under the drive, BRTA filed cases against 186 unfit vehicles from August 23 to September 2 and Dhaka district administration filed cases against 793 vehicles during the same period.
Meanwhile Dhaka Metropolitan Police sources said that from August 9 to September 4, they had seized 2993 vehicles as they were found unfit and were plying on the streets illegally.
DMP said that out of these vehicles 2552 were later released after imposing penalty.
During the same period DMP seized 2959 rickshawas from the street.
According to an estimate, the annual loss caused by traffic congestion in Dhaka City amounts to Tk. 15,000 crore or over US$ 2 billion.
“In 2007, loss from traffic congestion was estimated, in financial term, at Tk 12,000 crore, which has gone up to Tk 15,000 crore,” said Zobaerul Islam, Professor of BUET who is conducting research on the transport system of Dhaka city. 
He said that this cost includes the loss of manhour and fuel of vehicles.
Chairman of the Urban and Regional Planning Department of BUET Sarwar Jahan told The Independent that if the traffic scenario did not improve, the capital city would become an unliveable place.
To maintain the economic viability of this city and to keep its environment sustainable, an efficient transportation system is imperative, he said adding that though the experts have made many recommendations, the policymakers seem un-responsive.
He said that public transport system in Dhaka city is not adequate and properly-routed.
Experts said that the transport system of Dhaka is mainly road based. Although there is a limited use of waterways, the rail and air transportation for movement within the metropolitan area is totally absent.
The road network of Dhaka city comprises 199 kilometres of primary roads, 109 kilometres of secondary roads, 152 kilometres of collector roads, and about 2540 kilometres of access roads and others.
But experts opined that under the present situation half of the city roads remain unutilised.
“In Dhaka city the road coverage is only 8 per cent of the total area and it is extremely difficult to manage the transport demand of nearly 15 million people with this little amount of road coverage. Although there is a thumb rule of having 25 per cent area of a city as road coverage, actually no country in the world follows this one” Professor Jahan said
In different studies it was found that inadequate traffic management, inefficient road use, and poor operating conditions waste up to 50 per cent capacity of the roads, said Zobaerul Islam adding that “in almost all the major roads we find that because of the on-street parking, hawkers, uncontrolled stopping of public buses, we are losing at least one third of the roadway capacity.”
Quoting statistics Zobaerul Islam said transportation activity accounts for 11.5 per cent of the Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Products. On average, Dhaka households spend about 10.8 per cent of their expenditure in transportation use.
“When sustainability is the prime concern, car is the most inappropriate mode of transport regarding road space, parking, fuel consumption and social equity. Besides, the urban form of Dhaka and its socio-economic characteristics i.e. the overall urban context of Dhaka is misfit for car use which is reflected by the tiny modal share of car. So car should get the least priority for sustainable transport system of the city.” Prof Sarwar Jahan said.
Prof Zobaer said that with only 8 per cent road coverage Dhaka could handle in poor road infrastructure if there were other options for city dwellers. But it lacks a mass transit system as well as an organised bus system, the only city of its size worldwide to be in such a position.
“While other Asian cities have high rail usage amongst their public transit options, Dhaka’s is negligible. Without a rail system to supplement the volume of traffic on the roads, travellers going longer distances must board the wide array of privately owned buses that operate on the city streets,” he added.
Dhaka’s buses are not set to comfortably handle the number of passengers wanting to use their services.
He said that Colombo has 7600 buses for 4.6 million people, while Dhaka is lagging behind with only 2000 for 10 million. To meet the fast growth demands the number of buses may have to be up to seven times as many within fifteen years. Therefore because of the shortage of adequate bus services people have to wait for a longer period in order to get into a bus, which increases the total travel time.
Presenting his observation on the poor quality of city bus services Zobaer said, the buses of Dhaka are bursting at their seams with passengers, who fill every available space in the aisles, and forced to hang on to the door frames in the most extreme conditions.
Stressing the need for ensuring pedestrian movement, both Sarwar Jahan and Zobaerul Islam said pedestrians are present on most highways and transportation facilities, yet their travel mode differs vastly and sometimes is in conflict with the requirements for vehicular travel.
Zobaer said, most of the public generally considers pedestrian facilities to be limited to sidewalks; however, they encompass a much broader scope of services and facilities.

Courtesy of The Indpendent