Commuting in Dhaka city

A World Bank study (2017) says that the average speed of traffic in Dhaka is seven kilometers an hour. In comparison, an average individual walks at an average speed of five kilometres per hour and jogs at around eight kilometres per hour.

From the above data, it is evident that our traffic system has struck a bottleneck. Consequently, it may seem that we are all better off jogging to our destinations instead.

Let us assume that an average person's daily travel to his destination is seven kilometres. As indicated in the World Bank study, it would take someone two hours every day to reach and return from the destination. Normally it should take half an hour for one-way travel. This means an hour is lost for commuting every day. This amounts to a loss of 240 hours or 10 days per year.

It is crucial to understand that a city cannot hope to be efficient if its average citizen loses over 10 days a year in traffic congestions. This dysfunctional traffic system of the capital will hinder the country's various economic goals, including its aim to become a middle-income country by 2021.

Perhaps jogging to our destination is unrealistic as we take numerous variables such as comfort and convenience into account when we are choosing our mode of travel. However, if the book "Around the World in 80 days" is anything to go by, we could be one-eighth of the way around the world with our days lost every year to traffic.

Ahmad Yeaseen

Ramna, Dhaka

yeaseenfe@gmail.com