Dhaka's jaywalkers have lately found themselves in a great dilemma. In spite of their willingness to walk across a tolerably maintained overbridge or along the footpath, voluntarily or on being compelled, they find hardly any. The moot question is: who wants to put one's life in jeopardy by straying into the path of a speeding vehicle?
At this point we can focus on two street scenes in the capital. The first one picks two or three pedestrians trying helplessly to cross an awfully traffic-choked road. Some others gather round them in a few moments. On failing, the apparently bolder among them makes the last-ditch attempt to cross the road. Following him, all the people who gathered there hurriedly jaywalk, employing self-innovated acrobatic skills, some raising one of their arms. All of them, at that critical time, are at the mercy of the persons sitting at the wheels of the rushing buses, cars, covered vans etc. Rationally, none can blame the driver concerned if he delays in slowing down his vehicle. The crux of the matter is a foot overbridge clearly visible from the place. None bothers to use it.
The second scene has law-abiding persons, whose lust for life is still alive, struggling to make their way between the rows of hawkers who have seated themselves on a foot overbridge. Besides, idlers standing along railings of the bridge squeeze the space. The bridge users have to struggle their way through the open-air hawker-stands on the footpath around the bridge's entry-point. Many cannot even locate the bridge's stairway, let alone using it. One of such bridges stands at a point attached to Gausia Market in the capital.
Against this backdrop, Dhaka has witnessed an all-round swoop on the city's jaywalkers last week. Billed as a pilot project, the drive has seen the law enforcement agencies preventing compulsive jaywalkers from the unlawful practice. On the stretch from Farm Gate Police Box to Ruposhi Bangla intersection, the law enforcement personnel were busy throughout the day in the week netting jaywalkers, hauling them up to the two mobile court magistrates at work there. The two Executive Magistrates fined many errant road-crossers. An arguing young lady was sent to prison one day.
The irony is that the pedestrians appeared to be quite law-abiding in conformity with the civilised city-norms as long as the police and the mobile courts were active there. But the scene turned business as usual as soon as the on-duty police left the scene. The stretch of road has six overbridges and one underpass.
The drive launched by the law enforcers to force people to follow rules while crossing roads was spectacular. It set the people using roads in the area on edge for a few days. But the whole operation has prompted a lot of people to make an appraisal of the problem. It's worth noting that police drives and advocacies on making the pedestrians pick safe and lawful road-crossing practices have taken place in the capital several times in the past. But those actions visibly could not change the scene. Then definitely there were some lacunae that could not be tackled effectively.
That the messy traffic management scenario is one of the big impediments to Dhaka's growth as an ideal metropolis needs no elaboration. The unsightly road and transport-related spectacles in the capital have been afflicting its residents for nearly three decades. There seemed to be no end to it. Having endured varied types of ordeal on the city's roads, innumerable people turned fatalists of sorts. But that cannot be a way out. All this calls for a multi-pronged action, involving city corporations, experts, roads and transports authorities, and most importantly, the law enforcement agencies.
The prime focus of a holistic approach towards the problem of jaywalking ought to be on the pedestrians. It cannot be denied that a great percentage of the jaywalkers are defiant, with little regard for law. They are outright insensitive. Many others are too lazy to walk up to a nearby foot overbridge or an underpass and use the stairs.
It is up to the authorities concerned to make and keep people aware of the necessity of crossing roads through designated means. Regular advocacy campaigns have no parallel in this case. Besides, the so-called zebra crossings need to be made operative in the real sense. They have no symbolical value.
It is up to the law enforcers to devise ways on how to sensitise the habitual jaywalkers to safe road-crossing. In collaboration with the authorities tasked with road planning, they should also ensure that overbridges, underpasses etc., are completely safe, hazard-free and secure.
Mere herding the reckless jaywalkers to designated road-crossing points or admonishing and bringing them to book will never bring positive results.
shihabskr@ymail.com
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