The chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), while taking part in a talk-show on a private TV channel the other day, was found to be clueless about finding a solution to Dhaka's nagging traffic problem. He sounded quite candid about the traffic department's shortcomings in some areas as he highlighted the major factors contributing to a never-ending deterioration of the situation.
He had largely blamed the propensity among a section of users of city roads to break traffic rules for the current traffic situation in Dhaka. Highly inadequate road space and unbridled addition of new vehicles made his list complete.
There is no denying that Dhaka's traffic system is faulty, mainly because of poor space. The roads are not capable of holding such a large fleet of vehicles during the peak hours. As more and more vehicles are being added daily---more than 200, according to an estimate--- to the existing ones, the situation is becoming even graver with every passing day.
The government has built a number of flyovers, overpasses and U-loops with the objective of easing the traffic gridlocks. But barring the Kuril, Gulistan-Jatrabari and Maghbazar-Tejgaon flyovers, others are proving to be more or less useless. In most cases, the flyovers have been helping the gridlocks to be transferred from one point to another.
The point is that the possibility of improving the traffic situation under the circumstances is very remote. Rather, the residents need to be prepared for the situation turning worse in the coming days.
What, however, could provide some relief to this bothersome daily problem is the adherence to traffic rules by vehicles as well as pedestrians.
Traffic rules are least respected on Dhaka streets. The major breakers of laws are passenger buses, police vehicles, automobiles carrying very important persons and high officials, motorbikes, rickshaws and vans, auto-rickshaws and pedestrians.
As traffic gridlocks started becoming more complex, a section of vehicles developed the propensity to use the wrong lanes. But the on-duty traffic police preferred to overlook the violations. Even there was no action on the part of the police when newspapers had published pictures of using the wrong lanes by vehicles, generally, by cars of VIPs and police personnel. A few actions were taken recently against users of wrong lanes but to no effect. However, such violations have been going on unabated, even by the BRTC buses carrying the students of Dhaka University.
Jaywalking by the pedestrians is another most common violation of traffic rules. It would be unfair to blame the police for it. Pedestrians, including women and school-going children do risk their lives while crossing roads treading through speeding vehicles. On a number of occasions, the on-duty police tried to dissuade the pedestrians from doing this, but they failed to discipline the latter who are found reluctant to use the nearby foot over-bridges.
It is not enough to say that the traffic situation on Dhaka streets is 'anarchic'. In fact, the situation is even worse. Commuters have to remain stuck up in traffic gridlocks for hours together while crossing a distance of five to six kilometres. With no traffic signals in operation in most road intersections and disruptions of all sorts in place, the Dhakaites are most likely to have no respite from this hellish traffic situation for many years to come.
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