It seems one acquires a licence to be lawless if he just owns a motorcycle in Dhaka or other cities and towns. If not, why do the traffic police simply ignore riders of motor bikes driving through crowded footpaths in the capital, hitting pedestrians and injuring them? Just visit the northern narrow footpath opposite to the Secretariat at Topkhana Road in the afternoon when office hours end and see how motorcycles wade through hundreds of padestrians.
Once this writer asked, raising his both hands, a young man driving his two-wheeler through the Topkhana footpath, to stop. He did. He was asked: "Won't you allow us even to use the footpath?"
The youth paused for a moment and said: "Ask the same question to the traders in front of you occupying the footpath." This scribe was simply dumb-founded.
All are breaking traffic laws and rules, motor cycle riders included.
Even the police seem to get frightened by the muscles of motor cyclists. The very narrow footpaths of the Suhrawardy Udyan and Ramna Park are places where these motor bikes flagrantly flout traffic rules. They use the footpaths even without sounding horns. The police are yet to crack down on them despite several deadlines they had set in recent past to nab them.
Even Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has expressed his grave concern over the menace of motorcycles. "Pedestrians cannot move freely on city roads due to the menace of motorcycles," he said. He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a training course for drivers at the head office of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
The minister gathered official statistics that say motorcycles caused a large number of road accidents in the capital. Strict steps would be taken, he said, to prevent dangerous riding. Inefficient drivers were as dangerous as unfit vehicles, he opined.
July 15 was the latest deadline set by the police to begin a crackdown on rampant and unlawful use of motorcycles as most users do not have either licence or registration of the vehicles. There are about 1.18 million registered motorcycles in the country at present, according to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, though the police suspect the actual number to be much higher, with many vehicles being smuggled in from neighbouring India. And according to BRTA, only 5,11,000 people have licences to drive motorcycles.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police (operations) is aware of illegal operation of many unregistered motorcycles, leading to accidents. The High Court asked the authorities not to allow motorcycles or cars on footpaths but none is there to heed its ruling.
In the Hatirjheel project area, motorcyclists can be found racing each other. Use of motorcycles for committing different crimes - including killings, mugging and exploding bombs - is also on the rise. Many of them also use AFR (applied for registration) plates and drive around motorcycles for years, which is illegal.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Health and Morbidity Status Survey revealed that motorcycle is at the second position among all road, railway and waterway transportations for causing accidents all over the country. About 11.66 per cent respondents in the survey had faced accidents caused by motorcycles. The percentage is slightly higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
The Accident Research Institute of BUET found that motorcycle accidents accounted for about 14 per cent of the road accidents in 2013, up from three per cent in 1998. It was found that motorcycles were three times more risky in causing fatal accidents than four-wheeler vehicles, for its unstable and unshielded feature.
It is now time for the government to examine whether motor cycles are to be allowed at all on busy roads of Dhaka city where buses, trucks and cars occupy almost all the roads leaving virtually no space for the bikes. Or, will the delinquent motor cyclists face stringent punishment?
arjayster@gmail.com
