The stranglehold of stopgap solutions

The dreadful traffic chaos on Dhaka roads last week has scathingly singled out a trend embedded in the present-day Bangladesh. Not only the transport sector, it keeps bedevilling almost every area of our national life. The scourge is our love for stopgap solutions. We may also add our obsession with hurriedness to this national flaw.

With the whole city caught in a colossal gridlock in rush hours on the very first working day of the week, baffled road users at one time detected the cause: the culprit was the abrupt installation of the traffic signalling system fitted with digital timer. The ambitious traffic control device was, apparently, put in place without a proper study. Introduced for the second time, it was supposed to work on 'experimental basis', once again. It was done hurriedly with the expectation of coping with the situation for now. They did not feel the necessity of looking into the immediate impact it will have on the city's traffic flow. It did not occur to them that before introducing the digital timer-based traffic control system in an unruly city like Dhaka, a lot of things needed to be kept in mind. Those included the vehicle drivers' mental preparation to adapt to the new device, the possibility of a clash with the existing system, the unique ground realities etc. Unfortunately, few of these prerequisites were taken into consideration before going for the system.

People behind the wheel in Dhaka have long been habituated to the rule of abiding by or, occasionally, flouting manually handled traffic signals. Last week, they found themselves befuddled in the streets with the intersections equipped with countdown timers. To add to the prevailing woes, the load of traffic appeared to be heavier than before on the roads throughout the city. In fact, the scene was a corollary to the new device. The stuck-in nature of the traffic snarls had clearly proved that determining the exact volume of traffic in the city was a prerequisite. This was not done.

The digital timer-signalling is, by itself, no stopgap device. But the way it was put into operation in the city last week veritably smacked of an improvisation measure. It doesn't require much brainwork to assume that the recent step to rein in Dhaka's traffic jams lacked vision. Before embarking on a grand programme like digital traffic management, feasibility and adaptation-related studies are imperative. In our hurry to go for make-dos, we remain oblivious of this prerequisite.

The traffic signalling apart, there are many other areas that have fallen victim to the stopgap panacea. Acerbically speaking, as a nation we are blindly in love with our 'transition period'. We feel gratified on being called growing, a process we do not want to see stop. Instead of getting concrete results, we prefer to engage in experimentation. This national mindset focused on makeshift arrangements has created grounds for stopgap solutions to make inroads. Nowhere is the ill practice of resorting to make-dos is more dominant than in the nation's development sector. Projects after projects are taken up to be abandoned half way through. Then they are resumed, and they follow the old cycle. Meanwhile hefty amounts of public money go down the drain. In the hiatus, stopgap solutions make entry to take the ever-gullible people for a ride.

shihabskr@ymail.com