Economic loss of traffic gridlock

Shahiduzzaman Khan | Published: July 17, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The capital city has been witnessing severe traffic congestion at most of its vital points, just from the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. Vendors have occupied footpaths and some portions of lanes, by-lanes and wider intersections.
The encroachment upon most of the vacant places has, as usual, taken place, allegedly in connivance with a section of law-enforcing agencies and the Dhaka City Corporation's (both) officials.
It's an open truth that the footpath vendors have to give a certain amount of money as toll to the on-duty police and traffic sergeants regularly, failing which they are forced to give up their businesses. Mobile courts conduct special drives occasionally. But the vendors are informed of such drives in advance. Thus they disappear temporarily from the scene only to return after a while.
Makeshift Iftar markets have also sprung up in different open places as well, particularly by way of occupying most places of the city's roads. These markets are creating serious traffic congestion. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has deployed additional forces to control such markets. Instead of collecting toll from the Iftar sellers, what these forces are doing is anybody's guess. Market watchers say such a situation is expected to continue until the end of Ramadan. There is, in fact, no respite.
As such a practice is continuing for years, traffic situation across the capital has now assumed an intolerable proportion, adding much to the miserable plight of the city dwellers. The city is now witnessing unprecedented gridlock from morning to late at night. It is now taking two to three hours to travel a distance of only six kilometres during the peak hours.
Indeed, an overwhelming number of recklessly-driven public transports are reportedly contributing to the intense traffic jams and the lack of road safety. Congestion is increasing beyond any manageable proportion, leaving no room for a visible solution. People are being forced to wait inside vehicles for hours on their way to and from workplaces.
One wonders what might be the economic loss of such traffic gridlock. A recent study revealed that a staggering amount of Tk 200 billion is lost every year in traffic jams due to valuable time that is lost in severe gridlocks on the streets of the capital city. Traffic jam was also considered responsible for taking away the people's 8.15 million working hours, 40 per cent of which are business hours. An amount of Tk 20 billion is lost due to 3.2 million business hours that are wasted in congestion, according to the study.
The study, based on considerations of only the loss of people's time and modes of vehicles, has indicated that both public transport operators and freight industry have to bear the loss of an amount of Taka 20 billion each for losing trips daily and restrictions on entry into the city during daytime. Quoting data from a study of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, the study said motorised vehicles can run in the city at an average speed of 15 kilometres per hour (kph) against the speed capacity of 40 kph.
The cost that different modes of transport including buses, mini-buses, CNG three-wheelers and rickshaws bear for losing the required speed is estimated at Tk 12 billion a year. In fact, the real loss, incurred on account of such bizarre traffic jam is much higher as because people's productivity, the quality of life, productivity of business, reduction in working life span and higher 'sick hours' of employees remain uncountable.
Urban planners and communication experts have, time and again, identified multi-dimensional causes behind traffic jams in Dhaka. These include rapid unplanned urbanisation, high population growth rate, high rate of increase of vehicles, plying of different speeding vehicles in a single surface, unauthorised parking, illegal occupation of roads, non-compliance with traffic rules, lack of traffic rule enforcement, absence of coordination among different agencies and ministries for managing city traffic, reckless driving and frequent changes of policies.
Even the existing footpaths, foot-bridges and under-passes are occupied by encroachers, beggars and hawkers. Moreover, such places are neither clean nor safe. Obviously both the DCCs are not otherwise doing their jobs of making sure that their pavements and foot-bridges are useable. At the same time, the public must use these facilities, instead of crossing busy roads risking their lives and interrupting the traffic flow.
In fact, any city should have otherwise 25 per cent of its total area as roads and highways as per the international standard. But in Dhaka city, it is only 8.0 per cent. Besides, the population limit that the city can withstand is only 3.0 million. But now, the city's population has already exceeded 16 million. Under such circumstances, how can one expect a road without traffic congestion? Such problems cannot be solved overnight because this is the result of long negligence and short-sightedness of policy makers.
The traffic gridlock of Dhaka city should definitely be viewed as its number one problem. Citizens are losing their precious man-hours in the process. Sickening trauma of endless waiting is telling upon their mental and physical health. Loss on account of traffic jams runs into billions of taka or equivalents from delayed transportation of goods and uneconomical functioning of vehicles. As for anybody's personal losses, a good many number of patients were reported to have died from the inability of ambulances to reach hospitals on time due to traffic jams. There are many more losses that still remain unaccounted for.
However, the gridlock is sure to disappear once the required 25 per cent of the city area as roads is ensured. However, even wide roads are also not the best solution for this unruly traffic as there is no traffic discipline anywhere in the city. What is required for the city is a proper cross-road network -- wider foot paths, foot over-bridges at every 200 yards on main roads etc. -- to lessen traffic congestion to a considerable extent.                     szkhan@dhaka.net