It is indeed alarming that more than one million motorcycles ply throughout the country without BRTA (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) registration. Our correspondent Badrul Ahsan in an exclusive report published in The Financial Express on May 5 last quoted BRTA officials as saying that this illegal practice has not only posed serious threat to public safety but caused heavy loss in revenue earnings.
In Dhaka city, traffic police department sources said six to seven out of every ten motorcycles have no registration. Outside major cities, the situation is far more worse. In urban and rural areas all over the country, more than 80% of motorbikes have no registration. Majority of the bikers are young and daredevils.
The FE report reveals that higher registration fees and cumbersome procedures followed by the relevant authorities discourage bikers to get registered. It is also a matter of concern that motorcycles, in many cases, are used for committing crimes including murders and muggings. Traffic police department says it becomes difficult for them to trace the motorcycles used in criminal activities in the absence of their registration. Moreover the police face pressure from influential political leaders and other powerful groups when they go for checking this illegal practice.
About two years ago, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) imposed ban on riding motorbikes in footpaths in the city. It is common sight that motorcyclists in thousands plough through the city streets everyday often violating traffic rules, much to the horrors of the pedestrians and inconvenience to the movement of vehicular traffic. The bikers are found using footpaths and roadside spaces particularly during tailbacks. But the DMP ban appears to have failed to dampen the high spirit of most of the young and reckless motorcyclists who frequently go through footpaths to avoid gridlock in roads thus endangering safety of the pedestrians. These young people are those bunch of bikers who care less for the safety of others as well as themselves.
Moreover, a rider without helmet often carries two persons on his back in utter violation of DMP rule. It is not also rare that a person on the back is a woman, sometimes found with one or two of her children. According to DMP rule, a rider can carry one person in his motorcycle but the accompanying man or woman must also wear helmet. But the rule is never followed. The traffic authority had earlier arranged sale of helmets to the bikers at different points of the city. The traffic men with stock of helmets kept watch on the passing motorcycles and halted the bare-headed riders and pursued them to buy a helmet. But how many helmets were sold in a day could not be known.
If a motorcycle rider was unable to pay for a helmet on the spot for want of money he was allowed to go for the time being. Actually the authority could ensure wearing of helmets if it was made mandatory for the sellers not to sell motorcycles without helmets. Now come the question of speed control of the motorcycles. No rule seems to be applied here. The way a motorcycle, invariably at top speed, sneaks through the speeding vehicles and proceeds like a hurricane, sends shivers down the spine of a spectator. The exact number of motorcycles plying in city areas is not known.
Now turning to the city's overall traffic management, the road users to their dismay, find that with each passing day tailbacks in Dhaka city is going from bad to worse as measures so far taken by the authorities concerned are quite inadequate to overcome the crisis. The people are accustomed to hear about application of newer methods to resolve the nagging problem which is taking heavy toll not only on citizens' free movement, but causing colossal loss in terms of working hours and hampering all other commercial activities.
The number one problem relating to traffic jam, however, lies in plying of vehicles nearly five times higher than the capacity of roads in the metropolis. According to a dependable estimate, the city roads are capable to bear the pressure of 0.15 million automobiles. The BRTA has issued licences to about 0.75 million automobiles. In addition, nearly 0.2 million vehicles from outside ply city roads everyday. This is another reason for traffic mess.
E-mail: khalilbdh@gmail.com
Motorcyclists hardly obey traffic rules
Khalilur Rahman | Published: May 11, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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