Stoppage of buses in the middle of the roads
Saturday, 20 December 2008
ONE of the most hazardous acts I almost performed recently was getting down from the bus right in the middle of the street, all because of the intransigence of the driver to stop by the roadside. As other vehicles were whizzing past I retracted my step and shouted at him to get to the side so that I and another fellow passenger, a middle aged woman, did not get run over.
He finally relented when I told him how he expected the lady with her bulk and age to be so super agile and dodge other vehicles on her way to the footpath, but not before he had his say which was: "Everyone gets down here (meaning in the middle of the road), so why can't you?" I only gave him a dirty look before I left his vehicle. And this was from a government-employed bus driver and the vehicle in question was the Volvo double-decker.
I have this to say to the traffic police: you people are doing a lot to keep our roads safe and the traffic moving whether it is raining or under the scorching sun, which we deeply appreciate, but a popular perception is that unless something wrong happens on the streets, you do not earn the extra money that you do.
It will need nothing less than a serious revolution to stop your extra earning by giving you a far better salary than you currently get (conceding that for some reason or another you need more money than other people) but at least one little you can do is to kindly make sure that bus drivers drop their passengers as close to the curb as possible, that is, near the edge of the street/road and we shall be eternally grateful to you.
Abul Bashar
Azimpur
Dhaka
He finally relented when I told him how he expected the lady with her bulk and age to be so super agile and dodge other vehicles on her way to the footpath, but not before he had his say which was: "Everyone gets down here (meaning in the middle of the road), so why can't you?" I only gave him a dirty look before I left his vehicle. And this was from a government-employed bus driver and the vehicle in question was the Volvo double-decker.
I have this to say to the traffic police: you people are doing a lot to keep our roads safe and the traffic moving whether it is raining or under the scorching sun, which we deeply appreciate, but a popular perception is that unless something wrong happens on the streets, you do not earn the extra money that you do.
It will need nothing less than a serious revolution to stop your extra earning by giving you a far better salary than you currently get (conceding that for some reason or another you need more money than other people) but at least one little you can do is to kindly make sure that bus drivers drop their passengers as close to the curb as possible, that is, near the edge of the street/road and we shall be eternally grateful to you.
Abul Bashar
Azimpur
Dhaka