Traffic jam is jamming our senses and hurting our faculties

It looks as though the traffic jam is also jamming a few of our mental faculties. Most of us are confined to the four walls of our apartment. Each locality has turned into a mini-city or enclaves within the Mega city, restricting our travel for work or socialising. It is particularly cruel for the elderly and partially disabled. There are other sides to this confinement. Being in too close a proximity with other members of the family like your wife and teenage children for hours on including holidays and closed week-end days; it is all so claustrophobic. No wonder there is this famous saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt" Today nothing is more frustrating to people than commuting from one place to another. So bad is the situation, we and our car drivers both dread to undertake any journey in the city involving a four hour driving, like going to Gulshan from Dhanmandi and back. Often an hour of visit to a relative or a friend's home essentially turns out to be five hours of gruelling time. My friends often tell me that due to this reason drivers too loose their grip on their nerves and often drive recklessly. Not too long ago the traffic jam in Bangkok was no less than what it is now in Bangladesh when for a 20 kilometre journey, people used to carry urinals and some snacks in their car including a convertible bed for a child not knowing how long they would be away before they would return home. Today in Bangladesh, a similar situation prevails with added fear of being killed in an accident. Bangkok today represents a totally different scenario. Travelling by cars or by other means of transportation is as easy and safe as in any country of the developed world. Where as, in Dhaka it is extremely difficult to commute by cars or otherwise including travelling on the highways. Being a 70 year-old weighed down by a debilitating state of diabetes and arthritis confined to a wheel chair, I continue to live in a state of panic all the time. At times, thinking of the traffic condition I have silently wished that when the time comes, I pass away silently sparing my family the agonies of transporting me to a hospital. The ruling establishment is happy and very pleased for the way people have celebrated the Eid. While they are patting their backs; one comes across innumerable stories in the media about traffic jams stretching between 40 and 60 kilometres with tailbacks of vehicles stranded for hours and even days in many of our highways; not only that on the river routes the scenario is no different. People routinely undergo unprecedented suffering too due to ferries being stuck in the middle of a river for hours. The ruling establishment oblivious of the fact is happy since the families travelling to join their families say that despite the pain they are excited with the prospects of being with their near and dear ones in their ancestral homes away from the capital. This business of traffic movement and traffic jam has become the number one problem particularly for those living in Dhaka and other metropolitan cites of the country. In this matter of traffic jam what hurts most is the fact there is no sign of any possible change for the better or let up in the prevailing situation. All we have is promises of mega projects and empty slogans. We are of the opinion that some relief could be given to the public but for lack of very basic traffic control measures. If you are a keen observer you would see that the very traffic police engaged to control and oversee traffic movements also contribute to this debilitating state of the traffic jam. One of the major problems with any regime in this country has been implementation of set laws and rules whether in the transport sector or in other areas. There are laws galore where as their implementation is almost non existent. The other day, I was on my way to Gulshan. As we approached the traffic signal near the Novo Theatre, we were in a tail-back of about 30-40 cars behind our one, when all too suddenly I was jolted by a piercing sound of a horn. Does anybody care to know as to how many people in this very city have been impaired in their hearing due to sounds of all kinds of horns used by an innumerable variety of cars and other vehicles plying on the streets? The problem of the traffic jam should be addressed here and now both for the sake of the ruling establishment and the people at large. Let the mega projects be there; but let us also continue to address the routine issues of traffic management on the ground effectively and decisively. All this traffic jam is taking a toll on our lives in more ways than one. Email: caa342@yahoo.com