Number of motor vehicles is fast increasing on Dhaka roads. It is a common scenario in any growing economy. But the worrying thing is that disproportionate increase of motor vehicles is responsible for traffic chaos thanks to wrong planning and lack of basic governance.
The latest statistics, released by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), showed that the number of newly registered motorcycles stood at 0.20 million in the first eight months of the current calendar year. It means, on average 565 motorcycles are pressed daily on the roads of the country. The total number of newly registered motorcycles was 0.33 million in 2016. In Dhaka, during the first eight months, some 46,493 new motorcycles get registration from the BRTA.
The growing number of motorcycles is not only adding pressure on road traffic management, but also creating social disorder in many cases. Most of the motorcycle riders virtually get impunity while plying the roads flouting the traffic rules. Driving on the wrong lanes and over the pavements is quite a common sight.
The unruly bikers include members of different law enforcing agencies, journalists, students, political cadres, hooligans and office goers. Interestingly, everybody has a similar kind of plea to support their misdeeds -- they are already delayed and so need to move faster anyway to reach their respective destinations. While this may be true, breach of traffic rules can't be justified.
No doubt, the growing demand of commuters, mainly due to absence of adequate public transport, pushes more motorbikes on the roads. At the same time, continuous unruliness of a large section of the bikers makes the two-wheelers one of the main causes of Dhaka's chaotic traffic.
At the same time, one must not lose sight of the fact that the unruliness of motorcyclists is largely attributable to poor traffic management. Lack of traffic literacy is another reason exacerbating the chaos. It is important to educate people about their driving manners. Only legal action can't control the unruliness.
But motorcycle is not the only vehicle causing the chaos. The growing number of human hauler is another vehicle responsible for adding to the road chaos. During the first eight months of the current calendar year, some 2,727 new human haulers were put in service across the country while the number is 196 in Dhaka. But accumulated number of human haulers in Dhaka has crossed 5,000 already and a large number of these have turned ramshackle.
Human haulers are highly prone to road accidents due to their size and the untrained young drivers. Movement of the human haulers in the highways has increased the risk of accidents. Backed by political support, these vehicles are on the streets flouting traffic rules regularly.
The so-called easy bikes, battery-driven light three-wheelers are another cause of suffering due to the congestion they cause, particularly in narrow streets. These vehicles are not allowed to drive on the main roads and so they are growing in the lanes and by- lanes squeezing the spaces for pedestrians.
Lack of adequate public transports is definitely at the root of all these evils. BRTA statistics showed that on average 40 new cars are coming on the roads daily. In the first eight months of this year, some 14,373 new cars got registered in Dhaka while the number is 16,160 in the whole country. Thus private car is highly concentrated in Dhaka and adding to the traffic woe.
While the number of motor vehicles is available in official records, there is no reliable statistics on the number of rickshaws. Millions of rickshaws ply the roads and streets in Dhaka and the number is growing. As a large number of people are dependent on rickshaws for daily commuting, unplanned restriction of the movement of rickshaws has made things worse still.
Besides the vehicles of all kinds, it is the condition of the roads that adds a lot to public misery. The government has been spending millions in the name of road construction and repair works. But these prove to be sheer waste of public money as the servicing and repairs do not hold out for long. Pot-holed conditions of the roads in many parts of Dhaka have increased the sufferings of the commuters. While all attention is to construct big flyovers with highly inflated costs, roads under the flyovers have turned completely unfit for smooth movement of vehicles. Now a days, flyovers in the capital have become the symbol of development no matter whether they have at all improved the traffic scenario in the capital.
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