All the governments including the present caretaker one have so far taken several measures to improve Dhaka city's traffic situation. These measures include freeing the pavements from illegal encroachers, introduction of more buses and modern traffic signals, banning slow-moving auto-rickshaws and pedaled rickshaws selectively on some important roads. But we could hardly enjoy the results of these measures because no remarkable change in respect of facilitation of traffic has taken place on the city streets. The traffic jam turned worse for some time. It became so due to flaws in some decisions. Still, people cannot move on transports faster than walking.
The traffic jam is one of the most irritating parts of city life for its dwellers. It has not improved to the expected level of the people or to the minimum level when they can breathe normally without anxiety on the streets. One important thing has been absent in all the measures so far taken for improving the traffic situation. It is the programme to motivate people to abide by the traffic rules. Not only the majority drivers of both motorised and non-motorised vehicles do not respect the traffic rules, the pedestrians, even the traffic police do not also care for the rules on the streets.
It is found that most of the street users have the tendency to skid the traffic rules including signal lights. They often use wrong lanes for driving and walking. Pedestrians do not use the zebra crossing or footbridges. Hardly a vehicle stops at the right point while the signal is red. There is a need to look into these matters and take up programmes to find out ways of how to make people of all strata motivated to abide by the traffic rules. Without these all, we will can hardly expect to see Dhaka city streets free from traffic jam.
Ziaul Haq
Gopibagh,
Dhaka
More focus on traffic needed
FE Team | Published: June 27, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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