A photograph front-paged in this daily yesterday not only paints a grim picture of poor maintenance of the capital�s traffic system, also emphasizes the dire need of a well-managed urban transport system and judicious use of urban land to deal effectively with this perennial predicament.
Dhaka's horrendous traffic is nothing new. Given that it is one of the foremost densely populated cities in the world and lacks the road space required for the current volume of traffic to move easily, traffic congestion has remained a perpetual problem for the city residents. On top of that, a huge percentage of the roads that we do have are either continuously experiencing repair work or are in rampant need of repair because they were ineffectively constructed in the first put.
According to a World Bank report, in last decade the average traffic speed has dropped from 21 kmph to 7 kmph in Dhaka which will be 4 kmph by 2035, slower than walking speed. This decreasing speed of vehicles negatively affects investment, production, marketing and consumption, those put negative impact on overall economic growth.
However, given the day-to-day suffering this causes people, as well as the economic and social costs, why is it that we have just given up and learnt to live with it? Why haven't the authorities come up with a comprehensive and effective plan to improve Dhaka's traffic? How long will we remain satisfied with their empty promises?
Despite having several operational flyovers in the city, people have to suffer from long tailback because of poor traffic management, growing population, mounting number of vehicles, uncontrolled car parking and bus stops. Many of us break traffic law willingly just because we do not think abiding law is important. However, this is a common social phenomenon needs to be addressed the quickest.
Undoubtedly, any neutral assessment of the capita's traffic management would clearly reveal poor performance of traffic policemen as the main reason for the traffic mess. Often it is seen that they themselves become responsible for creating traffic jams. Dhaka's traffic police are more onto handle traffic manually than using street signals. But manual management of traffic has its limitations as the policemen cannot see much of the tailbacks. Ideally traffic should be controlled by traffic lights. This problem should be duly addressed through installing CC cameras for monitoring traffic performance.
Finally, it must be noted that vigilance on the part of the law enforcement agencies can ease the crisis to some extent. For a long-term solution, we need a more collective and concentrated approach.
Dhaka has a limited network of either small or congested roads. Until sufficient road-spaces are available, such limited space should be appropriately utilised through stringent enforcement of traffic rules and severe punishment of violators.
