Combating Dhaka's traffic congestion
After a praiseworthy journey in implementing MDGs, the next big target for Bangladesh is execution of SDGs. The government has integrated the 2030 agenda of SDGs (17 goals) in its 7th Five Year Plan, Perspective Plan, and Vision 2041. Some of the goals are visibly linked to one another, some quite intrinsically connected, and a few require special attention given the country's huge population and rapid urbanisation especially in the capital Dhaka. Of them, goal 11 is of special relevance. A major focus of goal 11 is ensuring sustainable urban development that supports increased productivity, investment and employment—and one of the challenges to achieving that goal in Dhaka is its traffic congestion.
In recent years, we have noticed extensive government efforts to ease the traffic situation. The government has already implemented several flyover projects and is now working on metro rail and expressway projects, which are intended to improve public transportation in the city. On the other hand, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) took steps to introduce automatic signalling system. Several eviction drives have been conducted to free road spaces. Despite these efforts, there has been little progress in the traffic situation. A recent report by The Daily Star mentioned a survey that says Dhaka's traffic congestion eats up around 5 million working hours daily and the concomitant annual loss is between Tk 20,000 crore and 55,000 crore. It also said that the city's road network covers only 7.5 percent of its space while the global standard is more than 20 percent.
It seems the initiatives taken by the authorities did not have the desired results to reduce the sufferings of the city dwellers. The reasons behind this may be the continuous increasing of the number of vehicles and rising population density in the city. Moreover, in my view, expansion of the city areas towards Gazipur, Narayanganj and Munshiganj makes Dhaka more vulnerable to traffic gridlock, and its connectivity with those districts is rather slowing down their infrastructural and institutional development. Finally, government intervention in the infrastructure development and incorporating modern signalling system to ease traffic seems insufficient and ineffective. The question is, is there any policy scope left to improve the situation?
Some commentators say restricting new vehicular registration and imposing high duties in the import of private vehicles and automobile parts may work. But the authorities are, quite reasonably, careful about these suggestions. The fact is, automobile purchasing and selling has a prospective market in our economy and it has a positive contribution in the overall growth of the country. We see a favourable market for automobiles in the US, China, India and many other countries. The US is popularly known as a consumerist society but China and India are developing nations and they, too, do not like to restrict consumption growth. Considering such macro-economic factors, our ground reality and best practices in the modern cities, I would like to propose some policy interventions that might come into use.
I think, first of all, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and DMP should fix the lanes for buses and private vehicles. But it must be done after proper assessment of the space available on specific roads, rush hours, offices of organisations in a certain neighbourhood (schools, hospitals), usual traffic in the week days, etc. Initially, private vehicles may require more lanes than the buses. Lane crossing needs to be made a punishable offence. Lane-wise speed limit also needs to be fixed.
Second, BRTA, city corporations and private investors need to arrive at a consensus about increasing the number of public transports along with the improvement of bus stoppages, app-based and card-based bus ticketing system, etc.
Third, the Ministry of Education needs to play a regulatory role in fixing a timeline for the schools and colleges to arrange their own transportation. All educational institutions need to formulate a mechanism so that each student can grow the habit of using their common transport system. Imposing mandatory transport fees on the students may bring a positive result. Similarly, government and private entities are required to mandatorily implement the shuttle services for their employees. Many organisations, both public and private, are already doing that.
Fourth, BRTA can limit the operation of private vehicles by segregating the vehicles into two or three groups according to their registration numbers, and permit them to run only on specific days of the week. This is a very common strategy followed in some megacities like Beijing. It might help private transport users to get used to public transportation as well as facilitate the expansion of the country's automobile market by giving an opportunity to those who can afford to buy more than one private vehicle to get the benefit of being in different registration number groups. But for that to work properly, DMP needs to tighten its monitoring mechanism.
Fifth, DMP can also initiate a reward programme for the pedestrians to inspire them to videotape and report incidents of traffic rules violation, indiscriminate parking, unlawful lane crossing, etc. so that they can trace the offenders by checking the registration number plates of their vehicles and bring them to book.
The neighbouring city corporations and municipalities (Gazipur, Savar, Tongi, Narayanganj, Munshiganj) are now well-connected with Dhaka. Formulation of zone and imposing zone crossing charge for the light vehicles can be applied to discourage them from entering the city frequently. Also, mass advertisements, media coverage, on-air programmes, and app-based knowledge sharing may be of help in raising awareness of the drivers, pedestrians and other stakeholders.
Finally, a separate cycle lane is a demand of the time. Improvement of the Zebra crossing and assigning time in the signal system for the pedestrians' road crossing are also vital to upholding our developing status. City corporations and private organisations, the latter as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), should support and promote bicycle riding.
These are but some policy suggestions that may work, but the government should come up with more innovative ideas. Unless we constantly upgrade our strategy to find the best possible solutions, mega projects like a metro rail or flyovers may be of little help to improve the city's traffic situation.
Ashif Anam Siddique studied sustainable development at the University of Sussex, UK.
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