Scouts point out ways to bring traffic order

Dope, hearing and visibility tests for drivers on a regular basis, an increase in the number of traffic police and public buses as well as a change in the people's mindset are necessary to improve the traffic situation in Dhaka city.

These are among the 48 recommendations that the Rover Scouts made following their 10-day hectic efforts to maintain traffic discipline alongside police recently.

More than 400 scouts helped police manage traffic daily and made people aware during the traffic week which started on August 5. The week began after an unprecedented student protest for road safety following the death of two peers on July 29.

The scouts came back to the street once again on September 5, this time as part of a month-long special traffic awareness campaign of police.

Golam Mostafa, director (community development and health) of Bangladesh Scouts, said, “The recommendations came from the experience of our first phase of activities during the police week. Those were presented at the Prime Minister's Office on August 19.”

Top officials at the PMO, home ministry and police officials were present at the programme while divisional commissioners were connected through video conferencing, he said. 

The scouts recommended keeping traffic police out of political or administrative influence, separating the left lane of the road by putting barriers to keep those free for vehicles going left, building underpass or footbridge near roundabouts, and making stricter the scrutiny for issuing driving licenses.

They called for including traffic rules in the textbook of primary and secondary schools, creating available parking spaces especially in multi-storey building, keeping footbridges hawker-free as measures to encourage compliance with traffic rules.

There will also have to be an adequate number of CCTV cameras at all important traffic points and speedometers should be used more, they said.

As many as 322 Rover Scouts, members of Girl Guides, Red Crescent and other volunteers were on the roads on the first day of the month-long programme beginning this month.                              

Visiting different points in the city, it was seen that the scouts were helping police make pedestrians aware of using footbridges and zebra crossings.

Besides, the scouts are raisning awareness among students and parents on traffic rules through distribution of leaflets and holding different programmes at educational institutions.

The Secondary and Higher Education Division of the education ministry has given the task to the scouts recently through a circular.