Signal system more effective than foot-bridges
To facilitate safe crossings of pedestrians, the government should fully automate the traffic signal system in Dhaka city instead of spending a huge amount of money on building foot-bridges, stakeholders said at a meeting yesterday.
“We've made much progress in digitisation, but our traffic signal system is still manual. It's unthinkable,” said Khandakar Rakibur Rahman, executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), a government body.
He also said that to bring discipline in the transport sector, political will is required.
DTCA organised the meeting at Cirdap Auditorium marking “World Car Free Day” to be observed tomorrow.
Praising the Dhaka Chaka bus service in Gulshan and circular bus service in Hatirjheel, urban transport expert Prof Shamsul Haque said commuters are satisfied with the services. “Now we can apply this to other parts of the capital,” he said.
Criticising construction of foot-bridges, he said, “In nowhere of the developed world will you find foot-bridges. Commuters cross the road following an automatic signal system, which costs less than foot-bridges.”
Dr Moazzem Hossain, professor of civil engineering at Buet, and Akter Mahmud, associate professor of urban and regional planning of Jahangirnagar University, presented two separate papers over strategic planning to end traffic jams in Dhaka and importance of curbing the use of personal cars respectively.
Prof Moazzem pointed out that an urban transport system evolved in the absence of an umbrella institution coordinating all plans related to roads and transport. As a result, the road network of the capital did not develop properly, he added.
“The absence of an umbrella organisation leads to poor development of road networks, planning, regulation and ineffective enforcement of law,” he said.
Regarding this, he mentioned illegal car parking, piling of construction materials and setting up of bins on footpaths, which create bottlenecks at important junctions of the city roads.
In his presentation, Akter Mahmud suggested creating a pedestrian network through the development of footpaths for easy movement of commuters.
Nirapad Sarak Chai Chairman Ilias Kanchan cautioned against copying the models of developed countries in designing road networks. “We have to take population density and their behaviour into consideration while planning road networks.” He urged the government to include contents on road safety issues in textbooks to train the future generation.
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