Low-speed vehicles on highways

Sadly, it seems that we have readily resigned to the fact that the highways in the country are used for all the wrong purposes. At least that's the impression we get when we see rickshaws and other non-motorised vehicles plying highways—as a photo published in this daily yesterday indicates. The picture shows a number of rickshaws carelessly plying the Dhaka-Chittagong highway amid fast-moving vehicles. Needless to say, this poses a grave threat and is symptomatic of a total disregard for road safety both on the part of drivers and the traffic police.

That this happens with such frequency right under the nose of law enforcers—despite a government directive asking the BRTA to keep vehicles that cannot run at 60km per hour off the highways—is disturbing. Given the extremely high number of casualties and fatalities as a result of road accidents on highways, it is incomprehensible as to why harsher measures aren't being taken to keep non-motorised vehicles from blatantly flouting the law.

Both the Roads and Highways Department and the traffic police have a role to play in addressing the problem of low-speed vehicles on highways. What we need to do—and what seems to be the best option—is come up with alternatives such as frontage or parallel roads for these vehicles without which they will continue to ply highways. Parallel roads would also allow people of lesser means to get to their destinations without having to get on the highways—endangering their own lives and the lives of others. The time has come to think of realistic solutions such as these because it is clear that merely issuing directives that are rarely enforced will not make highways any safer.