Traffic management is not a short-term affair

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is planning to include school and college students as volunteers in the fortnightly traffic programme that started on January 15. It is a good idea, but such piecemeal efforts are temporary palliatives for a problem that demands permanent solution, because traffic discipline is an issue that needs continuous attention and temporary measures will only compound difficulties. We have seen DMP launching a month-long campaign to bring back discipline on the roads after the tragic death of two students and the student movement for safer roads, but to little avail.

Nothing much has changed because authorities need to acknowledge the fact that traffic management involves several issues.The structural problems must be addressed seriously. We need bus stops and we need buses to stop there and nowhere in between. The city roads are woefully inadequate given the number of vehicles that ply on them and these need to be widened or we need to construct underpasses, flyovers and u-loops to keep vehicles moving. Children need to be taught at schools the need to observe and obey traffic rules and we need to think of new ways, like public-private partnership ventures that will open up driving schools all over the country where prospective drivers will learn the law of the road through proper training.

The problems on the city's roads have much to do also with people's lack of awareness, and this requires the active participation of media (particularly visual media) as part of awareness-raising campaigns. It must be impressed upon everyone—from drivers and passengers to pedestrians—that safety comes first; both the person behind the wheel and the person on the road are responsible because safety is a joint responsibility. And last but not least is the matter of enforcement where the role of the police is of paramount importance. And those caught breaking traffic rules must be penalised as per law and without exception.