Easing traffic jams
What causes traffic jams? Simple answer: more vehicles on the road beyond its capacity
Dr. Mohammad Sakhawat H Bhuiyan
A provision of smooth transportation is a prerequisite for economic development. Roadways are required to be justifiably proportionate to the population. Dhaka city has sufficient roadways, although they are too narrow to carry its ever-increasing population. As a result, its traffic congestion has already reached at an intolerable height. More than flaming hot and frequent power outages, traffic blocks are widely felt more distressing. Thought about socio-economic effects of time consuming traffic while idle in traffic jam and got terrified just thinking only a little! Every working person is unnecessarily losing two hours daily from his or her life for too long traffic congestions, imported fuel is being wasted for its burning by the vehicles which remain on the road for more than required time, extra carbon emission is making weather even more warmer, sweaty people for crowd in traffic are becoming tired and exhausted and thus their workplaces are being deprived from their expected work outcomes. Like a chain reaction, single traffic congestion has become liable of multi-faceted wastages. To minimise the wastage of work hours, protect from being exhausted, prevent wastage of imported fuel in addition to reduce carbon emission to protect climate to be more heated, the solution of orthodox problem of traffic congestion is a dire or even more necessity to gain or save multi-faceted and greater benefits.
What causes traffic jams? Simple answer: more vehicles on the road beyond its capacity. Acceptably, street widths in Dhaka city are barely sufficient to be able to take the load of its sharply grown population. However, this is not the only cause of unbearable traffic levels. The lack of standard mass transport such as air-conditioned bus services or a short break sitting services that goes with burgeoning middle and upper middle class is literally forcing them to rely more on private cars which are making traffics even more congested. A standard bus can carry forty passengers at a time. Nevertheless, for the lack of a standard bus, forty middle and upper middle class people, on an average, hit the streets with at least twenty private cars.
The burden of two hundred private cars on the streets can possibly be reduced through introducing only ten standard and properly managed bus services, for an instance, on Mirpur-Motijheel route. A little thought will be sufficient to understand that, instead of multiple bus services under multiple ownerships in a single rout as it is now, a standard and trustworthy bus service with short but fixed intervals under single ownership of an established company in a single route, if introduced, is most likely helpful to reduce the dependency of able population on private cars and thus traffic congestions will significantly be reduced. It has been observed in London that on weekdays people mostly take mass transports for their regular journeys despite having their own cars. To make take the assistance of mass transport even more, the Mayor of London frequently launches campaign by saying, bus is your own car so that Londoners take even more assistance of mass transport! They do so to minimise traffic congestions, prevent wastage of resources, as well as to reduce carbon emissions.
A construction of monorail service in a part of Dhaka city has been planned to reduce traffic congestions. Subway or underground railway could be a better solution, but has not been considered yet. However, underground rail or monorail, whatever it is, will take a very long time to operate and an issue of huge investment too.
Moreover, a large undertaking of monorail project would have little impact in solving traffic congestion, because only a single route is included in the current plan. Along with this long term plan, short-term solutions are also needed to consider for a quick fix and it has to be done in such a way so that the amount of traffic across decreases utilising the existing infrastructure at minimal costs. For this, government has to undertake only a few decisions to implement. Identifying the main routes across Dhaka, each could be leased calling tenders on such conditions that standard buses have to start for destination one in every fifteen minutes whether a sufficient number passengers are on board or not. An air conditioned bus has to be there after every two standard buses. Bus drivers have to educated and well selected. There must be strict accountability provisions to ensure the proper implementations of these conditions and, for a just monitoring of services, third-party supports might be taken from area-based civic organisations. If the public transport systems become smooth and standard, then dependency on private cars will be reduced which eventually shifted to public transports. This will certainly help to reduce traffic congestions as well as minimise the overall costs and wastages.
Dhaka is the city near to our heart. We lived in Dhaka city in the past, we are now living in, and we indeed will live in Dhaka in the future. We would be the reason of our own detriments if we could not leave a fair and liveable Dhaka city for our future generations. And to make it a liveable city the first and foremost measure would have to be making it free from traffic congestions.
We must have to come forward setting it a high priority concern for our own sake. It would not be very wise if we only look for government initiatives, rather private institutions should also come forward in this regard because thousands of private establishments have already grown and been thriving inside Dhaka. Instead of depending only on governments initiatives, better we all, private and public, come forward to make Dhaka city cleaner, fairer, and liveable. At the end, Dhaka is our own city, isnt it!
The writer is Assistant Professor University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
Email: [email protected]
