THE two-and-a-half-hour-long mobile court drive to evict illegal encroachers from bicycle lanes in two roads became futile just after two hours in Dhaka city on Sunday. Illegal parking is responsible for traffic jam while roadside vendors push pedestrians to walk on roads — two main causes of the road accident. Following the demand of cyclists for separate lanes, Dhaka North City Corporation introduced the lanes in some roads but the cyclist hardly gets benefit from the lane as encroachers and illegal parking restrain them. The city authorities should take sustainable steps for making the city liveable for all.
Despite the growing popularity of cycling as means of commuting, exercise and recreational activity with eco-friendly two-wheelers would not rank Dhaka as a cyclist-friendly city. Erratic traffic movement, reckless drivers and motorbikers and callous pedestrians make cycling a highly stressful and risky activity in the capital, and cyclist communities have long wished for dedicated bicycle lanes, a common feature of many cities’ traffic system across the globe.
Not only eco-friendly communication is obstructed in the city, but also walkways are unsafe and hostile to the city commuters as most of the footpaths have a flaw in their designs. There are 292 kilometres of pavement in south Dhaka roads and 223 kilometres in north Dhaka streets. Most of the pavements leaving those small parts in the upscale neighbourhoods are in a same miserable state. Pole and stairs of a footbridge on the footpath gobble up almost the entire pavement in many areas. Parts of the footpaths stretching from Amtali in Mohakhali to Gulshan are potholed and occupied with stuffs from the shops around.
Any urban development means construction, which most often unfortunately does not have transparency and accountability. A safe walkway for pedestrians was also never a high profile program, for which city planners or the city authorities will get public applause. Bangladesh urban planners and city authorities should give additional effort to make cities more pedestrian-friendly and eco-friendly.
