Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP’s) initiative of setting up 4,077 metal pillars has become an effective means of checking motorcycle plying on footpaths, which helps ensure safe movement of pedestrians in the city.
“We’ve achieved a complete success in checking motorcycle plying on city’s footpaths through installation of 4,077 metal pillars on footpaths across the DMP area with our own finance,” DMP Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Mia told BSS on Wednesday.
“Our next target is to make the city’s footpaths free from illegal occupation,” he said, hoping that this new endeavour would be successful. The DMP chief requested the owners of the refueling stations not to sell fuel to the motorcyclists having no helmet so that the bikers are compelled to wear safety helmets.
Asaduzzaman also said the DMP is conducting a month-long special campaign from Wednesday to bring discipline in the traffic management system and create awareness among people to stop the incidents of recurrent traffic rule violations.
In the recent Traffic Week in August, it was found that motorcyclists were the most violators of traffic rules as more than half of 88,293 traffic rules violation cases were filed against bikers during the period. On Tuesday last, about 2,657 cases out of 5,532 were filed against the riders of two wheelers while 130 motorcycles were seized for allegedly violating traffic rules.
According to the case statements, the motorcyclists were mainly accused of violating traffic signal, failure to produce valid documents and driving licenses, not wearing helmets, and travelling on wrong routes. Although the DMP is taking legal actions against motorcyclists for traffic rules violation, many bikers have been constantly breaching the traffic rules and regulations, putting the lives of pedestrians and others at risk.
According to official data, on an average about 100 cases are being filed against motorcyclists while 100 motorbikes are being seized every day for allegedly violating traffic rules.
Experts say the unruly motorcyclists cause accidents, violate traffic rules and even create nuisance to pedestrians by driving motorcycles on footpaths and wrong ways for lack of proper enforcement of traffic rules and strong monitoring.
Many of the bikers even do not register their motorcycles with Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and often use their bikes in committing crimes, they said.
“The traffic police seize 30 to 50 motorcycles a day and file over 700 cases against motorcyclists. But, youngsters’ driving of illegal motorcycles continues, which puts the lives of city dwellers at risk,” a police official said.
Observing that most of the bikers are teenagers who perform acrobatic stunts to show off in front of their peers, he said there are tens of such motorcycle drivers in the capital. “We cannot send the entire force to chase and arrest all the bikers who are violating traffic regulations.” The frequent seizure of these vehicles has caused another problem as the yards of police stations are being occupied with motorcycles, he said.
