Woeful traffic: Some questions
We blame the traffic police for their failure to manage Dhaka’s worsening traffic situation, yet we overlook how much civic sense has deteriorated among our drivers and car owners. The people’s blatant violation of traffic rules is behavioural dysfunction at its worst.
Our policies and implementation must also share the blame. Why are we allowing so many cars on our streets? Why is there no paid public parking facility in each area? Why are some people still driving on the wrong side of the street? Why do motorbikes defy the traffic sergeant and scoot at the slightest opportunity? Why don’t buses have designated places to stop? Why aren’t there any lines at the intersections behind which the traffic ought to stop? Why are there so many beggars and why are they flooding the traffic lanes? Why are street vendors occupying the footpaths? Why are pedestrians crossing the streets wherever and whenever they feel like?
Will someone answer? Those in key positions must step up and take the bull by the horns, because this nightmare is costing the nation horrendously -in time, money, and not to mention health, civility, and related externalities. Left to their own devices, the traffic woes will continue to be traumatic.
Syed Saad Andaleeb
Vice Chancellor, BRAC University,
Dhaka
