Divide the nation out of Dhaka

One more in my series on traffic management solutions for my hometown Dhaka. The suggestions are ideas that in my opinion could help ease the traffic mess in Dhaka. As always the idea can just as easily be replicated in all the other cities and towns across Bangladesh to benefit road users... provided intent.

Traffic Management: Lesson 7: Dhaka is only a mega-city by sheer volume of its population and by no means because of its infrastructure and facilities. It is a failed city and soon to be a dead one if we do not get our wits in order and organise and rearrange.

The traffic situation is moot point and testimony that the infrastructure in the city is no where near what it needs to be to simply cope.

Overhauling Dhaka bus business

Yet another in my series on traffic management solutions. The solution presented here is very Dhaka-centric and designed with Bangladeshi characteristics and idiosyncrasies in mind. As always the idea can just as easily be replicated in all the other cities and towns across Bangladesh... and in this case, if this idea is ever implemented, should.

Traffic Management: Lesson 6: Dhaka has little to offer as options in public transport, people can walk, take the rickshaw or jump on an already overcrowded and dilapidated bus run by the government or the private sector.

The buses never run timely but are always run poorly. What Dhaka needs before the metro line or the elevated expressway come is a complete overhaul of the bus system. Mind you people who invest in this sector do so to make money – and the cut-throat nature of the industry extends to how the business is run.

Phasing rickshaws off Dhaka streets

This yet another piece in a series of traffic management articles that I began last week. The ideas presented are particularly designed and thought out with the streets of my hometown Dhaka in mind. The ideas can just as easily be replicated in all the other cities and towns across Bangladesh.

Traffic Management: Lesson 5: No traffic management essay would be complete without some thought and a proposal for a solution that attempts to tackle the rickshaw issue.

The rickshaw issue has many facets to it, least of which is that it is a public service that is in great demand since the other public service options are limited at best and thoroughly unreliable.

Reigning in jaywalking in Dhaka

This article part of a series of traffic management articles that I have undertaken – particularly designed and thought out for the streets of my hometown Dhaka (and expandable to all the other cities across Bangladesh). Where it'll all end no one knows... [this is true for both the deplorable traffic condition in Dhaka and the number of articles in this series]

Traffic Management: Lesson 3... err 4: I have always maintained that there are few countries as free and democratic when it comes to personal freedoms than Bangladesh. Very few countries will allow people to cross the street at any point that is deemed convenient – this is regardless of the time of day or night, the width of the road being crossed, or the average speed in which on-coming traffic is moving.

The denizens of Dhaka cross the street anywhere and anytime they please; oftentimes under the cool shade of the pedestrian overpass.

Putting a toll on Dhaka traffic

Traffic Management: Lesson 2: Like many other countries, so too in Bangladesh money is king. Sadly, in more and more cases, as governance goes awry the end (i.e. making money) is being used to justify any means.

Money has become precious because it is erroneously considered the root to all happiness – and even if happiness remains elusive, at least the big car, over priced real estate and perceived neighbour envy helps a lot of people try and sleep at night (which most probably find is as elusive as their happiness they expected mollycoddled in the moolah).

But I digress.

Unclogging Dhaka city intersections

Whose right of way? More like 'right away'

Traffic Management: Lesson 1

Today marks the first in a series of traffic management articles that I will undertake – designed for the streets of my hometown Dhaka (and executable in all the other cities across the nation).

Just as anyone stuck in traffic has done time immemorial – I too have studied the traffic around me and been honed into an 'expert' in traffic management.

But before I go any further, I want to add that the difference between me and most self-trained (and self-professed) 'idle' traffic management experts, is that I have never designed traffic management situations in my mind as a fancy pass time or just a product of a burst of sudden insight; only to be forgotten by the next red light for another 'light bulb' moment.

Taking the metro for a ride

I never understood my native country – or at least perhaps intricate corruption has brought imbalance to priorities – because the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has to ask the government to make a decision on approving the metro rail that JICA is paying for (albeit in the form of a soft loan).

One needs not be in Dhaka city for too long to realise that one of the biggest problems the city dwellers face (apart from power cuts and a deteriorating law & order situation) is perennial traffic gridlock. These are the sorts of choked roads that rob hours of productivity and literally costs the country millions in lost wages and spent petrol fumes each day.