Sense & Insensibility
Traumatic traffic tango
JUST as we get used to the rule of the tyrants, or consuming adulterated food items, or drinking polluted water, we get used to getting bogged down on the roads in traffic congestions for hours together. And we endure it with such grace! No hollering, no banging, no cursing.
While trapped inside our claustrophobic cars, we talk to friends on cell phone, we listen to music on cell phone, we quarrel with foes on cell phone. And, finally, when we reach Motijheel from Banani in two hours we still are as fresh as a cucumber, smiling at everyone we meet. We also remain quite philosophical sitting inside an ambulance with a heart attack patient inside. If the jam is to take his life then it was written in his fate -- to die inside an ambulance in a traffic jam without treatment. Amen.
Look around and see how our big bosses create some of the worst congestions by holding up the traffic flow for going to some office. They do not want to remain stranded with the plebeians and share the common fate. Their time is money. Our time is garbage. Remember, the same big bosses used to give gali to the previous big bosses for holding up the traffic. But, as the adage goes, "Whoever goes to Lanka, becomes a Ravana."
On a busy day, if a small road remains blocked for fifteen minutes then the congestion would spill over and engulf the entire city. It would take half a day to clear up the mess and by that time we would have lost man-hours worth millions of taka. We would also burn gallons and gallons of expensive octane and gas just sitting like a stupid out there on the road. But, who cares?
The traffic management officials know this very well, but they cannot come up with any alternate solution so that five big bosses do not hold up traffic for thousands of citizens during business hours. Can we have separate lanes for the bosses to go to different offices, which could be kept free of vehicles since morning after arranging separate thoroughfares for the public? Well, just a thought.
But these traffic management officials do not want to use whatever amount of grey matter is left in their cerebral cortex after hauling up trucks in shady corners to think about the sufferings of the "non-paying" citizens.
They feel a sense of glee overpowering their bodies and minds when thousands of citizens stranded at various street corners silently curse them for the ordeal. When confronted, these officials blame the fate for the congestions but don't blame the system left corrupt by their inept administration.
How can Dhaka see the end to traffic congestion? A million dollar question. Is there one simple answer or a multitude of answers? Another million dollar question? There are many more such million dollar questions to haunt us in our dreams. Shall we ever be able to manage or control the burgeoning traffic on Dhaka roads with thirty/forty year old vehicles of odd descriptions still running around with crooked chassis? When shall we take them off the roads? Is there space for twelve thousand plus new vehicles hitting the roads in the capital every year (with 1,800 vehicles getting registered every month)? Can we bring order and cohesion on the roads with the entire bulk of the civil, police and para-military establishments located in Dhaka?
Decentralisation is an answer offered by the experts. They suggest relocation of industrial units, especially garment factories, in specified areas custom built for the purpose. The most important suggestion given by them is the increasing use of public transport. One large public bus is worth the carrying capacity of twenty private cars.
It is always economical to travel to and from work by private transports. Yes, they have to be modern and definitely bhodrolok-friendly. Not the kind that runs you down to pick up a passenger and then throws him out before the vehicle stops properly.
The most citizen's health-friendly advice given by the experts is developing better walkways. It would allow citizens to walk to office, school and work without having to depend on a vehicle. For this, you would not have to burn expensive fuel. All you will burn is your own unhealthy fat and make some health profit as well.
So, brothers and sisters, please ask your boys and girls to walk to school if it is located within one mile. Take them yourselves so that you have your morning walk at the same time. Ask the municipal/city corporation authorities to keep the walkways vendor-free and chandabaj-free.
Hey, we had heard of a project named "Strategic Transport Planning (STP)" but what has happened to it? Is it active or has it died a natural death? By God, we are never short of projects, planning, committees, probe bodies and so on! We also keep hearing of mind-boggling sums of money like two hundred crore/five hundred crore/one thousand crore have been spent on traffic management. So, what is the result? Where has the money gone, bhaisab? In buying flats in Baridhara?
Is there any suggestion for widening the roads by breaking down the structures built right by the side of the roads and shutting downs shops on every road, which cause private transports like cars, rickshaws and rickshaw vans to park on the roads in front. There must not be shops by the side of every road since there are shopping malls in each area.
Before a new road is completed, the land or house owners on the two sides rent our front portions to the shop owners. This has to stop. The small shop owners on other important roads could be motivated to form a cooperative and buy land elsewhere to build a shopping mall to do their business.
If you can break down the shops on the Elephant Road you can widen the road by twenty feet on each side. Same goes for the Farmgate road from Shahbagh to Bijoy Sharani.
According to a UN estimate, Dhaka will be the second most congested city by the year 2015. Well, I wonder why it is not so already? How can any other city have the privilege of being the second when we have bumper-to-bumper traffic on the roads from dawn to late at night? Does the second most city have cars riding on one another then?
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments