Transportation Problem Urban City of the Developing Country Bangladesh. Department of Civil and Environmental Department of Civil and Environmental

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1 Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.8, 2011 Transportation Problem Urban City of the Developing Country Bangladesh Mohammed Forhad UDDIN Kazushi SANO Doctoral Student Associate Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Engineering Nagaoka University of Technology Nagaoka University of Technology Kamitomiokamachi, Kamitomiokamachi, Nagaoka, Niigata, , Japan Nagaoka, Niigata, , Japan Tel: Tel: Fax: Fax: Abstract: In this study, we represent different kinds of transport and transportation problem occur in the developing country Bangladesh and its main city Dhaka. The transportation authority of Bangladesh is working very hard to increases their services to present a safety and a comfortable journey. Further, the transportation authority and the policy maker reduced the transportation problems a lot but the mitigation of traffic congestion and traffic accident are not remarkable. On the other hand, traffic jam causes air pollution which affects the respiratory tract, causes irritation, headache, fatigue, asthma, high blood pressure, heart diseases and cancer. This article try to highlight the vital problem related to traffic congestion and traffic accident in the capital city Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Finally, recommendations are included to alleviate the traffic congestion and traffic accident, and to present safety and enjoyable journey for the passengers. Key Words: Traffic congestion, Traffic accident, Transportation problem 1. INTRODUCTION Bangladesh is a developing county and the capital city Dhaka is the 9 th largest city of the world. The basic facilities for the citizen of Bangladesh are not decentralized and the common facilities in Bangladesh are city basis. The economy of the country regulates by the cities. For these reasons, people from the remote place come to this city for the purpose of job, study and business. Consequently, Dhaka is fast becoming one of the largest cities in the world with 13 million people and land area of Dhaka Metropolitan City is nearly 1530 square kilometers with Dhaka City Corporation(DCC) and four other municipalities (Narayanganj, Tongi, Gazipur, and Savar),. It is also one of the most traffic congested city. By 2020, the megacity's population is expected to rise to million. This rapid population growth together with the limited space available for

2 new transport infrastructure will further aggravate the heavy congestion in Dhaka. On the other hand, Bangladesh already has one of the highest traffic fatality rates in the world. Upgrading transport services for more efficient use of limited space is therefore critical for ensuring people s mobility, improving their quality of life, and boosting economic growth. The figure 1, apparently described the population density and area of the metropolitan region of the capital of some development countries of Asia (source Wikipedia website). From the figure 1, it could be understand that Dhaka is one of the overpopulated cities. The figure 2 shows the population in Dhaka city and the projected population in near future. But about 40% of the mega city has been urbanized and the population density of the urbanized city is about 19,000/sq.km. The area of capital city is 304 square kilometers (excluding river area) and the population is about 6 million. No. of Population Bangkok Colombo Dhaka Hanoi Kuala Lumpur Different Capital Cities Phnom Penh Area of the cities Figure 1 Area of different capital city and their population density No. Of population Linear (Population for existing data) y = x - 6E+08 R² = 0,9872 Linear (Projected population) 0 Year Figure 2 How the population in Dhaka city is increasing

3 Figure3 The mega city Dhaka developing upward (Collected from Wikipedia) Figure 4 and 5 Road of Dhaka and its traffic condition Limited resources, invested for the development of transport facilities, such as infrastructure and vehicles, coupled with the rapid rise in transport demand, existence of a huge number of nonmotorized vehicles on roads, lack of application of adequate and proper traffic management schemes are producing severe transport problems in almost all the urban areas of Bangladesh. In fact, Traffic jam causes air pollution which affects the respiratory tract, causes irritation, headache, fatigue, asthma, high blood pressure, heart diseases and cancer. Experts say if this trend continues unabated, most residents of the metropolis would become exposed to the risk of those ailments and different other health hazards and complications. The development of mental fault of children would be impaired by lead pollution that could also affect the central nervous system and causes of urinal damage and hypertension. Further, Due to traffic jams on the roads of Dhaka city, most of the vehicles use their horn constantly, which is extremely harmful to

4 human health, especially for children. The massive traffic congestion taking its toll on human health should not be allowed any more. In this report, different types of mode of transport in the mega city Dhaka, Bangladesh are discussed. Further, the challenges for safety and comfortable journey of Bangladesh are also focused in this report. Finally, some suggestions that may reduce the current challenges are also included. This report is organizes as follows. In Section 2, different type s statical information regarding the transport of Bangladesh is presented (collected from, BRTA, BBS). In Section 3, the recommendations that may lessen the challenges are discussed. The final Section 4, contains the conclusion of the report. 2. STATISTICAL INFORMATIONS This section describes the information regarding the vehicles proposition and the features of traffic accident. This section has three main parts, in first part; we illustrate the number of motorized vehicles of Bangladesh and the capital city Dhaka, second explain the accident mitigation yearly and the last part represents the traffic congestion in Dhaka. 2.1 Different Type of Vehicles Since, income plays a significant role in influencing transportation choices people have. There are different types of vehicles namely car, bus, jeep, truck, minibus, microbus, auto-rickshaw, tempo, mini-truck, motorcycles and innumerable rickshaws. This means that in parallel to motorized vehicles several types of Non-Motorized vehicles also drive in Bangladesh. Non motorized vehicles (such as bicycles, cycle-rickshaws, and carts) now play a vital role in urban transport in much of Bangladesh. There are approximately 400,000 cycles rickshaws run each day out of which about 80,000 rickshaws are registered. On the other hand, there is about 1.43 million registered vehicles commute in Bangladesh. The number of motorized vehicles fly in Bangladesh and Capital city Dhaka are show in the table 1 & 2. Table 1 Number of year-wise registered motor vehicles in Bangladesh Type of UP TO January Grand Vehicles Total Motor Car Jeep/St.Wagon /Microbus Taxi Bus Minibus Truck Auto-rickshaw /Auto-tempo Motorcycle Others Total

5 Table 2 Number of year-wise registered motor vehicles in Dhaka Type of UP TO January Grand Vehicles Total Motor Car Jeep/St.Wagon /Microbus Taxi Bus Minibus Truck Auto-rickshaw /Auto-tempo Motorcycle Others Total Number of Vehicles Bangladesh Dhaka city Different vehicles Figure 6 Different Types of vehicles in Dhaka and Bangladesh 2.2 Unsafe Road Condition Bangladesh road and transport authorities are trying their best to preset a safe and a comfortable Street. But, Road accident is one of the common news of Bangladesh. Once, it was very difficult to get the actual statistics regarding road accident. But, now the media play an important rule to report the news of accident. Further, the Road Traffic Accident database is being maintained and updated by BRTA on the basis of police MAAP (Micro-Computer Accident Analysis Package) information. BRTA and the Bangladesh Police have been working together to maintain the integrity of the database and promoting its statistical accuracy. The table 3, shows apparently the recorded accident all over the country yearly (source BRTA annual report, 2008).

6 Table 3 Recorded Casualties in different years ( ) Number of wounded Wounded rate Year Fatal Sternness Serious Injury Simple Injury Total Population( per 10,000) (per 10,000) Fatalities Total Wounded Casualty rate (Casualty accident per 10,000 population 1,6 1,4 1,2 1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 Divisions(excluding City Area ) City Area Bangladesh 0, Different Year Figure 7 Changes of traffic accident different years

7 2.3 Traffic Congestion Traffic jam in mostly Dhaka is a very common problem. Every day we are facing traffic congestions and intensify sufferings of commuters keeping people motionless as well as creating suffocating condition in the streets (Please see figures 8, 9 and 10). There are many reasons behind the traffic congestion but the main reasons of traffic congestion in Dhaka are: The main cause of traffic jam is population. Population is increasing in Dhaka as well as Bangladesh day by day. To satisfy the increased demand, the numbers of vehicles are increasing but road capacity remains unchanged. So traffic jam is becoming serious that hospital going patients have to die on the road. Illegal parking is another reason for traffic jam. Cars, trucks and other vehicles are parked almost everywhere.(see also figures 11 & 12) Narrow road spaces and overtaking tendency of drivers create pro-longed traffic congestions There are bus terminals not authorized by the traffic department and drivers do not go by traffic rules. VIP protocol maintaining is another reason for frequent traffic jams in the streets and divider problem in the city s different important roads also causes congestion. Private cars are coming down randomly and they adding new version of traffic jam Faulty traffic signalling systems and inadequate skilled and dutiful manpower is also responsible for the traffic Jam. Unplanned road excavating on the same road by Water and Sewer Authority (WASA), Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), telephone and telegraph agencies without any integration among them is responsible for intolerable traffic jams. In any roundabout in Dhaka the plying CNG, rickshaw, bus, etc form multiple lines. They do this to grab a tiny space out of sheer desperation. Figure 8 & 9 Traffic congestion (Motorized road)

8 Figure 10 Traffic congestion Mixed Vehicles (Both Motorized & Non-Motorized road) Figure 11 and 12 Parking on the road and stopping to pick up Passengers

9 3. RECOMMENDATIONS Many researchers, policymakers and authorities are always submitting suggestions to mitigate the currents unbearable situations. But the lack of implementation of the recommendations is very problem Bangladesh. In this section, we have described some recommendations regarding traffic accident and congestion to reduce the existing problems. We also firmly believe that if these suggestions can be implement perfectly, the problem will be become tolerable. 3.1 Proposal that may reduce traffic accidentin this section, we have referred some suggestions that can improve the deteriorating condition of Dhaka as well as Bangladesh traffic accident are as follows: Existing traffic law, rules and regulation should implement as soon as possible. If the existing traffic law and rules are inadequate, new traffic rule and law should formulate. Driving licence should scrutinize more strictly so that the driver with fake licence cannot drive Penalty for traffic rules violation and traffic accident should be increase and implement perfectly which will improve the awareness of the driver. Public awareness program should arrange and more lessons on road safety rules should be introduced in national education system The concern institutions (BRTA, DCTB, RTC, DCC, Police, WASA, etc.) should be accountable and dutiful, and should co-operate each other arranging road safety awareness campaigns. More skilful manpower should recruit for the concern institutions and more sophistically instruments or facility should increase. Instructional corruption should be eliminate so that guilty cannot escape without proper punishment 3.2 Proposal that may reduce traffic congestion In this section, we have referred some propositions that can improve the deteriorating traffic congestion condition of Dhaka as well as Bangladesh is as follows: Population controlling process for Dhaka city as well as Bangladesh is very important. The basic facilities for the citizen should decentralize so that the number of population in big cities will not increase. Different birth controlling process should encourage. Urban traffic rules and regulation should follow by the drivers. If the existing traffic law and rules are inadequate, new traffic rule and law should make The parking rules should implement strictly, new parking spaces should construct and both government and private instructions should ensure their own parking spaces. All import-export connected offices and Big business centre can move near the port area (such as Chittagong, Khulna, Mongla etc.) so that commodity movement will convenient. Different Offices and educational instructions should change their own working hour ( for example offices can start at 7.30AM and all education institutes should start at 8 AM, Banking should start at 9 AM and all can be end within just 2.30 PM, 4.30 PM and 4 PM)

10 New road bay for the stopping area and prioritized roads should be introduced. Ensure that all city buses could not stop other than the stopping area. Here efficient traffic police should be engage to implement the parking and stopping rule or receive compensation for rules violation. More Fly over, sky line or underground mono rail should implement in Dhaka city Other transport specially water (may be easier and cheaper for Dhaka city) and railway can be implement as soon as possible. Use the foot paths only for the pedestrians not for hawker# 4. CONCLUSION This study focused on the unsafe, unhealthy and uncomfortable traffic conditions exist in developing county Bangladesh and its capital city Dhaka which. To overcome these unbearable conditions, the concern authorities developed the traffic system, traffic rules and regulations but the progress is not significant. The transportations authorities of Bangladesh have sufficient rules and regulation, but the main problem is the appropriate implementation. In this study, we have discussed many recommendations. We certainly believe that the traffic accident and traffic jam from the mega city Dhaka as well as Bangladesh could be alleviate day by day by implementing our recommendations. Some future research might be interest. Traffic congestion model could be formulated for the Dhaka which will help the planner exactly. Simulations based traffic congested model for city are also proposed. Water transport for congested Dhaka is also another future research plan REFERENCES Alam, M.J.B. and Habib, K.M.N. (2003), Effect of alternative transportation options on the congestion and air pollution in Dhaka city, Journal of Civil Engineering, The Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh, Vol. CE 31, No Ahmed, S. (2010), Making Dhaka livable, FORUM: The Daily Star, March Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2003), Population Census 2001, National Report (Provisional). Dhaka: Ministry of Planning. Bari, M. (2005), Improving Dhaka s traffic situation: Lesson from Mirpur road Dey, R.R., Paul, S. and Hoque, M. (2010), Quantifying the impacts of banning non motorized vehicles from a major arterial: Socio-Economic and safety evidence, Thammasat Int.J.Sc.Tech.,Vol 15, No. 4, Hossain, S. (2008), Rapid Urban Growth and Poverty in Dhaka City, Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology, Vol. 5, No Helai, H., Chor, C. H. and Haque, M. M. (2008), Severity of Driver Injury and Vehicle Damage

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