Dhaka city traffic keeps going awry

Traffic rule violation in the capital is going on unchecked due mainly to traffic mismanagement and lack of proper planning and facilities, urban and transport experts find.
Reckless and wrong lane driving, use of illegal hooter, beacon lights, tainted glasses, driving on footpaths and without legal documents, wearing seatbelts and helmets and illegal parking have now become rampant. 
All these lead to chaotic traffic situation, with repeated High Court, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Dhaka Metropolitan Police orders in this regard having no effect.
DMP and BRTA officials are also conducting daily drive and filing thousands of cases against violation of traffic rules but the situation does not seem to improve. 
According to DMP traffic department they filed about 8.75 lakh cases and realised Tk 41.18 crore as fines for violating traffic rules till November 17 this year. 
During the period, they filed 2.21 lakh cases against motorcycles, 75,616 for wrong lane driving, 27,393 for using hydraulic horns, 2,410 for using hooter and beacon lights, 2,004 for using tainted glasses and seized 3,646 motorcycles. 
Till October this year BRTA executive magistrates filed 15,036 cases, realised about Tk 3.30 crore as fines, sent 399 vehicles to dump stations and imprisoned 461 people for violating traffic rules. 
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan joint secretary and urban planner Iqbal Habib told New Age on Thursday that there were no plans, vision or target for the overall
development of the traffic management.
‘We don’t need fulltime traffic and area- and voluntary-based traffic warden system is necessary for Dhaka city in current situation,’ he suggested. 
In this process, he thinks, mobile app and common people could be engaged for easy, instant and authentic results which could bring huge progress in traffic management system. 
Traffic management would start improving from the moment the authorities implemented digitised enforcement system and established the notion that law was meant for all equally, he said. 
Sudden initiatives like making Manik Mia Avenue off-limits to cars for a certain period would not be successful if road users were not conscious, he added. 
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s Accident Research Institute director professor Moazzem Hossain finds motorcyclists the most unruly as they violate traffic rules on a regular basis. 
For lack of planned system, parking facility and low vehicle speed, people are encouraged and compelled to violate traffic laws, he says. 
Traffic police’s regular drives bring almost no positive results because of huge gap between what needs to be done and what is done, he adds. 
DMP additional commissioner (traffic) Mosleh Uddin Ahmed claims that they are getting positive reaction from people that Dhaka’s traffic management and congestion are improving. 
He says his officials were filing 2,500 to 3,000 cases daily in recent months while the number was between 3,500 and 4,000 previously. 
Mosleh said currently most of the cases were filed against motorcyclists while cases against VIPs, police, journalists and government officials decreased.
Most traffic rules violation occurred in the periphery areas, he claims. 
BRTA director (enforcement) Nur Mohammad Mazumder said it would take time to bring complete order to roads. 
However, more people were going by law currently, he claimed. 
On May 5, 2016, DMP banned occupational stickers including that of press, police and lawyer and the use of hooters, hydraulic horns and beacon lights in private vehicles.
The High Court on October 23, 2014 served show cause notices on the government and the police to explain why they should not be asked to enforce traffic rules strictly to prevent some VIPs and VVIPs from using the wrong side of Dhaka’s streets to avoid traffic congestion.
On March 5, 2012, the High Court asked the authorities not to allow motorcycles or cars on footpaths. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net