Traffic congestions cost 7pc of GDP

Traffic congestion in Dhaka costs the country $11.4 billion every year, which is seven per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, revealed a study on Tuesday. 
About one quarter of working hours are lost in congestion as about 1.5 million city dwellers use vehicles for travelling across the city every day, said the study commissioned by Brac Institute of Government and Development. 
The financial loss is a calculation of the cost of time lost in traffic congestions and the money spent for operating vehicles the extra hours.
‘Dhaka is gradually slowing down,’ said BIGD researcher Shanawez Hossain, who led the study on Traffic Congestion in Dhaka City – Governance perspective.
He drew the conclusion after revealing that the average maximum speed limit inside the capital was brought down to 6.8 km per hour in 2015 from 21.2km in 2004 by the congestion. 
The congestion problem may be reduced by 40 per cent by just improving the management of traffic as 98 per cent of the studied people admitted that they break laws on the road, according to the researcher.
Many of the reasons the study found to have been responsible for creating the traffic congestion were related to management issues. 
They include illegal occupation of road, haphazard parking, and an uncontrolled rise in the number of private vehicles.
‘Nobody cares for the rules. From a low-income-group member hawker to millionaire runs many of their businesses by illegally occupying spaces meant to be used for the purpose of transportation,’ said Professor Nazrul Islam, chairman of centre for urban studies, an NGO. 
Apart from the economic impact, the congestion was found to have been harmful for the travellers’ health, their society and environment.
‘Around three quarters of travellers face both physical and psychological health impacts,’ said the study.
The congestion makes people so much worried that most of them avoid going outside unless it is really necessary. As high as 98 per cent of the surveyed people said they make only two trips a day; one for the purpose of going to work while the other one for returning home.
Former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Naim Ahmed, Brac University vice-chancellor Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb and BIGD executive director Sultan Hafeez Rahman spoke at the programme.

News Courtesy: www.cnn.com