Capital’s footbridges, underpasses underused
Pedestrian bridges and underpasses in the capital are underused as jaywalking continues to be popular for which a possible reason could be sidewalks remain under unauthorized occupation.
Another key reason is that the underpasses and the footbridges are also under unauthorized occupation of vendors leaving little space for the use of pedestrians.
Besides, pedestrians find most of the footbridges insecure and unsafe for use due to their flawed designs, inappropriate location.
And loitering criminals make the underpasses further unsafe for the users.
Officials in the capital’s two city corporations not only refused to admit the issues, but blamed in-disciplined pedestrians and non-enforcement of traffic rules by the police for under use of the footbridges and the underpasses.
To discourage jaywalking, Dhaka Metropolitan Police runs mobile courts up to 12 times every month, DMP additional commissioner for traffic Mosleh Uddin Ahmed told New Age.
Enforcement alone can’t stop jaywalking until pedestrian’s awareness is raised, he said.
He said that the city corporations built the footbridges without conducting surveys to find out exactly where they should be built and how many of them were needed in the capital.
The never used footbridge near Dhaka Club amplifies this point.
The footbridge near Darussalam faces the same fate.
The DMP official said footbridges should be conveniently located for use by pedestrians.
As an example he said that the footbridges close to intersections are used more
than those far from them.
He said that the city corporations could compel pedestrians to use foot over bridges by erecting barbed wire barriers to discourage crossing streets by scaling dividers.
While jaywalking at Karwanbazaar intersection bank executive Jenny Akhter said that the underpass can’t be used by pedestrians like her as it was under unauthorized by vendors, criminals and drug addicts.
She said that stalkers maker the underpass quite unsafe for women.
While jaywalking across the busy Shahbag intersection, Dhaka university student Monir Hossain said that the locations of all the three footbridges there were far from suitable for use by pedestrians.
He also considers the height of footbridges as inconvenient and unrealistic.
‘Is there anyone who follows the law,’ he shot back to the question: isn’t it illegal to jaywalk at points where footbridges exist?
Dhaka North City Corporation superintendent engineer for traffic circle Mollah Md Nuruzzaman blamed public behavior and not the location of footbridges for the sitution.
He claimed that all the 55 footbridges had been built at correct locations.
He also said that no footbridge could be built exactly at intersections.
He said that the height of each footbridge was determined to facilitate the movement of double-decker buses and the covered vans.
The footbridge at Farmgate is used more though its entry and exit points are blocked by vendors and the footbridge itself is under unauthorized occupation by vendors.
This footbridge is used more only because pedestrians cannot jaywalk below it due to barbed wire fencing act as barrier,
The footbridge at Mirpur-13 is seldom used as there is no obstruction underneath it for jaywalking.
Bangladesh Institute of Planners president professor A K M Abul Kalam said that the city corporations and the police should sit together to prepare more realistic and comprehensive plans for building usable footbridges and underpasses for the capital.
He said public awareness, user comfort and enforcement were inter-related issue.
At least 23 footbridges were built in the capital between 2011 and 2016, under the governments Clean Air Sustainable Environment Project without conducting any survey.
Average cost of each of them was Tk two crore.
CASE project director and Dhaka South City Corporation superintendent engineer Shihab Ullah said some of footbridges had to be built 50 meter away from the point where it was planned due to objection from locally influential people.
He said that escalator bridges would be used more than the existing ones.
Actor and Nirapad Sarak Chai chairman Ilias Kanchan told New Age that punishment for traffic rule violations and public awareness were equally important to ensure the use of footbridges and underpasses
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