Concept And Use Of Dual-use Cars In Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Part 2 -

Prof. Bijon Behari Sarma *

CONCEPT AND USE OF DUAL-USE CARS
IN REDUCING TRAFFIC CONGESTION
IN DHAKA CITY OF BANGLADESH

BRIEF DISCUSSION OF THE PROPOSALS :

We shall briefly narrate each of the above suggestions with their potentialities and drawbacks in general. The prime cause of Dhaka city's ongoing transportation problem has already been mentioned as "excessive number of cars", plying on roads. Naturally, in discussing various suggestions we shall try to find out those are able to take care of this special problem.

(a) METRO OR UNDERGROUND TRAIN : In the democratic republic of Bangladesh there is no transparent and well spelt means of collecting fund for continuing activities of the political parties. Commission from large projects is one easy source of this fund. Many a times large and hazardous projects are taken for this purpose only. The proposal for Metro or underground train seems to be one such project.

In Bangladesh this project is highly unsuitable because of the following major reasons : (i) Dhaka city is not still that large to be connected with underground rail line. (ii) It is too uneconomic for a poor country with medium level technology like Bangladesh. (iii) Even though it may ease people's transportation, it would no way solve the problem of jamming of cars, because there is little possibility that the car owners would abandon their cars for the purpose of travelling by metro. (iv) It may turn to death-trap in times of hazards like flood and earthquake. Even a mediocre boy could deduce that metro or underground train can in no way reduce the number of cars.

(b) MONORAIL : What has been said in case of Metro is equally true in case of Mono-rail. In addition, it is extremely dangerous in earth-quake prone countries and countries with high underground water table. And finally, even though monorail can serve as a good means of transport for low to medium income people, it does not have the quality to reduce the number of cars plying on roads.

(c) ELEVATED EXPRESSWAY : This one also is type of proposal usually made for fulfilling vested interest. It is true that expressway in general creates scope for easy movement of many cars. This fact may lead some people to think that it would solve our traffic problem. The truth is just the reverse. As soon as this scope would be made open, many new cars would be added to the present contingent.

Whatever easy may be the movement of cars in elevated expressways, all cars would have to come down at one time for reaching the destination, maintenance or avoid hazard. This leads to creation of worst type of road-jam and slowing of speed. Lagos city of Nigeria may be cited as best example of this phenomenon.

Also, the narrow roads of Dhaka city are not suitable for implementing this program. Once again we are sorry to mention that elevated expressway would in no way reduce the number of cars, but help to increase the same with consequential problems in the ground level.

(d) FLY OVER : Flyovers at times become essential in solving some traffic problems. Flyover is capable of transferring the traffic jam of any location to a different location. If the new place is not that busy, it acts well. Flyovers can ease the movement of cars at junctions, but it can in no way reduce the number of cars or the consequential problem of jam. Also mass construction of flyovers may not be feasible in Dhaka due to economic reason and scarcity of land in the congested built-up city.

(e) INCREASE OF LARGE-BODIED PUBLIC TRANSPORT : It has already been mentioned that the passenger-carrying capacity of a road increases with the use of both larger-body and higher-speed vehicles. In Dhaka city increasing the number of large bodied vehicles may ensure movement of more people at less cost, but this one in no way would solve the problem of jamming. On the other hand it would help to increase the same. Whatever comfortable a bus may be, the car owners with the privileges of starting right from the house to end up just at another door step would not like to send away their cars, even if enough of bus services are made available.

(f) REMOVAL OF OLD CARS : Eliminating very old and not-roadworthy cars is the usual procedure followed in any city. However, the proposal of "eliminating all cars older than a certain period" in order to reduce the number of cars is a wrong suggestion and should not be proposed by any intelligent person. Those who would be asked to abandon their old cars would immediately replace those by new ones. Thus such a proposal can only create situation for importing of more cars at the expense of scarce foreign currency.

Those who cite the example that, some countries compel their car owners to discard those after 5 years or so, forget that those are the car-manufacturing countries whose economy considerably balances itself on such process of elimination. In a poor country like Bangladesh cars should be kept in running so long it is safe for itself and for others.

(g) IMPOSING RESTRICTION ON CAR OWNERSHIP : In a democratic country there cannot be any rule to prohibit the citizens from owning cars. As a matter of fact this one can be considered as "wishful thought" and not at all a suggestion.

(h) INTRODUCING SCHOOL BUS : This measure may eliminate concentration of cars near the schools at pick hours and facilitate movement of the children from poor and mid-income families. But it is quite doubtful if it would help in lessening the number of cars.

(i) DECENTRALIZATION : It is an excellent solution which is capable of solving not only the traffic or transportation problem, but also of scarcity of utilities (i.e. water, electricity, gas etc.) and pollution. In the process of decentralization some of the important government ministries, establishments, industries, public facilities etc. can be shifted outside the periphery of Dhaka and even to distant cities. Even though this excellent solution is cent percent fruitful, its implementation in our context is equally doubtful.

In our country the bureaucracy and the political leaders directly and indirectly work for increasing the values of their properties, income from their business and investment etc. in the capital city. The more is the concentration of people, the more will be their gains. In such a context it seems nearly impossible that our bureaucrats and leaders would agree to do anything that might go against their interests. In addition, this proposal is quite slow and costly in implementation.

After discussing the commonly discussed suggestions we shall cite here two more suggestions, which probably have not been discussed earlier. These are : (01) Dwellers-Participation based Administrative Planning policy (DPAP) and (02) Dual-use car. These two are being discussed here.

(01) DWELLERS-PARTICIPATION BASED ADMINISTRATIVE PLANNING POLICY (DPAP) : This is a new concept and has recently been published in a number of websites including Social Science Research Network referred below.

The salient features of this proposal are the following :

(a) The city shall be divided into a number of independent or semi-independent units physically marked by broad roads. The length and breadth of the unit shall be 1.5 km to 2.00 km. in order to keep pace with peoples' walking limit. In each such unit the dwellers will be consulted to opine what type services and commodities they lack and which ones are surplus.

(b) Administrative measures will then be taken for making these units "self-sufficient" with the facilities, amenities and services as proposed by the dwellers. These may be : (i) Educational institutions (Children's school, High School etc.).   (ii) Commodities (Vegetables-rice-meat shop complex, Grocery, Stationary, Cloth shop etc.), (iii.) Financial institution (Bank, ATM machine etc.),  (iv) Healthcare and emergency (General physician, Dentist, Ophthalmologist, Ear Nose Throat specialist, Child specialist, Gymnasium etc.), (v) Maintenance (Repairing shops for domestic appliances and gadgets), (vi) Professionals (Lawyer), (vii) Hostels (independently for male and female students), (viii) Dormitory (independently for working men and women), (ix) Religious facilities (prayer house), (x) Community centre etc.

(c) Because of the democratic nature of the country, the authorities cannot interfere in what type of amenities or services the businessmen would deal in. It is natural that the businessmen would look for the type of business they find profitable, even if those create concentration of services at one place and scarcity at another. In such a situation the authority would have to proceed indirectly.

(d) Since all of the above facilities will not be available in any unit, or excess number of the same will be available in some, (like existence of excessive number of schools in Dhanmondi R.A.), the urban authority would accept a policy of sanctioning licenses at usual rate only to fixed number of such service and facility providers. Those beyond this list would have to pay tax at much higher rate. In order to avoid monopoly the minimum number of each facility will be 2 and maximum as desired by the dwellers.

Definitely their number would depend upon location also. If this policy is introduced, people's movement in search of the essential facilities at distances and by using vehicles will be reduced, because they would find those within walking distance. Also removal of concentration of some facilities at some particular points would help to ease traffic congestion.

Even though there is no way to be sure if the above proposal would be able to reduce the number of cars in the city, but definitely it would reduce the frequency of their movement. One positive aspect of this proposal is, it involves no or negligible expenditure on the part of the urban authority.



To be continued......