Replace private cars with buses to ease gridlock

Urban planners tell roundtable

2 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Experts at a roundtable yesterday said there is no alternative to reducing the number of private cars from Dhaka city replacing it with public buses to improve the insufferable traffic congestion that is making life of city dwellers indescribably miserable. Urban planners told the roundtable at National Press Club that only five percent of the commuters in the city is transported by private cars while one single trip of a private car carries only four persons. On the other hand, a single trip of a bus carries over 100 commuters, which is equal to 40 private cars. About 19 lakh people use public buses in the city everyday. Efficiency of a bus is 150 times more than a private car. All this calls for introducing a better bus service in the city, they said. Speakers said import of private cars must be controlled with increased tax as more than 100 private cars are being introduced in the city streets everyday that largely contribute to the traffic congestions. Save Environment Movement (POBA), Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust (WBB) and Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP), Buet jointly organised the roundtable. Maruf Rahman, project officer of WBB in the keynote paper, said attracting the commuters to public transport from the comfort of private car is a challenge because the current service provided by bus companies is appalling. He stressed increasing the number of buses, creating better atmosphere for commuters, construction of bus bay, bus counters, passenger shed and proper route design to improve bus services in the city. Prof Sarwar Jahan, chairman of DURP, stressed introducing multimode transport system synchronising other modes with bus service. He also underscored the need for controlling population from the city. POBA Chairman Abu Naser Khan, Prof Tajmeri Islam, Prof Mahbubunnabi of URP, Prof Shahida Rahman also addressed the roundtable.