Editorial
Easing traffic gridlock
Focus on parking welcome
We have been consistently saying that parking is key to tackling traffic congestion. Our counsel falling on deaf ears, unsurprisingly vehicular logjams have assumed a horrendous proportion. It is so difficult to endure that most people reach workplace or return home in completely fatigued and disoriented state.
Against this backdrop, we thank the Communications Minister Obaidur Quader for his prompt initiative to address the nagging problem. His focus on parking surely strikes a responsive chord in us. But we cannot say the same about some of the short-term measures that the national committee on reduction of traffic congestion has decided on.
True, lot of the earmarked parking spaces are under illegal occupation. The committee wants these to be recovered. After several half-hearted attempts by law enforcers in conjunction with Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), the encroachments have resumed with a vengeance. When the minister directs Rajuk to free the parking spaces fronting out different buildings of obstacles he is actually asking the authorities to take the trodden path. Clearly, much more determined efforts backed by adequate political will and law enforcement capacity would be needed to make a dent in the situation.
Another recipe that is proposed had also been tried out earlier on, with little or no success. The committee wants a large number of BRTC buses to be pressed into service for school children. Parents would be persuaded to switch from use of private transport to carry their school children to that of the new fleet of transports. The idea is good but to be practicable this has to be organised with adequate security arrangement for the wards.
A part of the solution lies in ensuring that the buses pull up at designated stoppages, especially avoiding stopovers in and around busy traffic intersections. Free-for-all off-loading and up-loading are a major cause for traffic jams, next to arbitrary road side parking. With a stringent, more precisely, corruption-free enforcement of traffic rules, much of the gridlock can be averted.
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