Traffic jam
Thanks are due to Angela Robinson for her letter in DS of 18th Feb on the subject.
She has hit the nail on the head when she says " Kamal Ataturk Avenue (or any rickshaw free main road for that matter) could be left to those for whom leaving their cars for a moment is unthinkable". In other words the greatest cause of traffic congestion in Dhaka is EGO. Not to speak of work or leisure, owners of GAS GUZZLING MONSTERS are sending them out for petty errands like buying a loaf of bread. Thus roads are congested with empty/half empty vehicles. After all someone else (tax-payers?) is paying for their fuel.
Banning rickshaws from main roads has actually increased traffic jams. I personally know of a dozen sensible people forced to use their cars because they cannot ride on rickshaws for the short distances they have to travel to their workplace/residence. There must be hundreds of such people.
One excellent way of reducing traffic jams is to encourage people to take to the environmentally healthful exercise of strolling, walking, biking for short journeys. Use rickshaws for medium distances and take out your cars only as a last resort. Do not park on the road or jam traffic with empty /half empty cars.
This way you will support the poor rickshaw puller and his family and the hundreds of thousands of rickshaw users like me, who are now forced to walk on broken footpaths, in the dark dodging fast moving cars with blinding lights and blaring horns.
There are very simple ways for rickshaws and cars to co-exist in Dhaka. If the authorities have run out of ideas, they can always contact me for a blue-print. I have been saying this for the last six months.
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