Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
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Figure 56: Typical rickshaw traffic conditions in Dhaka
Source: Mattia Latini/Thinkstockphotos.com
Mode availability
Out of about total 21 million trips generated in Dhaka metropolitan area every day, only 5% are
carried out by private cars, which however use roughly 80% of the road space and are the main cause
of traffic congestion. Yet 28% of the total trips are carried out by buses which only use about 5 % of
the road space. In addition, 58% of the total trips are made by walking, bicycling, or riding on
rickshaws. But these NMT modes barely get proper allocation of road space. There are no dedicated
bicycle or rickshaw lanes on any roads in Dhaka and less than 25% of roads have separated, paved
sidewalks, most of which are either occupied by parked cars or damaged without proper maintenance.
NMT users expose their lives to risk as they move in the city (Fang, 2014).
5.4.3. Road safety
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the number of road fatalities in
Bangladesh was higher than the number of accidents. Although these statistics refer to the entire
country and do not necessarily reflect the actual figures (as it is only the information provided by the
police) they provide a good idea of the current situation in the country. Older data for Dhaka indicates
that almost a fifth of road accidents In Bangladesh are concentrated in Dhaka.
National road safety strategies have been adopted in the past (1997-1999 and 2002-2004) but despite
the fact that they were comprehensive achieved very little. In addition, awareness campaigns have
been organized, which were mostly concentrated on highway accidents. In Dhaka, almost 75% of
accidents involve pedestrians12 (Maniruzzaman and Mitra, 2005; BRAC, 2005; World Bank, 2013).
12 For example, according to other official sources every year about 10,000 people are killed in road accidents in the
country (BBC, 2011).