Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
94
In Bangladesh road safety audits are introduced by the RHD on a number of locations on the
national highways.
In general, vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclist, are poorly protected. The
infrastructure is shared by motorised and non-motorised transport, exposing vulnerable road
users to dangerous situations.
9.5 Vehicles
Bangladesh has a vehicle population of about two million motorised vehicles and an estimated
three million or more non-motorised vehicles (Mazharul Hogue & Salehin, 2013; Sohel Mahmud
et al., 2009). Of the motorized vehicles about 60% are 2 and 3 wheeler vehicles and the rest are
vehicles of different categories, such as car, jeep, bus, truck, pick-ups, as presented i
Table 21: Registered vehicles in Bangladesh; total number by year of registration.
No Type of Vehicle <2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
>May
2016
Grand
Total
1 Ambulance 2,793 219 181 243 338 480 162 4,416
2 Auto Rickshaw 126,763 20,423 23,545 15,697 19,897 20,000 4,690 231,015
3 Auto Tempo 14,266 175 626 395 500 1,095 391 17,448
4 Bus 27,778 1,761 1,439 1,107 1,488 2,391 1,456 37,420
5 Cargo Van 3,522 489 282 687 608 399 252 6,239
6 Covered Van 5,658 2,354 1,421 2,271 2,869 2,354 1,115 18,042
7 Delivery Van 17,063 1,004 774 894 1,176 1,719 940 23,570
8 Human Hauler 6,520 1,152 715 385 225 1,142 1,229 11,368
9 Jeep (Hard/Soft) 32,286 2,134 1,569 1,314 1,870 3,601 2,224 44,998
10 Microbus 66,379 4,051 3,044 2,537 4,313 5,224 2,793 88,341
11 Minibus 25,644 276 249 148 256 323 193 27,089
12 Motor Cycle 759,257 114,616 101,588 85,808 90,685 240,358 100,887 1,493,199
13 Pick Up (Dbl./Sngl.) 32,240 10,460 7,625 6,553 9,554 10,257 4,271 80,960
14 Private Passenger Car 219,830 12,950 9,224 10,472 14,699 21,062 9,671 297,908
15 Special Purpose Veh. 6,371 396 226 227 172 296 236 7,924
16 Tanker 2,706 317 195 226 362 324 163 4,293
17 Taxicab 44,380 75 172 51 374 88 8 45,148
18 Tractor 20,600 5,200 3,494 1,885 1,522 1,699 898 35,298
19 Truck 82,871 7,327 4,335 5,129 8,136 6,330 2,554 116,682
20 Others 1,317 7 1 1,080 1,595 2,073 1,540 7,613
Total 1,498,244 185,386 160,705 137,109 160,639 321,215 135,673 2,598,971
Source: Annual Report for Vehicles Registration, BRTA
Road accidents disproportionately affect the poor given the fact that poor people are forced to
use non-standard and unsafe vehicles. All kind of road users, particularly rickshaw operators
are unaware of traffic safety and are putting lives at risk.
The above especially applies to so-called nasimon and karimon, locally made improvised three
wheelers (flatbed tricycle) used in the urban areas and also on the highways. A study carried out