Daily Life Blues

Photograph & concept by Nabil Ahsan

A foreigner not accustomed to the streets of Dhaka may interpret this photo as signifying drivers not obeying traffic signal. I only wish it was as simple as that. The fact is that the signaling system in the streets of Dhaka has been rendered completely useless for quite a while now. Even a few years back I remember traffic sergeants stopping vehicles for not promptly stopping at a 'Red Light'. These days, you might get yourself into an accident if you are foolish enough to follow the signals at all.  Always keep your eyes at the arm of the traffic constable at an intersection.  And after 10 P.M. , when the all powerful constable is no longer standing in his station, it's a complete mayhem; vehicles from every direction competing with each other to go first resulting is a complete deadlock.Then why bother running these electrical signal lamps?  
The fact that there is a timer attached to it makes it an even greater mockery.  It is rather interesting that the 11th Schedule of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983 provides for a fine of Tk. 50 for disobeying traffic control light signal. One can write volumes in an academic journal to illustrate the idea of 'rule of law'; this simple picture nonetheless, is a visual representation of the concept of rule of law, or the lack of it in our streets. People are habitually being trained to disregard the law and psychologically, it only reinforces the message “its okay to not follow the law” !
 From a traffic management perspective, it makes sense to have a functional automated signaling system. To make things flexible, smart signal systems may be installed which can be manually controlled depending on the flow of traffic. In many developed cities, traffic signals are centrally managed depending on the volume of traffic on a particular day. Also, strict compliance with traffic signals will make it safer for pedestrians to cross the street. The roads will be more predictable, there will be fewer accidents. I feel our traffic police should go back to controlling traffic by automated signals or if that is not possible then why not turn off these useless lamps and save electricity?   It makes no sense to have police constables operate in constant discord with the letter of the law!

Nabil Ahsan is Barrister-at-Law.