Editorial
Easing Dhaka's traffic jam
Proposed steps laudable
THE capital's traffic congestion has become so unbearable that the commuters cannot wait for anything that would deliver them from their horrendous daily suffering. And to that end one must welcome the DMP's plans to reduce traffic jam on the city streets as well as to address the issue of traffic harassment by the cops through a new traffic management system.
Wider roads are not the only solution to road snarl-ups. And in any event we have very little scope of doing anything to extend the existing roads in the capital except to construct flyovers, an expensive proposition - but there are many cities around our country with narrower roads than ours that are known to organise their traffic better.
That the DMP commissioner has also squashed the report that filing of a certain number of cases daily was 'mandatory' for every traffic sergeant will come as a relief to the vehicle owners. But more than that, the instructions to end haywire stopping of vehicles by the police for checking documents, that is done without any regard to the woes of the travellers, will help ease road congestion to a great degree. As it is, the situation is compounded by buses stopping at will on the main roads, sometimes right under the eyes of the law enforcers.
We are glad to see that the aspect of training of traffic policemen, which had been a neglected matter so far, is being given due emphasis -- and the DMP's efforts to address the traffic bottlenecks in the capital through laying down certain essential laws for the traffic police to follow are very welcome.
Having said that, those who use the roads have a lot to do with traffic congestion. While there must be no laxity in punishing traffic rule violators, the harassment of the road users is due partly also to the poor quality of the drivers of private cars as well as buses and heavy duty vehicles, whose lack of traffic sense is deplorable. And here the licensing authority will have to play its part by ensuring that one is issued with a driving license only after the strictest scrutiny.
We understand that the traffic department has identified 17 types, and equal number of causes, of traffic harassments and 30 ways to protect the city commuters from them. All we want is action to remove the causes -- sooner rather than later.
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