Our road syndrome is political, not technical

Let's start with the recent Eid travel. A total of 367 persons died in road accidents in a matter of 15 days before and after Eid. Why is the death rate so high even though the highest expenditure is made in the infrastructure sector?

While our road infrastructure has undergone huge development, our road management is still very weak. The disorder worsens before and after Eid. There is the matter of "toll collection". Then there is the competition of making as many trips as possible which makes the transport owners and drivers reckless. They equate more trips with more money. And so the matter of adequate rest for the drivers is completely ignored. Passenger safety is of little consequence. The roads do not have separate lanes required for heavy vehicles. So the smaller vehicles try to overtake, often resulting in collisions and bloodshed.

The number of passengers leaving Dhaka during Eid increases manifold. The public transport cannot meet this demand adequately. Certain unscrupulous transport businesses take advantage of this imbalance between supply and demand and hike up the fare. Dilapidated buses are repaired and given a fresh coat of paint then take to the road for long-haul trips. The unfit vehicles create more disorder during Eid. All this increases the risk of accidents. The drivers of the unfit vehicles are unfit themselves. A skilled experienced driver will never take to the road with an unfit vehicle. And the unfit vehicles put the fit vehicles at risk.

During Eid there is also a crisis of drivers. Dilapidated buses may be given a fresh coat of paint and sent to the streets, but we have no magic spell that can conjure up long-haul drivers overnight. So the drivers who drive short distances within the city, then sit behind the steering wheel of long distance buses.

We have even made motorcycles into mini public transport vehicles. The motorcyclists do not have the experience, skill or physical stamina for long-distance trips and this leads to accidents during Eid. We have upgraded our roads, but whether the infrastructure is suitable for motorcycles is another question. The frequency of motorcycle accidents during Eid is increasing manifold. So we see alarming figures regarding accidents overall.

The state of accidents, injuries and deaths is hardly better during other times of the year. So can't we say that this killing on the roads continues unabated throughout the year?

Our policymakers tend to bask in complacence that they have broadened roads, made so many expressways, made new roads, highways and bridges. But there has been no scientific work in the area of making the roads safe. Is there any country in the world where fitness certificates are handed out to vehicles en masse? Then there are many transport owners who don't even feel the need for fitness certificates. They know that there are ways and means to deal with this on the roads and highways. The government has given them leeway time and again.

Compromises have also been made regarding experience certificates. Drivers of medium vehicles must have three years of experience to qualify to drive heavy vehicles. Yet they are being given the opportunity to drive heavy vehicles with just one year's experience. The government has even had to take a step back when it comes to the lifetime of a vehicle. Is there any country in the world where the economic lifetime of a vehicle is not determined? Our policymakers must realise who they are compromising with. They must understand they are compromising with science. Compromising with science means compromising with accidents.

There has been a huge compromise in the Road Transport Act too.

After three decades a law was finally being drawn up to restore order to the roads. But unfortunately, due to pressure from a certain vested group, the law was bisected, dissected and sent for post mortem. Several clauses of the act have been amended and this is now more or less a compromised law. The law has been condensed to let a certain group off the hook and save them from punishment. The objective of having a law-based transport system tripped up from the very outset.

Our policymakers are so interested in infrastructure development, but are equally disinterested in road safety.

There is always huge investment in the infrastructure sector. Wherever there is investment, there is big interest. That is why we rush to wherever there is infrastructure development. But vehicle management, management to prevent chaos on the roads, work to retrieve people from this hostage situation, are not areas of investment. These are areas of working with empathy. Our policymakers are not interested in areas of work where empathy is needed, not investment.

Every day new vehicles, new drivers and new pedestrians are taking to the streets. This is where work must be done with empathy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. This empathy doesn't work in our policymakers. Their perception is that lowering road accidents is a short-term project.

Around 40 per cent of the deaths in road accidents are in motorcycle accidents. In Southeast Asia there are much more motorbikes than here in proportion to the population. Why do we have so many motorbike accidents?

The policymakers who are promoting motorbikes on the excuse of the public transport crisis, are just seeing motorbikes in an isolated manner. But they have no holistic considerations as to whether the motorcycles are fit for our roads, whether there are separate lanes for motorbikes, whether the motorcyclists are trained, how scientific and developed is the matter of issuing driving licences, and such. Vehicles like motorbikes are exacerbating the chaos and disorder on our roads.

There are many motorbikes in Vietnam, Cambodia and China too. There are around 500 motorbikes for every 1000 persons in those countries. Here there are around 30 motorbikes per 1000 persons. Our motorbike market is still growing. Yet already we are the top ranking Asian country in motorbike accidents. As motorbikes are easily available, this has become a major part of lives and livelihood here. If we take motorbikes to be an integral part of our transport system, then our roads and highways must be prepared accordingly.

The statistics of death and disability due to motorbike accidents is alarming. Our policymakers like to say smugly that we are in a demographic dividend right now. But those of us involved in research see that our people of working age are the ones most killed in motorbike accidents. Our demographic dividend is being drained out. Our statistics (though these are incomplete and unscientific) indicate that the economic cost of the annual road accidents, deaths and disabilities amounts to Tk 40 billion (Tk 4000 crore). Before we draw up a policy, there needs to be research. That is absolutely absent. Policy support is imperative to decrease motorbike accidents. And this must be matured and scientific.

Those killed in motorcycle accidents are mostly in their teens. This loss cannot be made up in any way.

A large number of those killed in motorcycle accidents are aged between 15 and 18.  They certainly have no driving licences. Due to overall lack of supervision and parental guidance, these young ones recklessly use the roads and highways as racing tracks. Then they meet their untimely deaths.

The teenagers and youth are obsessed with sporty and high speed motorcycles. Yet our policymakers say a bike's cc has nothing to do with its speed. Yet it is observed that even in developed countries where there is order on the streets, where there are different lanes on the roads, where the motorbikes are ridden properly, where they have driving licences, with the increase of the engine capacity by every 100cc, immediately there is an almost 2.5 per cent increase in road deaths and disabilities. And yet in our country where there is no order on the roads, it is being said that there is no relation between cc and speed.

Lack of coordination among the ministries in drawing up policies is a big issue here. True, coordination is a complex and challenging matter. Our Roads and Highways Department is making roads to increase the speed of vehicles. The industries ministry is talking about expanding the motorbike industry. So who will take the blame for road accidents? We committed to the United Nations that by 2020 we would bring our road accidents down by 50 per cent. We failed to keep our commitment. We extended the deadline to 2030. Yet we see the road accident curve going upwards every year.

It is common knowledge that the road accidents are caused mainly due to unfit vehicles, unlicensed drivers, driving with exhaustion, illegal vehicles. But why is there no solution?

The awareness and the adherence to the rules must start with the transport owners. But the problem is, our transport owners have become transport businessmen. They have a very weak sense of risk. They are least bothered about the consequences of unfit vehicles, unfit drivers, unlicensed drivers, illegal vehicles plying the streets. When there is an accident, it is the driver and the passengers that die. The bus owners have no problem. Also, the political will required to make the transport owners obey the rules, is lacking. After all, the bus owners are the beneficiaries. They are on all the decision-making committees, some are even in the government. This is a vast syndicate, an unholy nexus. We are all helpless in the face of this syndicate.

According to a BUET study, the capital city Dhaka is the most road accident-prone area in the country. How is the capital city of a country so prone to accidents and so disorderly?

The disorder begins with the racing and competition among the capital city's transport. I see this as cannibalism. It is an unhealthy competition of who can gobble up the most passengers. Dhaka's transport system is very weak. Even after the construction of such advanced infrastructure like the metro rail and the elevated expressway, we still try to control traffic on the old-fashioned manner of hand signals, whistles, batons, flashing laser lights into the drivers' eyes and so on. There are political reasons behind this too. There are around 18 types of vehicles in Dhaka city's streets at present. Rickshaws, pushcarts, horse carts, small cars, big cars, light vehicles, heavy vehicles are all moving along together.

While there is bus route franchising in all countries of the world, though we also took up such an initiative, we failed to implement it. We did not take the preparation required in this regard. We took up bus route franchising on an experimental basis without first addressing the problem of unfit vehicles and unskilled drivers responsible for the road disorder. We destroyed the bus route franchise model though it is being followed the world over. Our road syndrome is political, not technical.

On one hand there is the metro rail, on the other is the ramshackle buses. There are bus stoppages all along the road. Now that the metro rail has started, hasn't the time come yet to build up a smooth-moving, disciplined and modern public transport system?

There are over 800 bus stops in Dhaka. That means buses are stopping every 200 to 300 metres. With the start of the metro rail, a huge opportunity has opened up to use the road below. A large section of those using the public transport below, are now metro rail passengers. This has taken considerable pressure off the road below. It has expanded the roads. The bus owners could take advantage of this. If the bus owners who bring good quality buses to the streets and meet the demands of the passengers, a large section of metro rail passengers would return to buses. After all, the metro fare is almost double that of buses. I feel that we were hostage to the bus owners so long because of no alternative. Now metro is an alternative. The bus owners need to think about this.

Dhaka has around 3000 bus owners. This is an unprecedented number of bus owners for any city. That means we handed over route permits unscientifically. To get route permits from the transport sector leaders is a big business. It's pure profit without investment. Dhaka city does not need more than 40 to 42 routes. I have no idea whether any other country in the world has such a high demand for public transport as in Dhaka. Around 40 to 50 per cent of the passengers travel in the ramshackle buses. If there were good quality and orderly public transport, this figure would go up to 60 per cent. We invested USD 25 billion in the metro rail. I feel that if we invested USD 1 billion, the entire face of Dhaka's public transport would change.

No one takes the blame for the accidents and there is no accountability. Aren't the people victims of this culture of impunity?

Many of our policymakers feel that if you widen the roads, accidents will lessen automatically, that there is no need for good governance or application of the law on the roads. We have to emerge from such perceptions. Road accidents do not occur for any one singular reason. There are many factors at play here. There are many institutions to control these factors. But our culture of shirking responsibility is a major cause behind the road accidents. We have a firmly-rooted mindset that accepting liability amounts to defeat.

Thank you.

Thank you too.