Pedestrians not safe even on footpaths as reckless, law-breaking bikers rule city
Coming from behind, a biker hit a seven-year-old boy on a pavement on Dhanmondi Road 7 and sped away.
The boy, with his mother, fell on the walkway rolling.
"I went over to help the lady as she broke out crying," said a witness of the accident occurred last November.
He had cuts and bumps all over the arms.
This is only an example of frequent hazards faced by the pedestrians in the capital.
Walking has become an increasingly difficult and dangerous activity here over the years, residents and experts said.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, there were 392 fatal vehicle-pedestrian collisions in the city in 2008, which translates to one collision every 25 hours.
The number of pedestrian fatalities in the city is unsurprising, said Hasib Mohammed Ahsan, director of Accident Research Institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
“You don't have to be an engineer to assume how dangerous the city streets can be for pedestrians. They are the most vulnerable and neglected lot on the streets,” he added.
The pavements have little space left for walkers who need to dodge hawkers, parked vehicles, cable poles and police boxes.
Pedestrians end up walking at the edge of streets full of vehicles, noted Mohammed Ahsan.
Experts say most accidents on footpaths go unreported as those are not fatal.
But this could be devastating for the disabled and elderly, who lack the agility to cope with anything sudden and unexpected, they added.
Children, who lack proper idea about roads, may overreact and do reckless things when panicked, mentioned the experts.
A five-year-old girl was nearly run over by a private car in Mogbazar on February 5.
Startled by the huge sound of an electricity generator on the pavement, she jumped on the busy street.
“Thanks to Almighty God, the driver saw her early and stopped the car,” said Suamiya Haque, the girl's mother.
The nearby shop owners scolded her for walking close to the generator, claimed Sumaiya.
The frustrated mother noted that though the pavements are public property, shop owners take walking in front of their shops as trespassing on private property.
Experts state almost three out of every five people in city streets are walkers.
To accommodate this foot traffic, the city has 163 kilometres of pavements - only seven percent of its 2290km roads, said sources in Dhaka City Corporation (DCC).
City planners apparently made space for everything -- high-rises, malls and flyovers -- but ignored something as basic as a pedestrian's right to walk safely, claimed experts.
Residents say the pavements have turned into extensions of shops, parking lots, construction sites and a lane for bike riders.
With streets clogged with traffic, many two-wheelers now eye the pavements as an escape route.
The result is vehicular encroachment on footpaths and a nasty blow to the pedestrians' safety policies, said transport experts.
"By definition, these are footpaths because these are made for pedestrians," said Md Shamsul Hoque of Buet.
Motor vehicles running on footpaths compromise safety of the pedestrians, he observed.
Traffic officials said they are usually busy with maintaining traffic.
"But it [encroaching pavements] is a violation of traffic rules," said Selim Md Jahangir, deputy commissioner of traffic (west) adding, "I myself have fined a number of vehicles for parking and riding on pavements."
There are laws for punishing those who put pedestrians at risk. But these laws are not enforced regularly, said a young man, asking not to be named.
The DCC repairs footpaths regularly along with carrying out eviction drives to keep away encroachers, said an official.
It recently repaired and revamped a number of main thoroughfares and pavements in a Tk 54 crore project ahead of the World Cup Cricket, he added.
Residents, however, dubbed the move as “temporary decoration” to impress foreign visitors.
Urban planners believe a liveable city is an organised city with a soul, but several residents said they feel Dhaka now lacks both the qualities.
There is an excessive focus on making the capital more car friendly -- expanding roads and speeding up traffic, instead of allowing more diverse modes of transport, observe road safety campaigners.
The capital lacks planning to addresses social requirements and development needs of any neighbourhood, pointed urban experts.
Galib Ahmed, like many other city dwellers, is not optimistic about pedestrian-focused urban planning.
“From my 30 years of experience, I don't see the city becoming walking-friendly soon,” said the 40-year-old art teacher.
Dhaka has become an auto-centric city, noted silver screen actor Ilias Kanchan, president of Nirapad Sharak Chai (We demand safe road).
If the pedestrians, vehicles, traders and car parkers stayed in their own lanes, the roads would have been safer and more convenient for all commuters, he added.
News Source: The Daily Star