Secured and Available Public Transportation in Dhaka City

Public transportation system should be secured, more available and accessible in Dhaka, said the young activists of Gender and Transportation Bangladesh Working Team (GTBWT) yesterday morning, Saturday, during a human chain jointly organized by GTBWT and Environment and Social Development Organization- ESDO in front of the National Press Club.  They demanded for safer and secured public transportation for all. More than 100 young activists got together at this human chain.

According to ESDO’s quick survey, Dhaka city,  with an area of only 815.8 km², accomodates sixteen million people. This population has been increasing at a rate of 2.96% annually since 2010, found by WHO. However, only 7.5% of this land is allocated for public roads. The urban transport issues of mobility, congestion, safety and environmental aspects are becoming increasingly important and critical in Dhaka. The rapid urbanization process, high vehicular population growth and that of the mobility, inadequate transport policies, and varioustraffic mix with over concentration of non-motorized vehicles, have significantly aggravated traffic and environmental problems in the major urban centers of Dhaka.

Rickshwas, bus, auto rickshaw, and car are the widely used mode of public transportation in Dhaka. While inadequate public transport services adversely impact all residents of the city, women commuters face particular mobility constraints. As Bangladesh’s society is highly segregated, women’s access to social and economic opportunities and their mobility in public places are greatly compromised by the lack of an effective transport system. Available evidence suggests that women are facing multiple problems with the current transport environment in Dhaka. The fundamental attitude towards women’s mobility is restrictive and constraints their participation in employment, education and society in general. The transport services currently provided by the public and private buses are insecure, unreliable, congested and unsafe. It is difficult for women to compete with men for the limited space on the buses particularly given the cultural background inBangladesh. In short, the current transportation environment in Dhaka is not at all women friendly.

ESDO Executive Director Siddika Sultana said, “the problems women face while travelling in Dhaka are: poor accessibilty due to the insecure, unreliable, cogested, overcrowded, and unsafe bus, absence of well-scheduled bus service, bus’s denial to board women, ineduquate sidewalks, and fear of sexual harassment. The accidents and rape cases happend recently in Dhaka while women were returning home from work at night are some of such examples. Since women in Dhaka take greater number of shorter trips to dispersed locations at more varied times, women are more vulnerable than any other social groups of people, and often they travel at odd periods (early morning and late at night), they require safer roots and reliable, easy to use, non-hazardous and flexible mode of transportation.”

She further added, “the government should create a separate lane for cyclists. It is to change the mind of people, hence, to chahge their lives.” She also said, “Cycling will not only imporve public health, but also will help to keep the environment pollution free. Environmental pollutions, especially air pulltion due to the presence of excessevie number of traffic, are so ubiquitous in Dhaka that it is barrely a city to live. So, to get rid of these problem, creating a separate lane in Dhaka to promote cycling will be one of the best steps.”

In order to address these issues for gender and transportation, Gender and Transporation Bangladesh Working Team (GTBWT) has been formed this year formed in association with ESDO along with the members of WiES (Women in Engineering and Science) Bangladesh, Planing Commision of Bangladesh Government and the World Bank. This team has been working on grabbing government’s attention to promote cycling across Dhaka city also.

Posted by admin on Aug 8 2015. Filed under News at Now. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry