Bus Bays The Underrated Necessity of Dhaka Traffic

Public buses have always been one of the popular choices of transport in Dhaka city. The reason of it being convenient or economically accessible to the mass is still up for debate. However, despite buses being the most common form of transport occupying upto 60 percent of the road networks there isn’t much infrastructure to support it’s claim. The only infrastructure they ever had are bus parking lots and bus stands. The bus stands previously built have been rendered useless. Lack of proper maintenance and effective implementation of enacting laws to use such bus stands has further weakened its effectiveness. Bus drivers seem to ignore the existence of such, rather have the imaginary perception of bus stops almost anywhere on the road, hence stopping haphazardly in the middle of the street dropping and picking up passengers.

The bus companies privately owned do not even have proper ticket counters. Picking up passengers on the go is a regular scenario in the streets of Dhaka. This not only jeopardizes the safety of passengers boarding the bus but is also inconvenient for the female and senior citizens. The number of mishaps resulting from this is on the rise. These unfortunately do not make it into the statistical records of the transport authorities but remain as incidental reports on social media.

The sheer volume of buses plying on the streets and competing with each other is one of the core reasons of accidents. These drivers are so intensely driven by competitive instincts that they stop in the middle of the street for passengers to board on and board off quicker. This is made even riskier by the fact that they tend to do so at the very last instant, cutting across from the further right lane to the left. This is dangerous to others sharing the corridor. The instant drift between lanes, without turn signals or any form of indication, is one of the major reason for accidents. Moreover, without proper bus bays these drivers block most of the lanes while picking up passengers, creating bottle necks. Thus traffic is forced to seize or travel at much slower speed than they were initially traveling had there been no bottle neck. The gridlock arising from this is not even due to the volume of traffic flow rather the unscrupulous behavior of the bus drivers.

The cost of investment needed for the construction of bus bays is relatively less expensive and requires little to no maintenance. The domino effects of advantages Bus Bays would bring are significant. Bus bays would solve the bottle neck gridlock by providing continuous flow of traffic. Building these bus bays near foot over bridges would also provide safer means of travel for the commuters, also encouraging them to use the foot over bridge while crossing the road. Safer means of boarding on and off the bus would also promote usage of public transport amongst women, children and senior citizens. Commendable initiatives have been taken by the government which include smart card system. This gives users access to a hassle free electronic ticketing system that can be recharged easily and promotes greater usage of the public transport. However attention to these peripheral aspects are less significant than the major aspects of bus bays which is almost non existent in the capital. Thus devotion of future resources in this sector is urgently required.