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Dhaka Day by Day

Another Potential Threat to Traffic

by ASM Nurunnabi
• We all tend to brand the cycle rickshaws in the city as a villain In the story of horrendous traffic jams in city streets. This has given rise to arguments for and against the question of elimination of this predomi nant source of city's traffic congestion. We are not yet sure how this problem will be handled in future in the interest of the city's traffic management.
Lately this problem is being compounded by another undesirable development: the gradual emergence of rickshaw vans on city streets. Previously loads with not much heavy weights and large volume used to be carried by push carts. Such push carts nave always been a factor for traffic bottlenecks on city streets, particularly in the old part of the Dhaka city. But their number were far less compared to the present trend of steady proliferation of this contraption all over the city for carrying of goods of comparatively light weight. It is reported that the total number of cycle rickshaws in the city including those running without licence or fake licence is In the neighbourhood of a few lakhs. On the other hand, judging from the ways rickshaw vans are being Increasingly used for manifold purposes. It seems that they enjoy no less popularity as a means of conveyance in emergencies such as hartals or for carrying patients to hospitals In the absence of ambulances.
As a result, their contribution to traffic stalemates in city streets has been steadily grow ing. An Idea of their large numbers may be had. for example, from the sprawling open garages where such rickshaw vans are parked near Hatirpul road crossing, wholesale fish market adjacent to Sonargaon
Hotel and also in some busy commercial areas.
There has been no check on the growth of this type of conveyance. As a result, it is felt that rickshaw vans may turn out in the near future as a potential challenger to the supremacy of cycle rickshaws on city roads.
These rickshaw vans have many ramifications: some are converted into mobile carriages for sale of chatpaty. fuchka. peanuts, cut-fruits, etc. Some are also used for hawking chickens, fish, vegetables, etc. from door to door. Some are even turned into mini vans for carrying children to schools.
From these manifold uses as convenient carriages and in the absence of suitable alternatives for such purposes, it seems that rickshaw vans have come to stay on city roads as long as cycle rickshaws hold sway in the same areas of operation. This portends a not so happy situation for the city's traffic controllers.
Another aspect of the opera tion of rickshaw vans is that the financial benefits derived by their operators are comparable to those derived by cycle rickshaw pullers. This is perhaps due to the reason that rickshaw van operators reap comparable financial returns by virtue of getting higher charges for their hire with fewer trips to places of their destination. In this light, there are reasons to believe that as commercial activities increase, requiring transport of goods in manageable volume and weight, there will be a corresponding increase in the demand for rickshaw vans to be put on roads, with consequences quite similar to those created by cycle rickshaws on city roads.