Bangladesh is a relatively small country covering an area of little over fifty five thousand square miles, Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh and the hub of economic activities of the country. With rapid rate of growth and development, sustainability has emerged as a critical issue for all planning and development endeavours for the city. By 1971. the increase In the' population of Dhaka Metropolitan area had far exceeded all projections — from 0.28 million tn 1951 to around 1.2 million in 1971. Annual growth rates of population during 1961-74. 1974-81 and 1981-91 periods were 9.32, 9.94 and 8.70 per cent respectively. The reason for this increase has been its growing importance as a centre of administration. education, commerce, trade and industry, etc. People come to Dhaka from al) over the country in search of employ ment. Due to increasing population. the transportation system in Dhaka city is on the verge of a collapse. The ill-planned transportation system will even more adversely affect the already deteriorating living conditions, sagging productivity. declining quality of life and degrading social and physical environment.
GIS planning tools can be helpful to make a systematic transportation plan in this respect with the aim to develop a computer-based technique for determining appropriate routes and hence proride a framework for designing better transportation system. The dismal picture of the existing situation indicates that our planners should follow computer-based transport planning without any further delay. The national government should take necessary legal and administrative measures to facilitate various actions by all agencies concerned under public or private sectors towards the common goal of achieving a sustainable future transport plan for Dhaka city.
Traffic jam is the most conspicuous problem in Dhaka and inefficient transportation system is largely responsible for this. In Dhaka, the total length of roads is around 2500 km. out of which the length of primary roads is around 200 km (Chowdhury, 1998). The total number of vehicles (Motorised and non-motorised) moving in the city occupy roughly 32 per cent of total road space. A unique feature of the city is dependence on cycle rickshaws as a form of private transport: there are more than three lac rickshaws, most of which are not licensed. While these provide convenient, pollution-*ree. relatively less expensive, personalised door to door transport service for chiefly the low-income group, the/ contribute significantly towards creating traffic jams due to their low speed range. Total number of motorised vehicles is around 220.000. out of which there are around 50.000 three-wheeled autorickshaws. These run on two-stroke engines and are largely responsible for air poD'i-tion in the city. There are 380 buses. 1250 minibuses and about 70 double-deckers. The number of buses is inadequate for such a large population. Traffic jam. which is a regular feature in the relatively narrow streets of old Dhaka, has now become commonplace in some of the newly-developed areas as well. The roads are always crowded due to encroachment by unauthorised shops, temporary storage of construction materials on footpaths ind roads, garbage bins, hapha. ard . parking by rickshaws, autorickshaws and buses, ignorance about traffic rules, forcible occupation of footpaths and roads (eg. by hawkers, squatters) creating obstructions to pedestrian movement. A good number of people have been using different kinds of vehicles in the city, both motorised and non-moTransportation problem has become more acute with increasing population. Settlements. land use patterns, administrative and socio-cultural centers have multiplied enormously in the city. People are rushing to Dhaka, more than ever before, for pursuing employment. administrative, private functions and other socioeconomic activities. So. there is a requirement for maintaining all kinds of data for future development programmes. For this reason, we can use computer for updating and manipulating data drawing lay-outs, analysing map cover, etc. In this situation GIS technology may play an important role. Transport planners have been using information systems for a long time now to support planning and management tasks. Most of these previous systems deal with manually maintained lextual/numeric data. Traditionally, we rely upon the data from paper maps or from site surveys that can be both time consuming and expensive. However, the availability of digital map data offers a new data source which can provide a more detailed description of the existing road network. In modern GIS utilities all such data are available, and it also has the significant additional capability of providing a spatial view of all information. GIS is an information technology which can effectively capture, store, retrieve, update, analyse and finally display all forms of georeferenced data, graphs and tabular information in a variety of output media. GIS is not the
the solution. A solution can be found through the development of a GIS-based planning Information system. This type of system can record, for example, highway code number, road network survey database (using GPS system), land use survey data, Traffic Demand Management (TDM) database, all the future development proposals of all agencies with their locations alignment etc. and the expected time of implementation. GIS can visualise future land use pattern of an area with the ef-lective use of past and present land use data. The result of this analysis will help make local level transport plan. It has shown how satellite Images and land use maps proride an efficient means of analysis of land use change in a highway corridor over a long period of time (Ullah, 1999). Trie traffic volume data can link with GIS data through the use of OD (Origin and Destination) survey.
In urban context GIS has got a wide range of applications in various fields which include transportation network, land use planning, analysis of urban growth, facility management, land registration and municipality services. One promising new source of information of urban management is high-resolution satellite data. Recent developments in satellite remote sensing data have created new possibilities for timely and cost effective development of geographic information and monitoring of changes in transport planning.
Il is. therefore, a spatial information management system
ideal for managing transport related resources in urban government. For Instance. GIS can help figure out the shortest route to the service centre. Through application of GIS technology, the present transport planning would be more viable and cost effective. An online access to these information can help inter-agency co-ordination as well as preparing their own plans. Either the planning commission or RAJUK can take a leading role In Implementing such an on-line Information system.
It is possible to identify basic functional movement of in-traclty passenger travel and associated transport modes. Ideally. a transport system as a whole, should be capable of accommodating these different types of demands. Different modes will match the requirements of different categories in terms of capacity, speed and range with some overlapping of course. No single mode can accommodate all types of movement. However, use of modes still remains limited in Dhaka city considering two vital Issues of affordability and sustainability. There are different types of transport systems in Dhaka. However three movement demands and system categories can be identified: pedestrian, local area and intracity movement.
Pedestrian: Short trips of half to one kilometre, which cannot be made conveniently using vehicular modes, are commonly taken on foot.
Local area movement: There are two major forms of local area movements: for distribution and collection of longer distance intracity trips and short distance local trips made mainly to meet the daily necessities. To cater to the needs of this type of trips, provision of medium to low speed, low volume systems accommodating trips of 2-5 kilometres in length, operating at perhaps 10-20 kph is suitable. These modes may operate over short distances with frequent stops, can provide personal door to dour services. and may also act as collectors or feeders for the ini racily systems. Different types of vehicular NMTs (bicycles, rickshaws, etc.) and MTs (mostly low-cost three and
four wheelers operating as paratransit) with low to medium capacities and speeds can con-vcHiriilly meet the. demands of local area movements.
Intracity movement: These include longer distance trips ol say 10-30 kilometres and rep resent the line of a typical transit trip from outer areas to the Central Bangladesh (CBD). To meet the requirements ol 1 het i i'. i" > of tiIps, medium oi high speed, high capacity systems with less frequent steps are required. Conventional higher capacity transit systems and the car can meet the requirements of these types ol' trips.
Nowadays, regular articles on transport problem in the clly appear In dilferent newspapers and the issue comes up in seminars. symposia, workshops, etc. Suggestions are coming up from different organisations to solve the present problem without any Internal coordination. The government must aggressively address the transport problem with a view to formulating an efficacious plan for solving It. Government may change the system in such a way so that the existing bus terminal of. say. Gabtolll may operate from Saydabad bus terminal and vice versa. The passenger will have the opportunity to avail all buses from the locality. On the other hand. Mohakhali bus terminal may operate from Mohakhali after serving the whole area of Dhaka city. The practical situation Is that a certain percentage of au-lorickshaws and rickshaws are serving for picking up and delivering passengers from different places in the city. Some private enterprises like long distance buses are operating from different places. So. automatically a certain percentage of vehicles, autorickshaws and rickshaws will be slowly phased out after changing the bus terminal. Mostly rickshaws may ply the artery roads, inner roads and lanes and in no way main roads after introducing adequate number of buses which can be solved by changing the bus terminal. There Is still a good number of buses running in different parts of our country. Because, autorickshaws and rickshaws are making traffic jams at important places of the city, introducing sufficient number of buses and double deckers in public and private sectors will ease up traffic conditions. It has been recommended that there is an immediate need for introducing three thousand buses (Chowdhury. 1998). There is no government or private enterprise which can invest the huge amount of money needed for this purpose. So. alternatively, if these terminal buses can serve the city area, then traffic jam can be reduced gradually. On the other hand, passengers will be economically benefited.
As for the long run. the Dhaka Integrated Transport Study recommended that it would be necessary to go for an underground rail system. However. it will be very expensive. Being a poor country it is not possible to invest a huge amount of money for constructing an underground rail system. It may be noticed that the first lane of the city roads remains more or less blocked one way or the other. If we could set up either a small-scale slow moving commuter electric train network or a small-scale slow moving long vehicle road network over ana along the first lane, then the space will be fully utilised by running the train or slow moving long vehicles. As a result. vehicles will move easily using the wide space of the road. After effective use of this lane all business centres, enterprises. industries, etc will be slowly shifted from the roadside to other places in the city.
Footpath-bazar is now a nagging problem in Dhaka city. For using the first lane, lootpath-bazar will automatically be removed from the roadside. Needless to say. the government will have to strongly enforce the rules. A tentative proposal for commuter electric train line for an area covered around Shamoll. Agargaon. Mirpur-10. Mirpur-1, Technical and Kallyanpur is depicted below.
We can say for example. Mlrpur-10 to Farmgale road linkage has been constructed as ?er traffic volume demand, here is traffic Jam due lo vehicles making U-turn, building materials piled up by the roadside. car parking, garbage disposal units, ricksnaws. baby taxies and floating bazar etc. During peak hours, vehicles will never be allowed to make a U-turn except only al some designated places. Irregular stoppages on the road can be stopped by penalty system with the nelp of video camera. Slow moving vehicles should avoid using the right lane. High-speed vehicles may only use the right lane. Another regular feature of traffic Jam is found in front of Hotel Sonargaon. one of the busiest locations in the city, creating traffic jam for a minimum ol a 1/2 km stretch from oval point to Farmgate depending on volume of traffic and speed. Therefore, a fly-over is immediately required in front of Sonargaon Hotel. Signal. Timing alone at this point is not enough for ensuring smooth flow of traffic as vehicles are converging to this point from four different directions. Therefore only a fly-over in between the oval point in front of Sonargaon Hotel and Bangla Motor can solve the problem. There are other similar points in the city where the traffic signal time cannot serve properly the traffic generating point of the main linkage roacf.
Alternatively, road pricing can be one solution for traffic jam especially for slow-moving vehicles as well as for reducing the number of vehicles, increasing speed, increasing vehicle capacity, etc. Adequate pedestrian movement channels are required to be provided especially in areas oi intense actiri-
ties. The most common facilities include pedestrian walkways, footways, overpasses and underpasses. etc.
The government should take necessary legal and administrative measures to facilitate various actions Ihrough all agencies concerned under public or private sectors. It should stop granting approval for any government offices or private en-teiprises at the heart of the city. Offices or enterprises may operate from satellite towns mostly in flood-free areas commonly linked with the capital city. The government should establish cottage industries and other employment opportunities in the rural areas to employ people locally and thus to arrest unplanned rural-urban migration that puts excessive pressures on the services of cities. Traffic rules and regulations are not for display on BTV screen only. The government should monitor traffic violations and introduce a system of penalty for those who break the rules. In order to be effective the penalties would need to be so high and enforced so strongly that people would desist from breaking the rules. Nonetheless, the government may form a regulatory body like a task force which can regulate the transport system. In some cases, the government line agencies or private enterprises may change the strategy to solve the traffic problem.
Although some transport studies in Bangladesh are available, none of these studies dealt with transportation systems depending on present and future transport demand. GIS can analyse such type of transport demand through the use of present and past data. GIS can envisage future transport routes based on the existing data. So. public or private line agency organisation has to follow computer-based analysis for determining appropriate routes and hence provide a framework for designing better transportation systems. The policymarker or planners may recommend that either the slow
moving small-scale commuter electric train or long vehicles may operate along the first lane. The benefit is that no one can engage the roadside as operates in important locations in Dhaka city. The idea may be drawn from technocrats, consultants. professionals, planners. educationists and government high officials so that the transport planning should be institutionalized. There Is also recommendation for selling up of a separate ministry for public utilities including railways. road transport. DESA and WASA (Observer. 24.10.1999).
Finally, there is a clear need for an integrated authority lo have a sound development of different transportation facilities that should be evaluated in terms of long-term development objectives. Due to institutional weakness and governance problems it is difficult to abolish existing practices that appear to have little relevance to our proposed changes in transport planning. We must look for new approaches appropriate for transport planning. To meet the demands of the existing situation for sustainable transport planning and design, we must institutionalise transport planning. The urgency of the existing situation dictates that transport planning must be followed without any delay by our planning authority. It requires extensive background information. technical and socio-economic data, specific computer technique or model, human resource. adequate time and resources to come up with a viable plan. The GIS based planning information system must also be developed through pragmatic transport planning technique as has already been developed in the world. The national government must take necessary legal and administrative measures to facilitate various actions through all agencies concerned — public or private.
The writer is Physical Planner. LGED