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Eating an elephant

Shawkat Anwar
HARDLY a week, may even be a day. passes by that someone does not deliberate on Dhaka traffic, more so. the scourge of it. Like Mark TWain said. "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Regarding Dhaka traffic, we have about the same impasse, except that while a lot of people are talking about it many are also planning to do a lot of things.
It is all very well that because the matter is very urgent we have a number of plans to tackle die problem However, the people are begging for at least partial, albeit significant, relief that can be effected today This can, indeed, be done, and at a fraction of projected costs.
The deliberation today dwells mainly on buses, because a lot of notions have been put forward recently regarding buses, their importance with regard to traffic, their contribution, and particu-& larly the bad behaviour of bus operators/drivers.
A solution may be found in what
is known as "eating an elephant." Eating one whole elephant in one go is a monumental task, and prima-facle assessment of the enormity of the undertaking may deter many from even attempting it. But not if the job is broken into bite-size pieces, when it becomes more manageable and practicable. People have deployed this technique to achieve successful results.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is almost in a similar situation. The job of achieving a comprehensive and satisfactory traffic system may seem daunting, but DMP has many of the tools required, but does not employ them appropriately. DMP does not seem willing to employ its most important tool: legal power. This can be the first bite in eating the elephant.
There are laws that are prerequisites for a good traffic system. They provide measures that would allow only competent drivers on the road. Drivers who are found to be hazardous to the traffic system should be taken out, sent to driving schools and retested before being let loose on the streets again. Depending on the severity of the offence and the attitude of the
delinquent driver, the DMP may prosecute him and impose fines, and in extreme cases, even incarceration.
While inept drivers may be taught better driving skills, the full force of law may be applied against people who deliberately break the rules. Particularly if this involves damage to life or property. The penalty should work both as a deterrent for the offender and as a safeguard for others.
There are flagrant violations of traffic laws every day, people are maimed and killed, assets are damaged and, yet, how many drivers are penalised? Hardly any, if any at all.
There are laws governing fitness of buses, and yet we see hundreds of faulty buses bumper to bumper. Some don't even have bumpers! Even though the DMP conducts Traffic Week from time to time, the lack of a follow-up renders the exercise meaningless.
Only implementing traffic laws in isolation is unlikely to yield all that we envisage in terms of civil, efficient, orderly and professional conduct from the bus operators, mainly due to the fact that many bus drivers do not even know what is expected of them.
"Ignorance of law is no excuse" we know, but it shall be more rewarding if drivers were informed beforehand what is expected of them in terms of road behaviour; which leads, again, to training. We must train at least a few batches of drivers, and hope that they pass that knowledge on to the batches that follow.
You will find buses violating traffic rules frequently, from stopping at any point on the street to take or drop passengers, to a number of them bunching up at major intersections, to weaving their way through thick traffic, to suddenly jumping on to your shoulder at break-neck speed and forcing you to vacate the lane at the risk of a major accident, and soon.
All these dangerous acts can be captured by cameras positioned by the sides of the streets, or by mobile police, and used as evidence in prosecuting reckless drivers.
A serious matter to consider is that in all these cases the police may themselves lack knowledge of what they are expected to do. They need to know about traffic rules and regulations, and how to process an indictment through the law courts.
The DMP objective is at least two-fold. First, to improve movement of traffic immediately and reduce accidents and collateral damages. Second, to continually monitor traffic flow on a continuing long-term basis.
To achieve these, DMP needs to impart knowledge and skill to their own members at all times. Team members should be provided with
laptop computers and police stations should have computing facilities that have a database that holds driver and motor vehicle records.
Mobile police teams should have speed detection equipment and, if possible, video cameras. Stationary roadside cameras to read license plates of speeding autos can support DMP charges of speed violations.
These might seem like expensive and fanciful ideas, but we do not need to do it all today. We need to have modern, even if not state-of-the-art, resources to meet current day situations. We are using lasers in our hospitals now, so why not a laptop for a policeman, particularly when technology is so commonplace today?
One avenue of mitigating the burden on the exchequer for maintaining the traffic police would be to impose realistic penalties on all traffic offenders. Fines in the books today are what were probably imposed years ago. This should be brought up to date.
Moreover, income from buses has gone up from ten/twenty years ago. The penalty should be heavy as well, so that an offender thinks twice before repeating the offence.
We do not have to implement the traffic laws all over Dhaka city at the same time. As a start, we can take, say, the whole stretch of Airport Road to VIP Road to Suhrawardy Uddayan (PG Hospital), and equip it with mobile police personnel, speed detection equipment, video cam-eras and wireless communication equipment, for a three or four week period. During this time, apprehend the offenders and process them through the legal route. In addition to the legal process, subject offending drivers to further training if they wish to drive in future.
At the end of the period, do a proper assessment of how many vehicles were checked, how many were found delinquent, how many were penalised on the spot, how many were processed for trial, and how many were let go with "warn-
ings issued." The data analysed will provide a basis for future actions.
In addition to above exercise, whenever a driver is stopped checks should be made into matters relating to the automobile itself. The DMP should look into the issues of ownership, insurance cover and road-tax, and take appropriate measures. Kill a few birds with one stone.
An extremely important principle to follow is, whatever be the number of cases handled it must be ensured that the whole process has been carried out in depth. The
success of the principle lies in the integrity of its detailed application. It will end is only when the very last unit has been disposed off and after-care methodology complied to. If it calls for re training, retraining must be executed.
All this sounds rather lengthy and arduous. But, let us take it in easy, manageable bites. Let DMP observe four consecutive traffic weeks on any route and see the results. At least we would have tried to eat the elephant in small bites!
Shawkat Anwar is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.