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Most of the directives issued by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police to improve the city traffic system six years ago are being flouted frequently, ever increasing the risk of road crashes. 

All types of road users—city service buses, human haulers, motorcycles and pedestrians—are committing the violations, leading to a high number of casualties every year.

Road safety experts blame an entrenched culture of disregard for rules and negligence of the authorities for the situation.

A syndicate of a section of dishonest officials and some transport leaders instigate the general bus owners and drivers to violate the directives, they also observed.

On September 4, 2018, the DMP announced some directives in response to a nine-day countrywide student protests demanding road safety in July same year.

Under those rules, the DMP declared city roads off-limits to human haulers; fixed designated stoppages for city buses; asked city buses to keep doors shut while running, display bus staff’s photos and mobile number in the buses and carry updated documents; and asked owners to appoint drivers and assistants on salary basis.

Besides, for motorcyclists ‘no helmet no fuel’ rule and prohibition on using wrong lanes and driving on footpaths were issued.

Statistics show that bus owners and drivers are largely violating the rule of carrying updated documents in the buses. 

According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, till March this year, in Dhaka metropolitan city 8,132 buses and 6,478 minibuses were running even after crossing their lifetime of 20 years.

BRTA statistics also shows that currently only 3,019 buses and minibuses are running inside the city with updated route permits. 

Most recently, the driver of Raida Paribahan bus that rammed a motorcycle near Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, killing a Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh engineer on April 19, did not have a licence to drive the bus and fitness certificate of the vehicle, said Rapid Action Battalion officials.

Repeated attempts from the DMP and other authorities like the two city corporations of Dhaka have so far failed to make the city service buses follow the designated stoppages rule, increasing the risk of road crashes.

Buses, even from the same companies, are often seen on the busy roads to compete with each other to pick passengers. 

‘Whenever anyone signals them the buses stop and pick the passenger anywhere on the road,’ said Tawfiqul Islam, a regular bus passenger.

He said with frustration that the buses are running at their whim in absence of virtually any enforcement.

Absence of salaried jobs for the drivers and assistants of the city buses is blamed as the main factor behind reckless speeding by the drivers, which they do to get as many passengers as possible, posing high risk to the road users’ lives. 

The urge to quickly pick and drop passengers, city buses hardly shut their doors as required by the 2018 DMP directive. 

Bus staff’s photos and mobile numbers are found in display inside some buses although in most cases the documents have been found old, dirt covered and illegible.

Modified utility vehicles, known as human haulers, can be seen running on busy capital roads especially at Manik Mia Avenue, Farmgate, Dhanmondi areas.

From time to time the DMP conducts mobile courts to discourage jaywalking but pedestrians are regularly seen to cross roads without following signals or at places where there is no zebra crossing, descend on roads from footpaths and even cross access-controlled roads instead of using footbridges.

SM Salehuddin, transport expert and former executive director of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, regretted the culture of violating traffic rule.

‘But what about the authorities for not making them follow the rules?’ he asked.

‘The authorities concerned need to enforce the laws, monitor the situation while initiatives like rationalisation of bus routes by brining all city buses under few companies is also necessary,’ he added.

‘The disease on roads is not technical but a political one,’ said Accident Research Institute former director and BUET professor Md Hadiuzzaman.

He alleged that a syndicate of some powerful transport owners and some dishonest BRTA and police officials is holding the transport sector hostage, which forces the general transport owners and workers to violate rules.

‘After giving bribes to get route permits and then to run buses on roads daily, the common owners struggle to continue their business and they force their drivers to drive recklessly to earn,’ he continued.

Violation of traffic rules will continue unless the syndicate is broken, he added.

A Transparency International Bangladesh study revealed in March that private bus companies in the country pay Tk 1,059.37 crore annually as bribes to the BRTA, traffic and highway police, representatives of municipalities and city corporations, political leaders, transport owners, and workers’ organisations.

DMP additional commissioner (traffic) Md Munibur Rahman said that the violation of traffic directives varied based on the time of the day.

‘During peak hours in the morning and the evening some drivers try to violate rules to avoid traffic congestion,’ he said.

Munibur also said that during this Ramadan the violation of traffic rules increased on roads for the same reason.

Due to lack of human resources they cannot deploy traffic police at all places to check violations, he added.