Friday, March 29, 2024

Thinkers in quest for a way through gridlock

It was really fascinating to watch in Ekushey TV news on Friday and Saturday nights (August 27 & 28) in two consecutive episodes a taxi driver named Mohammad Ali analysing to a BUET teacher a marvelous solution he derived from his 5-year long research based on his hands-on experiences to ease the notorious gridlock of Dhaka traffic system. Mohammad Ali studied up to Class V in a school and he has been scratching a living as a cab driver for a long time.
Every job has its difficulties and frustrations; but Mohammad Ali’s frustrations due to loss of earnings caused by everyday traffic gridlocks in almost every main road in the city were simply unbearable. Mohammad Ali often thumped his steering wheel in sheer frustrations as of late he had to wait for hours in the midst of traffic jams in the city. At the end of the day his earnings as a consequence of slow motion of his taxi was too meager to make ends meet.
An expert on transportation Dr. Shamsul Haque, who is a teacher of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was flabbergasted by Mohammad Ali’s elaborate and detailed mappings of all the roads of Dhaka city and his ingenious loop-based detouring arrangements he suggested with clear graphics and diagrams to avoid traffic jams, especially those cataclysmic jams at the crossroads during rush hour traffic.
Surprisingly, as Dr. Haque was narrating as a guest speaker in the Ekushey TV newsroom, there was a queer similarity between the plans Mohammad Ali had drawn and the patterns of vehicular movements in the modern roads in countries like Australia and Thailand, though Mohammad Ali has never seen any other city in the world except the city of Dhaka. “Mohammad Ali is a gifted thinker indeed”, said Dr. Shamsul Haque.
With people getting richer and the urban lifestyle changing very rapidly residents at Dhaka city are stamping their feet in frustrated rage as there seems to be no relief in the offing from the horrendous traffic gridlocks that are paralysing people’s movement with vehicles spending on an average seven and a half hours everyday in traffic jams from 8.00 am until 8.00 pm.
According to a study, the annual economic loss from the gridlock on Dhaka’s four key roads alone amounted to Tk 96 billion—a staggering amount that equals one-third of the country’s annual development expenditure.
There are manifold reasons behind such traffic problems in Dhaka city. One of the main reasons is ‘too many cars for too few roads’. According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, in 2008 nearly 20,000 new vehicles hit the streets of Dhaka, which has grown from a population of 200,000 in 1974 to about 13 million today.
There are many families living in the city who are maintaining four cars: one for the master for his office work, the second one for the madam for her socialization, the third one for children for their commuting between home and school and the fourth one for the servants for their moving around to buy a pack of cigarettes for the master or to carry clothes to the laundry shops. After all, running errands in cars burning CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) fuel is way cheaper than in rickshaws that nowadays are hiking exorbitant fares to compensate their losses due to traffic congestions. Many of these families having more than one car in their private transport pool belong to a new breed whose wallets have suddenly been fattened by bribes and black money.
Of late, executives working in different public enterprises and state-owned banks have been granted interest-free car loans with monthly maintenance allowances ranging from Tk 25,000 to Tk 40,000. Hundreds of such lucky and happy bureaucrats and bankers have bought a great number of cars in the recent months causing a sudden surge in demand and supply of reconditioned cars and adding fuel to flames of traffic congestions.
It is reported that the Chittagong port has been awash with thousands of reconditioned cars imported mostly from Japan. According to some estimate, everyday about 50 cars are hitting the city roads in Bangladesh; but I guess many times more than that figure are joining the caravan of new cars hitting streets to choke up the already congested roads.
Some believe not less than 500 families are relocating from rural areas and district towns to Dhaka city everyday to settle permanently in their newly purchased apartments or homes in the capital. The first thing these new settlers do contemplate about is a car that can run on CNG.
Traffic seizures in cities and towns in Bangladesh have been a commonplace and we have to learn to live with it. Ridding Bangladesh of traffic congestions may not come soon enough for people who are increasingly getting used to a lot of luxuries and creature comforts.
But, taxi driver Mohammad Ali thinks otherwise. To his viewpoint, the present defective traffic system, not the ever increasing vehicles hitting the roads, is responsible for our traffic plights. He thinks traffic gridlocks are mainly created by traffic signals and the vehicles crowding the intersections. “The first thing to be done is ban ‘Taking right turn’ in all the main roads”, Mr. Ali suggested during his appearance in Ekushey TV news. Mohammad Ali is confident that traffic paralysis in the city would disappear within three months if his plans are followed. Dr. Haque also endorsed Mohammad Ali’s conviction pinpointing how by introducing U-loops at 70 junctions of the city roads equipped with close circuit cameras and by erecting long dividers on points where the traffic is mostly snarled up the abnormal traffic congestions can be dispelled at almost no cost and without any physical presence of police personnel to coordinate the traffic movements.
We are not alone in facing gridlocks in our roads and highways. No matter how modern or scientific is their traffic system many transport authorities in many developed countries are also sweating buckets in grappling with their traffic deadlocks.
Last week, a traffic jam stretching more than 60 miles in China entered its ninth day with no end in sight. Cars and trucks had been slowed to a crawl since August 14 on the National Expressway 110, the major route from Beijing to Zhangjiakou. Officials expect the congestion to continue until workers complete construction projects along the road on September 13. Chinese state media reported that the drivers are gradually becoming accustomed to the severe delays.
Three decades of unprecedented economic growth transformed China from a nation of bicycle-users into the world’s largest car market, overtaking the United States for that honor last year. The number of vehicles sold last year in China has risen to 13.6 million, a dramatic rise of 45 percent since 2008.
Commuters in Beijing are dependent on nine subway lines and hundreds of bus-only lanes, but an increasing number of the city’s 17 million population are using cars. Traffic snarls in Beijing nowadays lasts as long as five hours on average and there is little chance of an immediate relief from traffic annoyance with a continuous rise in car-ownership of people enjoying hefty rises in their earnings that are being spurred by their country’s 10%-plus annual economic growth.
Frustrations at times mother inventions. Like Mohammad Ali, the taxi driver from Bangladesh, one Song Youzhou, an entrepreneur from China, has also sweated days and nights in quest for a solution of the traffic gridlock in his country. Song Youzhou is attracting worldwide interest in his futuristic answer to city gridlocks: a 43-meter long ‘straddling bus on stilts’, with an elevated passenger section having a capacity for about 1,200 passengers, allowing it to pass over vehicles stuck in the road below—a cheaper, greener and faster alternative mode of transport for commuters to leapfrog the horrendous traffic jams that increasingly are bringing many cities in China to a grinding halt.
The world would have been a darker place to live in if people like Mohammad Ali, the taxi driver, and Song Youzhou, the entrepreneur, did not spend their days and nights always thinking to invent devices to serve the mankind. And one does not have to be a scientist to be an inventor.
Albert Einstein was not a genius when he began his schooling; but a scientist was born inside him perhaps on the day when his imagination was sparked with a sense of wonder at a compass his father presented him when he was only six years old.
In 1921, a 14-year old boy Philo T. Farnsworth, as he was breaking up soil with his uncle’s horse-drawn harrow, gazed at the plowed rows of dirt behind him, when a vision of excited electrons danced in his mind, a magic moment when one of the century’s greatest inventions—Television—was conceived in his mind. Farnsworth did not complete college.
Albert Einstein and Philo T. Farnsworth were not serious students adorned with a number of academic degrees. But, they were the visionaries; they were the thinkers. They are definitely the rare people still towering above the vast sea of humanity, upon whose shoulders we are viewing the world of wonders of science. Perhaps that is why Albert Einstein once said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

 

Courtesy of The Financial Express

Related News

bKash communications chief Mahfuz Sadique dies at 40

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Mahfuz Sadique, chief communications officer of mobile financial services firm bKash, passed away in Bangladesh capital Dhaka Friday morning. He was 40. Mahfuz died around 9:00am while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the capital, bKash said in a statement. Mahfuz, who began his career as a journalist at New Age, ... Read more

Prices for potatoes increase by 229% from the previous year

Prices for potatoes varied from Tk16 to Tk22 per kg at this time last year. News Desk : dhakamirror.com Despite the presence of both new and old potatoes in the market, potato prices have soared by 229% compared to late December last year. According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), the selling price for ... Read more

LGED engineer dead, UNO among 3 injured in Panchagarh car crash

News Desk : dhakamirror.com An engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) was killed and three other government officials were injured when the vehicle of a UNO hit a roadside tree in Panchagarh Sadar upazila early today. The deceased was identified as Abu Sayed, 33, upazila engineer of LGED from Pirganj upazila of Thakurgaon. ... Read more

UNHCR calls for rescue of Rohingyas stranded in Andaman Sea

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has made an urgent appeal to all countries in the region, particularly those in the area surrounding the Andaman Sea, to swiftly deploy their full search and rescue capacities in response to reported vessels in distress with hundreds of Rohingya at risk of perishing. ... Read more

Over 200 RMG workers injured in Comilla while evacuating factory during earthquake

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Over two hundred garment workers in Cumilla’s Chauddagram have been injured while trying to evacuate the factory building of Amir Shirt Garment Limited during today’s earthquake. A 5.5 magnitude earthquake at a depth of 10km jolted Dhaka, and parts of the country at 9:35am today (2 December). The epicentre of the ... Read more

Daughter hacked father to death in Chattogram

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A father was hacked to death by his own daughter during an altercation over a trivial matter at Lohagara upazila in Chattogram on Friday (1 December). The deceased was identified as Abdur Rahman, 50, of Putibila Sarai village under the upazila. Police have detained the daughter, Humaira Begum, 23, soon after ... Read more

HSC results: Dhaka has most GPA-5 achievers, while Barishal has highest pass rate

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Dhaka had the highest number of GPA-5 recipients in the HSC exams, while Barishal Education Board had the highest pass rate among nine educational boards. Education Minister Dipu Moni announced today that the overall pass rate in the nine general boards is 75.90 percent. In terms of pass rates, Barishal ranked ... Read more

PSC postpones 45th BCS written tests

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) has decided to postpone the written tests for the 45th Bangladesh Civil Service examination, which was scheduled to be held on 27 November. The announcement came through a notification signed by Ananda Kumar Biswas, the exam controller of PSC, issued on Friday. PSC held a ... Read more

After stabbing younger sister to death woman ‘kills herself’ in Hazaribagh

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A woman reportedly killed herself after stabbing her younger sister to death in the capital’s Hazaribagh area today. Police said the incident took place in the Kalunagar area at around 12am on Monday (13 November). The deceased have been identified as Jasmine Akhtar, 44, and her younger sister Nasreen Akhtar, 30. ... Read more

Oman stops issuing new visas to citizens of Bangladesh

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The Sultanate of Oman has suspended the issuance of visas across all categories for Bangladeshi nationals, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said on Tuesday. The decision was effective from Tuesday, reported Oman-based English newspaper the Times of Oman referring to the Royal Oman Police. The report said that the ROP confirmed ... Read more

Dhaka girl Nupur takes over as chairman of Unilever for a day

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Seventeen-year-old Nupur from Dhaka, had the opportunity to take over Unilever’s chairman position for one day on Thursday. There, she symbolically carried out the roles and responsibilities of Zaved Akhtar, the chairman and managing director of Unilever Bangladesh, said a press release. Nupur being an active youth club member, works for ... Read more

Hospitals must follow guidelines, orders HC

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The High Court on Thursday asked the government to take steps to make it compulsory to follow the relevant guidelines for the prevention of performing unnecessary caesarean section surgery at government and private hospitals and clinics. The court has also directed the government to widely circulate the guidelines within six months. ... Read more

Woman delivers birth to five babies at DMCH

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A woman has given birth to five premature babies. The quintuplets were born at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) at 10am on Thursday to Mansura Begum, 22, the wife of CNG driver Md Mamun from Bandardia village in Shibpur upazila of Narsingdi district. One of the newborns, however, died shortly ... Read more

Tk8.44 cr fine imposed to Kazi Farms, 3.44 crore to Suguna Food

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The Bangladesh Competition Commission has fined Kazi Farms Group and Saguna Food and Feeds on charges of market manipulation causing abnormal rise in broiler chicken prices. BCC officials said that the companies must deposit the fine amount to the BCC within 10 working days. If they fail to deposit the fine ... Read more

Heritage volunteers visit national museum

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The heritage volunteers participating in UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers Programme 2023 visited national museum in Dhaka on Sunday. The ten-day workshop programme organised by Nagar Upakhyan-Perceive started on October 1, said a press release. The Heritage volunteers’ team visited national museum which is on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list on ... Read more

Fare for Bangladesh-India trains to increase from November 10

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Ticket prices of three inter-country trains on Bangladesh-India routes are going to be hiked from November 10. The fares are going to increase due to high exchange rate of US dollar and rising travel tax, according to the Bangladesh Railway officials. The trains are – Maitree Express on Dhaka-Kolkata, Bandhan Express ... Read more

Man, nephew killed by lightning

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A man and his nephew were struck by lightning in Satarbari village of Longair union under Gafargaon upazila of Mymensingh yesterday. The deceased were identified as Sohel Mondol, 40, a trader of pharmaceutical drugs, and his nephew Razib Mondol, 35 a rice trader in the village. Quoting locals, Raju Ahmed, officer-in-charge ... Read more

TV sales decline despite World Cup: Is streaming to blame?

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 captures the attention of sports enthusiasts across the world and an intriguing trend is emerging in Bangladesh’s television market. While events of this magnitude have traditionally led to an increase in TV sales, recent figures from September show a 30% decline compared to the same ... Read more

Heritage volunteers visit Paharpur archaeological museum

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The heritage volunteers participating in UNESCO World Heritage Volunteers Programme 2023 visited Paharpur archaeological museum in Naogaon on Friday. The ten-day workshop programme organised by Nagar Upakhyan-Perceive started on October 1, said a press release. The Heritage volunteers’ team visited Paharpur archaeological museum which is on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative ... Read more

Child among three dead as mud walls collapsed in rain in Gazipur

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Three people including an eight-year-old child died in separate incidents of mud walls collapsing during heavy rain in Sadar and Kaliakoir upazilas of Gazipur. The deceased are Faridul Islam, 8, son of Matiur Rahmon of Konabari Baimile under Sadar upazila, and Imarat Hossain, 65, and his wife Achia Begum, 56, of ... Read more