Cycling in Dhaka, Bangladesh
By Shafiq-Ur Rahman

Bicycles are very rare in the streets of Dhaka City, the capital of Bangladesh. Rather, I would say “there is absence of cycling in Dhaka”. Despite the unavailability of information about cycling, someone can easily recon it while moving around the city. Compared with other modes, the number of bicycle and trips on it is so minimal that the number would be negligible. Why is it so? Why do we need to think about it?

Understanding the traffic and transport, and socio-economic situation of the city will make it clear why I am concerned about cycling. Dhaka is a city of 12 million people of which around 50 percent are living below the poverty level. It is one of the least motorized cities in the world; and consequently, the majority of people depend on public transport. However, the public transport of the city is also in crisis -- poor transport systems, inadequate and overcrowded buses and poor service. Despite being the cheapest form of public transport, bus is not affordable for many people. As a result, usually people walk for travel and spend several hours everyday, a good example is the hundreds of thousands of garment-workers. Because of inadequate and disorganized bus service, rickshaw has filled the vacuum and become popular mode among the middle and upper-middle class income groups. However, trip cost of rickshaw is significantly more expensive than bus. That’s why there is a large number of walking trips (almost 60%) in Dhaka. A number of researchers argued in favour of walking and NMT for financial, physical or health and environmental benefits; however, it is clear that high dependence on walking and rickshaw in Dhaka is due to unaffordable and inaccessible public transport service.

It is evident that we need affordable public transport or cheaper NMT in Dhaka. Bicycle is a low cost mode, which is very flexible and brings quickly to the destination compared to public transport and walking. It is environment friendly and has physical or health benefits and many advantages over other modes. Even more improvement of mobility can be achieved by shifting from walking to cycling. In the 1950s and earlier, bicycle was a major component of the transport system in Dhaka, particularly among students, teachers and the younger generation of middle class people. Reluctance has grown to the use of bicycle for status reasons and the increased danger to cyclists from motorized vehicles. The main cause of danger for cyclist is that there are no provisions made on roads for bicycle paths or crossings and NMT share the same road with motorized vehicles. 

For cities plagued by serious traffic congestion, air pollution and unaffordable public transport, cycling can be an important alternative. Despite the widespread importance of cycling, sufficient road space and related amenities for this are not provided in Dhaka. Even though walking and NMT plays a significant role, planning policies and perceptions are more concentrated on motorized traffic where NMT is seen as hindering motorized traffic flows. Indeed, in certain instances, legislation and traffic enforcement regulations have been introduced to prohibit cycling or NMT along specific routes or within particular areas of the city. Such an approach is completely inconsistent with the realities of socio-economic and transport situation of the city. Considering the travel pattern “transport problems of over 80% people in Dhaka city could be solved if problems of pedestrian and NMT are triggered and necessary facilities are provided for them”.

Despite the very high per capita income and car ownership in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dortmund, and many other European cities, walking and cycling are very prominent, almost 50% of the total trips. This also should be noted that the public transport systems of these European cities are very good. Not only in Europe, bicycle is a major component of transport system in many Asian cities, particularly China, Singapore and Vietnam. So, we can learn from these cities how to promote cycling in our cities, especially in Dhaka.

The keys behind the success of European cities at promoting walking and cycling are integration of these with good quality public transport service, long-term vision for sustainable development and attention to walking and cycling as an important mode of transport and restrict car use/parking in city centres. European cities understood the demand of cyclist at first, and then, act accordingly both at national and local level to integrate planning policies and improved coordination among the agencies to provide necessary infrastructure service facilities for cycling. They triggered the major barriers of cycling—safety and attitude of people; and nicely solved those by segregating from motorized vehicles along with social campaign and awareness building programs. In Europe, there is a strong partnership between government and private sectors, collaboration between different stakeholders, and high budgetary allocation to facilitate cycling. Priority to pedestrian and cyclist, strong enforcement of laws, convenient access to transit, sufficient infrastructure facilities, map/information, and sign and signals made cycling very enjoyable, convenient and comfortable.

We can learn a lot from Europe to promote cycling in our cities. We need to increase the political and public support to lobby or pressurize government to implement policies and programs for improving cycling condition. For grand success, there is no other alternative than awareness building or publicity campaign to incorporate mass people and get their participation. Communication and community education, training program, different events and promotion activities can help to increase the social awareness of cycling. Newspaper and electronic media can play a strong role for these. Awareness programs should be focused on the safety, cost-effectiveness, health and environmental benefits of cycling. There is a need to change the perception/behaviour of people in the society—‘we need living environment’; and promotion of walking and cycling can provide it. Only awareness generation may not work; sometimes we need strong enforcement. We hope that day is not far away when the pedestrian and cyclists will get back their right to use safe roadways here in Dhaka and other cities in Bangladesh.

This opinion piece was contributed by Shafiq-Ur Rahman, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Contact: sahfiq_urp[at]yahoo.com

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