Dhaka is an absolute mess

[Arnab]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
Have mercy. Have patience. If you can't then be the first one and lead others to where you wanted to send them.

I want to lead you through Dhaka's numerous bostis on a multiple day tour and all the physically disabled and garbage-collecting children that crawl the streets here. We will take away all your money temporarily, take away your passport, your car, etc. In that way you will never think of an idiotic game like Golf ever again. It will give you new some perspective in life, help you "find yourself"? Deal?

[Banglatiger84]

Originally Posted by Sauron
Not too different from any major US city during rush hours, except for rickshaws being replaced by more cars. If you consider the fact that Dhaka is not just the financial heart of the country, it is also the center of everything from politics to business to education to administration - not too surprising.


.

No way can you compare jams in any US City with the ones in Dhaka. When you spend an hour travelling 1 km in Dhaka, you will know I am not joking.....

Maybe LA comes close, but on the whole traffic chaos (with the driving culture being very unaccomodating) in Dhaka nowadays surpasses most cities in the world with the exception of Tehran, Cairo and maybe Bangkok...

[PoorFan]

Originally Posted by WarWolf
Dhaka is 110% mess right now. Dhaka has reached it's limit of population with the no of vehicles it can take. Unless we can develop some alternative mass transportation systems like under ground rail way, I don't see any prospect for this city.

Not only alternative mass transportation system but we need more roads and roads and roads in Dhaka. Only 5 to 7% road in a mega capital city like Dhaka?! It shows how pathetic and blind its people and institutions are.

However, since I am male and rich as many of you, I strongly disagree with the idea of vasectomy, rather suggest every rikshaw puller and passenger should pay 'slow ride' tax which should be use to build more and more rodes in Dhaka city for private car. If thats not enough, we may consider 'foot walk' tax on those mass people who occupying the roads like ants. As history says, every historical city has been built by great sacrifice from poor but mass people, we should know we are no exception.

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Arnab
Too many cars. Too many rickshaws. Too many people. Traffic jams happen from 8 AM to deep into the night. This is the most unproductive atmosphere imaginable.

As a solution, I propose to send half the people of Dhaka to gulags in the Sylhet haor area. Where's Stalin when you need him?

I also propose to perform mandatory vasectomy on all adult Bangladeshi males. Enough is enough. We cannot have any more children in this country. People should be taxed so heavily for having children, that they will have to think twice before even contemplating about having a child.

We might then rename the country Union of Bangladesh Socialist Republic and start a cold war with USA.

[Arnab]

Originally Posted by Banglatiger84
No way can you compare jams in any US City with the ones in Dhaka. When you spend an hour travelling 1 km in Dhaka, you will know I am not joking.....

Maybe LA comes close, but on the whole traffic chaos (with the driving culture being very unaccomodating) in Dhaka nowadays surpasses most cities in the world with the exception of Tehran, Cairo and maybe Bangkok...

Sauron was trying to pull my leg. He wasn't interested in an actual conversation.

It's preposterous to suggest that Dhaka is anything remotely like any US city. First, there are hundreds of thousands of rickshaws in Dhaka and there is not one designated rickshaw stand; and there's only a handful of rickshaw lanes in Dhaka. This immediately creates bottlenecks everywhere in the town. Rickshawalas place scores of rickshaws at every exit from the main roads, clogging the opening and creating jams. The same thing happens with car parking.

The authorities have tried to solve this by banning rickshaws on the main roads, but this means nothing. Everyday at least 50 new cars are added to the traffic, thanks to the burgeoning bhuifor upper-middle class of Dhaka, and there is no parking place for the cars. Car owners and drivers are mostly idiots enclosed in a heatproof, soundproof vehicle, so they don't care and honk away. The noise pollution is abominable.

It's like giving cars to immature infants and retards in a road system filled with hundreds of thousands of rickshaws pulled by illiterate rickshawalas and see how it works out without any traffic police, without any drivers education, without any functioning traffic signal system. It's a freak show. This is not just "rush hour" stuff. There is no "rush hour" in Dhaka. The entire DAY is one big "rush hour". There's too many people. Too little space.

Dhaka is already the most densely populated metropolis in the world. And poor village people are pouring in the city at a much higher rate than I have ever seen. I cannot walk one mile without encountering at least 5 crippled kids lying on the footpath (they are a ghastly sight), or 10 poor kids who surround me and want my empty bottle of cola. Kids defecate in the drains by the main avenues, and I cannot even have a cup of tea in a tea stall without encountering a poor, homeless mother with an infant in her hands asking for alms. At night I see prostitutes standing in the corners of streets of my neighborhood and being picked up by rickshawalas.

It's an absolute mess. Don't get fooled by the overseas Bangladeshi TV Channels.

[Arnab]

Originally Posted by Alien
We might then rename the country Union of Bangladesh Socialist Republic and start a cold war with USA.

Yeah, that will definitely solve all the problems.

[Arnab]

Originally Posted by PoorFan
Not only alternative mass transportation system but we need more roads and roads and roads in Dhaka. Only 5 to 7% road in a mega capital city like Dhaka?! It shows how pathetic and blind its people and institutions are.

However, since I am male and rich as many of you, I strongly disagree with the idea of vasectomy, rather suggest every rikshaw puller and passenger should pay 'slow ride' tax which should be use to build more and more rodes in Dhaka city for private car. If thats not enough, we may consider 'foot walk' tax on those mass people who occupying the roads like ants. As history says, every historical city has been built by great sacrifice from poor but mass people, we should know we are no exception.

May be ban cars for the next 5 years. Somebody needs to put a curtain on the "Great Bangailla dream" of owning a flat and a car in Dhaka city. It's just not environmentally feasible anymore.

[Zeeshan]

Two words: Car pool

[BANFAN]

People will do what is convenient for them. Government should do what's convenient for the people. If people like cars, Make more roads/Flyovers etc, decentralize the government & develop other cities. Instead Government is attracting more and more people towards Dhaka only, every day through it's centralized policies. That has made the situation worse. I love Dhaka during Eid holidays, when all the migrated workers are back to their home.

It's not a dictatorship, ban vehicle ! ban Business ! Have idea how many people/family are dependant on this car businesses? What they do during ban? Crazzy ! Introduce helicopters? So atleast these guys can switch business.

[Arnab]

Originally Posted by Gopal Bhar
Two words: Car pool

Easy to say. The situation in America is different from the one Bangladesh. America is a vast sub-continent with a huge white middle class. Most of them also seem to have something called common sense. And they have plenty of space to spread out.

Bangladesh is a small land of overpopulated brown retards who have substituted gobor for brain. Bangladesh has half the people in America, but not even one hundredth of the land.

Understand the difference before you say something radically enlightening like "car pool". I guess what I am trying to say is it is not very clever to apply first world concepts in a f-ed up third world situation.

[PoorFan]

Originally Posted by Arnab
May be ban cars for the next 5 years. Somebody needs to put a curtain on the "Great Bangailla dream" of owning a flat and a car in Dhaka city. It's just not environmentally feasible anymore.

Well, my last post was a pure joke ... ,

But in a serious note ... main problem is those morons [politicians or administrators] who never tried to expand / create roads in the city. Only 5% to 7% road is not imaginable in a capital city in human history. Ban on car [import] or flat wont solve a thing at all, rather many daily basis construction labor will lose their earning, as well as tenant crisis may hit the people even more. In fact those poor people coming to Dhaka for mere earning, will not stop whether we ban car or flat.

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by Arnab
I guess what I am trying to say is it is not very clever to apply first world concepts in a f-ed up third world situation.

Well than ousting rickshaws instead of cars wont solve the problem anyways and I guess your idea of banning cars isn't that far fetched after all. First of all, Dhaka was not built to have cars in the first place. So why force it? It's like trying to apply square peg in a round hole. Similarly, it would be equally risible to actualize more flyovers and subways in that country. Sure it may give it a "developed" look at the wastage of more money, but what will we get? Another, overpopulated, claustrophic, overcrowded Hong Kong?

Traffic must be redirected to...

[Banglatiger84]

Originally Posted by Arnab
.

It's an absolute mess. Don't get fooled by the overseas Bangladeshi TV Channels.

Erm, but my friend was in Dhaka and said its very developed, there are nice malls, expensive cars, and good hotels. Surely this means Dhaka has progressed ?

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Banglatiger84
Erm, but my friend was in Dhaka and said its very developed, there are nice malls, expensive cars, and good hotels. Surely this means Dhaka has progressed ?

Few skyscrapers here and there with Ferraris buzzing past CNG and rickshaws doesn't make it a better city. It means few more people are richer than before if anything.

That in turn raises the next problem: The gap between rich and poor is disgustingly huge.

[WarWolf]

Originally Posted by Alien
Few skyscrapers here and there with Ferraris buzzing past CNG and rickshaws doesn't make it a better city. It means few more people are richer than before if anything.

That in turn raises the next problem: The gap between rich and poor is disgustingly huge.

You can give a new name to Dhaka, "The City Of Inconsistency"

[One World]

My five weeks spent in Dhaka recently gave me the experience that I was not ready for. I was just shocked to see my favourite roads and streets full of crowd and crowd. No place to breath! My proposal was to install a Dhaka bound ticketing system for new comers if not an intra-country visa. I was fairly shocked to learn then in news paper everyday 100 new vehicles are introduced legally by RTA. Just add the illegal ones and crunch your numbers.

As the dad of Everybody Loves Raymond says "Holy Crap"!

I know.

[BangladeshFan]

why are u only talking about traffic jams? didnt u feel something on the air?? dhaka is the one of the most polluted cities in the world(if not the most) and lead is flying around in a dangerous amount in the air.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by Arnab
I want to lead you through Dhaka's numerous bostis on a multiple day tour and all the physically disabled and garbage-collecting children that crawl the streets here. We will take away all your money temporarily, take away your passport, your car, etc. In that way you will never think of an idiotic game like Golf ever again. It will give you new some perspective in life, help you "find yourself"? Deal?

If my soul was closer to the Lord, I would have given up all that without a single word.

I am grateful for what I have unlike the thread starter who only knows how to complain. Mercy.

[thebest]

Originally Posted by BangladeshFan
why are u only talking about traffic jams? didnt u feel something on the air?? dhaka is the one of the most polluted cities in the world(if not the most) and lead is flying around in a dangerous amount in the air.

Dhaka's air is lead free. Get your fact right. The problem of Dhaka is not ricksaw but car. Do you know almost 50% of car trip contain only driver. Drop the kid in school and the car return to take sir to office and return to take Mrs to shopping. On the way back pick the kid from school. Then send the car to pick Sir from office. There are too many bus company operating. On another day I counted bus of 17 operators plying in the section between New Market and number 32. In the off peak hour almost all the bus are operating 50% of their capacity. Most of this buses are so called mini bus. Thus they are taking too much road space. I do agree with Poor fan that there are little road in Dhaka; but even the existence road are not properly utlized. There are no east-west connector . So traffic going from Banani to Mirpur has to go south till Bijoy Saroni and then go north again while the road in cantonment remain underutilized. Same goes for people coming from Western Mdpur/ Jhikatala. They don't need to use Mirpur road if the road inside Pilkhana is opened to all. The crazy people in government think that connecting tejgaon with Bijoy Saroni would ease the problem after 16th dec. Actually it would create more problem. At present those cars which are going north-south moves freely as the left lane is always clear (at least at the front); However creating a junction means this ree flow would be obstructed. The newly constructed road would be underutilized as very few traffic is generated in Tejgaon and ended in Mirpur during day time. Now consider how much space of Mirpur road (Section between new market and Elephant road) is occupied by car as parking lot. Yesterday I saw three rows of car is parked (2 in east side, 1 in west) on this. Now we all are blaming poor rickshaw puller for creating mess in Dhaka while we the car owners are real culprit. The best solution for Dhaka is to decentralize so that everyone don't need to come in Dhaka. But we can not do that because our big shots do not want to go outside Dhaka. The mess they created not the poor rickshaw puller and garments worker. Now they are so audicious that they want to have gulag to send people so that the pressure on Dhaka could be relieved. For those who claim ricksaw is the main cause of traffic jam I have one info - The difference of average speed in Mirpur road (New Market - Gabtoli) between pre and post ricksaw free is 0.4 kmph (statistically insignificant) and I have one question Why there is Traffic jam in so called VIP road?

[MohammedC]

What percentage of people come to Dhaka for better opportunity? I mean from rich to poor. Creating more jobs outside Dhaka may reduce Dhaka's population and probably the only solution at the moment.

[Banglatiger84]

following on thebest's point is it possible that part of the problem lies in the hughe cantonment area, which under present limits of Dhaka is almost in the middle of the city......

[thebest]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
What percentage of people come to Dhaka for better opportunity? I mean from rich to poor. Creating more jobs outside Dhaka may reduce Dhaka's population and probably the only solution at the moment.

I have to check the source in internet, but if you exclude Dhaka, the urbanization rate of Bangladesh is much below the world average while including Dhaka (i.e. the real urbanization rate) it is one of the fastest in the world. So now calculate yourself how fast Dhaka is growing. Here is one document which compare Dhaka's growth with Seoul
The problem of our Transport system is that we took a wrong philosophy: Instead of Demand Management (Like West Europe, Japan, Singapore) we are concentrating Supply Management (Like USA, Thailand). In Thailand it spectacularly failed (I heard Bangkok famous traffic jam is returning), in USA it failed and economy is paying the price and Bangladesh the sign of failure is everywhere. I would not comment on Malaysia,

[Spitfire_x86]

Building a new capital city from scratch is the only solution. If all offices that need to be in the capital move outside of Dhaka, then many problems of Dhaka will ease off.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by Spitfire_x86
Building a new capital city from scratch is the only solution. If all offices that need to be in the capital move outside of Dhaka, then many problems of Dhaka will ease off.

This is a good way moving forward. Since this will cost us billions, we may do it as phases.

As a starting point I would suggest moving 1) Dhaka University to relocate first. 2) Move the train line out of the city as well. 3) make that train line as a highway going through Dhaka. May even make it one way and airport road the other oneway. 4) Move BAF airport out of Dhaka. The airforce headquarter is fine. Just the airport. BAF has enough strength in Jessore and Chittagong to support what they have in Dhaka. 5) The new found space Dhaka would have, should be utilised as Parks, roads connecting highways, bus stations, recreational area (soccer fields, lakes etc.). 6) Ofcourse a highway ring (bypass) outside Dhaka.

[BangladeshFan]

the best, the high % of lead in dhaka's air is a known fact. i think i ve read that in several places.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...+lead+air&meta=