Concept and Use of Dual-Use Cars in Reducing Traffic Congestion In Dhaka City of Bangladesh
11 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2010
Date Written: February 26, 2010
Abstract
The narrow and mostly unplanned roads of Dhaka City have generated a special type of transport problem. Huge number of private cars jam the roads at the pick hours and their number is increasing at the rate of about 130 cars per day. In solving this problems various experts suggested solutions like, (a) Metro or underground rail, (b) Monorail, (c) Elevated expressway, (d) Fly over, (e) Increase of large-bodied public transport, (f) Removal of old cars, (g) Imposing restriction on car ownership, (h) Introducing school bus, (i) Decentralization etc. A careful analysis may reveal that: Proposal (a), (b) and (c) are extremely costly and do not have any quality to solve the present problem, which is jamming due to cars; Proposal (d) may solve the problem of jam at some locations by transferring the same to another location. However, it does not solve jamming of roads. Also in Dhaka there is scarcity of suitable land to construct flyovers; Proposal (e) cannot reduce the number of cars, but can only increase the total number of vehicles; Proposal (f) and (g) are absurd and fruitless talks; Proposal (i) can help in reducing jam near the schools and can contribute nothing more; Proposal (i) is an excellent solution for solving car-jamming. But those having knowledge about Bangladesh and the way its government work know well that the government would not be able to materialize it.
In this paper two other inexpensive proposals have been discussed. These are: (j) Dwellers Participation-Based Administrative Planning Policy (DPAP) and (k) Dual-use car. None of these has still been tried anywhere in the world, even though their implementations are not at all difficult. In this paper the above issues have been discussed with some details of the proposal for introducing Dual use car. The author is confident, if introduced the Dual-use cars will be able to solve the specialized type of transport problem of Dhaka City.
Keywords: Dual Use Car, Transportat Problem, Dwellers Participation Based Planning
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