Title Sustainable transportation policy for Dhaka city ...

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Sustainable transportation policy for Dhaka city, Bangladesh

Reazul, Ahsan S. M. Reazul, A. S. M.. (2003). Sustainable transportation policy for Dhaka city, Bangladesh. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3126098 2003

http://hdl.handle.net/10722/37817

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.

Sustainable Transportation policy for Dhaka City; Bangladesh.

A H S A N S.M. Reazul

DISSERTATION

Submitted i n partial fulfilment o f the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Urban Planning)， Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Manag sment The University of Hong Kong. June 2003.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A t the very beginning I would like to show my gratitude to Almighty (Allah Subhanuthala). I am here because o f his kindness. I would like to express my debt o f gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Bill Barron, whose generous guidance, attention, and particularly unwavering encouragement always kept my bewildered thoughts towards an appropriate focus. His unique breadths o f vision, penetrative analysis and expertise i n this field have been unparalleled to come up with this work. I would like to express my special gratitude to Dr. Jobair-bin-Alam (Associate Professor, Department o f C i v i l Engineering, Bangladesh University o f Engineering Technology) and Dr. M . Rahmatullah (Former Director o f Transport, U N - E S C A P and Program Director o f Transport and Infrastructure, C P D ) for their guidance and support, which helped me a lot to decide m y way o f thinking and analysis at the early stages o f this study. Thanks are due to M r . Ahasanul Habib

(Lecture, Department o f Urban and Regional Planning,

Bangladesh University o f Engineering Technology) and M r . Khandker Mohammed Nurul Habib (Lecturer, Department o f C i v i l Engineering, Bangladesh University o f Engineering Technology) for helping me with their thesis and papers to understand the present situation o f the present transportation situation o f Dhaka City. I am thankful to M r . Helal Uddin Nagari, D U T P Transport Engineer, for his selflessness and generosity i n providing me the necessary data and information. Hopefully，I would b e able to return the favour someday. I a m grateful to m y friend Zillur Rahman, M a m f Ahmed Khan and his family for providing m e mental support and accommodation in Dhaka City at the data collection stage, without this favour it could b e very difficult for m e to continue m y research. I a m also grateful to m y classmates and friends in C U P E M who have been m y great source of

inspiration throughout my study in Hong Kong. Among them I particularly would like to mention Therese, Vibha, Joseph, Dawn, Arlene, Winnie, Chisty and Anwar for their moral support and academic assistance. I am greatly indebted to my wonderful parents and mentors, for their unconditional love, affection and invaluable guidance throughout my life. I would like to thank to my family - m y brothers, sisters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws and my nieces for their unconditional love and encouragement throughout my studies. Finally I am thankful to the Asian Development Bank for providing me with the scholarship to conduct my M.Sc. in C U P E M a worldclass-planning institute.

To my family

ABSTRACT

This study sets，out to assess the existing transportation system in Dhaka City，and develop policy approaches that could mitigate environmental pollution (especially air pollution from vehicular emissions), minimise traffic congestion and ensure mobility for different income groups. In the process，such steps would make the transportation system more sustainable to meet the present transport demand and future needs of the city. The transportation system in Dhaka City has failed to keep pace with the rapid urbanization and the population growth，as well as the infrastructure facilities also failed to meet the rising transport demand. The transportation system needs t o ensure mobility, affordable to all income groups, convenient and of course environmental friendly to b e a sustainable transportation system. This study is almost exclusively based on secondary data. Previous studies and research on transportation in Dhaka City and the transport related authorities are the main sources o f the data. With the available data from the secondary sources, this research examines the existing transportation system, and assesses the future scenario if the population and pollution growth remain unchanged in Dhaka City. With an average

‘traffic j a m ' of

about two hours a day and a movement of about 3.8 million passengers 5 trips, the financial value o f such loss amounts to about U S $ 570 million per year even the average opportunity cost of lost time is estimated at a conservative value o f about U S $ 0.25 per man-hour. This is a huge amount of national economic loss，because 5 0 % o f the total populations in the country live below the poverty line who earn less then U S $ 54 p e r month. In terms of mobility，a total of 14800 motor vehicles are serving about 10 million people in the city. This means the ratio o f passengers per vehicle is 68:1，where as the average passenger occupancy of a public b u s is only 33 and a car is only 1.2. So there is

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always a huge demand for motorized public transportation in the city，but the irony is the light three wheelers motorized vehicles and non-motorized transportation modes poorly meet this demand and there is no balance between the motorized and non-motorized transportation modes. These non-motorized and light three wheelers (like baby taxi， mishuk) are not also affordable b y the low-income and middle-income groups who earn US$ Reducing pollutants emissions from motor vehicles through the use of cleaner vehicles and alternative fuels such as CNG and LNG; > Mitigation of traffic congestion through traffic management to ensure the traffic follow and mobility of passengers and goods; > Encouraging alternatives to the automobiles such as public transit, and alternative transport modes like inner city rail and water transport; and > Reducing the needs for transportation through such actions as mixed land use pattern development and telecommuting. In this research the sustainable transportation policies for Dhaka City are mainly formulated on the basis of these objectives and goals. Attentions are paid on the environmental related issues especially air pollution, how to mitigate and introduce environmental friendly transport modes. Then improving better transport facilities and alternative modes as well as policy implementation for non-motorized transport and its

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Chapter 5 management. Proposed alternative transport network for long-term policy measure like waterway and inner city railway. Finally introduce better land use planning that could mitigate the dependency on motorized transportation and introduce a better and sustainable transportation for the City. 5.3.1 Environmental approach: Dhaka City is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Although the citywide average air pollution level is still below the allowable limit set by the Department of Environment, Bangladesh and WHO, the level of air pollution on the roadsides of the city far exceeds the limit. The Air Quality Index (AQI) at many points of the city is found to be above . / . 200, which is much higher than the acceptable limit of 50 for fairly clean air (CPD， /

^

2001). According to the findings in chapter four about 1000 metric tons of pollutants are pumped into the environment in Dhaka City and 70% of them are from motor vehicles. Every year nearly about 15,000 death is occurred because of air pollution in Bangladesh and among them 10,800 in Dhaka City，where as the death rate for air pollution of other major cities in Bangladesh is quite low with respect to Dhaka (World Bank, 2001). The following diagram shows the death rate in four divisional cities in Bangladesh for air pollution per year,

• Dhaka SChittagong 14%

• Khulna 72%

• Rajshahi

Source: World Bank，2001 Figure 5.1: Annual death rate for air pollution in Bangladesh.

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Chapter 5 As it mentioned that one of the major causes of air pollution in Dhaka City is motorised vehicles and the fuel used for those vehicles. Everyday the poorly managed motor vehicles contribute 50% of S02，70% of N02，and 60% CO of the total pollutants in the city enviromaent and the main reason of emitting such pollutants is using impure jfuel (like non purified petrol，diesel mixing with kerosene) and unbumt hydro carbons. According to the previous chapter the present estimated growth rate of gaseous pollutants in Dhaka City is 27% per annum and if the growth rate remain same，by the year of 2010 the emission of gaseous pollutants in the city would be 12437 ton per day. From the above discussions as well as the analysis in previous chapter, the prime focus of the policy approaches proposed in this study is mitigation of air pollution. 5.3.1.1 Introducing Clean Fuel: In the light of above facts and figures, attempts could be made to address two factors to improve the environmental quality in Dhaka City. One of these elements would be to deal with the light motor vehicles operated by two-stroke engines and the other is to replace the use of both diesel and gasoline with alternative clean environmental friendly fuel that is CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is a relatively clean fuel and available in abundance in Bangladesh (DITS, 1994). Thus CNG appears attractive to the government for both environment and economic reasons. The Bangladesh government took a appreciative step by the end of year 2002，they changed all two-stroke light motor vehicles with four-stroke CNG taxi but even the number is too small it terms of the total need. Government first took the initiative in 1997 to convert petrol cars to CNG operated cars by the year of 2001 about 1200 cars have been converted (CPD，2001). At the end of 2002 government import four-stroke 3 wheeler CNG operated taxies instead of two-stroke baby taxies under pollution control measure, thus at present about 8000 CNG operated vehicles are plying on the road in the

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Chapter 5 city (Daily Prothom-alo, April 4，2003. pp 6). As far as vehicles are concerned, there is extra cost associated with CNG engine (or it conversion) the fuel control system and fuel tanks，together these increase the cost of a basic vehicles up to 10-20 percent (CPD， 2001). Only 14 CNG gas stations now serving the total 8000 CNG operated vehicles， where as another 26-27 gas stations are badly needed to meet the present demand in the city. Because of limited number of gas stations the average filling time is about 10-12 minutes and only 4 vehicles can be filled in on go, thus during peak hour there is always a shortage of CNG operated taxies (Daily Prothom-alo, April 4，2003. pp 6). The Bangladesh government has taken，“ Clean Environment Project by the year 2004”，under this project government is going to import about 300 CNG operated bus and 2000 CNG taxies. Another 26 CNG gas station is going to be established to meet the current demand. The total project will cost about US$ 100 million and Asian Development Bank (ADB) going to finance US$ 72 million and Bangladesh government will finance another US$ 24 million (Uonus，2002). Government is also going to ahead with another joint venture project with China, on the basis of 25% (Govt.) and 75% (China). Under this PublicPrivate Partnership programme，51 CNG filling stations are going to be installed in the country of which 13 will be in Dhaka city. Out of these 13，two stations are going to be commissioned soon (CPD，2001). The government has taken a good number of policies to induce CNG as an alternative clean fuel to mitigate environmental pollution. Even so it is very important to change the economic policy like vehicular taxation, fuel pricing，tax on the petrol stations to make CNG as an alternative and attractive fuel for the users. CNG must be carried in heavy metal cylinder, which is inconvenient for smaller vehicles. To use CNG，in a petroleum-using vehicle the owner must install a duel fuel conversion kit. The current import cost of such kit is about Tk. 40,000 (US$ 690) for a gasoline engine and Tk. 80,000 (US$ 1379) for a diesel engine (CPD, 2001). If government impose

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Chapter 5 ~ Policy .4pproaches import tax on such kits, the cost would be higher and it would be impossible for the users to convert their vehicle to C N G operated vehicle. A t present there are 15 known gas fields m Bangladesh having 643 billion cubic meters of total reserve and 430 billion cubic meters of recoverable reserve natural gas. A t the current level of consumption， government estimate this amount of natural gas is adequate for about 65 years. However, if consumption grows at a rate of 10% per year the gas will last for 20 years (DITS， 1994). With the new policy of government about CNG operated vehicles the consumption rate of natural gas will increase more than 10% per year，so there should be a future policy to use the CNG as alternative clean fuel. A successful CNG programme will have had to invest in many filling stations along the main public transport routes of the city. Import cost of a filling station plant is Tk. 6 million (US$ 103448) and another Tk. 0.5 million (US$ 8620) for operating cost. Without any discount factor if a filling station can operate (without major repair) for 5 years can achieve the break-even by selling 785 cubic meters CNG per day. This amount of gas is equivalent to the total requirement of 25 average buses (DITS, 1994). This target should not be difficult to achieve by a filling station. Inter-city buses and trucks may not use CNG for the problem of fuel supply out side Dhaka; but for the public buses operating with in the city，three-wheeler taxies and some trucks CNG appears economical as well environmental friendly. A rough calculation by DITS suggests that if a diesel engine city bus runs 36000 km per year converted to CNG engine can pay-off the cost of conversion kit in less than 1.5 year and the pollutant rate will decrease just one third of the diesel engine (GDMITS，1994). Introducing CNG as an alternative and clean fuel is environmentally as well as economically and socially viable，so this should b e the first priority for sustainable transpiration in Dhaka City but the government need to adopt some other policy to introduce clean fuel like:

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches Vehicular Taxation: conversion kits to convert the existing motor vehicles to CNG. Also need to provides incentives to the public transport operators like B R T C to convert their vehicles from gasoline and diesel engine to C N G engine. Encourage the private investors to import C N G operated buses，minibuses and taxies as well as engine parts with minimum tax and nxiniinum. vehicle license duties. So that could replace the patrol and diesel engines from the city and improve the air quality of the city. Fuel

Pricing: Diesel fuel, which is direct competitor of CNG，typically canies low tax

rate. The reason being that diesel is used by vehicles carrying inter-urban freight movement，and for agriculture purpose (CPD, 2001). Hence natural gas would seems to require strong fuel pricing policy or fiscal encouragement if it is to be more than a niche fUeL The pump price would need to be about 50 percent of the production cost of liquid fuels. Tax Structure: It is necessary to develop a tax structure that protects the urban environment but do not discourage the use of most economical fuel used in Bangladesh that is diesel for inter-city transportation and agricultural activities where CNG fuel and natural gas services are not at al available. At the beginning，the tax structure needs to be imposed for Dhaka City because it has better pipe line service for natural gas. One of the possible ways of doing that is to identify the old and the most damaging vehicles especially public transport modes (buses，taxies，3 wheelers, etc) and impose heavy duties on those types of diesel vehicles for their operating and licensing cost rather than fuel taxation to change the balance of economic advantage. It could be a better step to replace the damaged and old vehicles both private and public from the city road with environmental friendly vehicles.

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Chapter 5 -. Policy Approaches Fuel management: needs to have a fuel management policy that could balance the use of CNG and diesel for the motor vehicles (public and private) operating on the roads. At the initial stage use of CNG fuel should be limited mostly by the public transport modes like buses, taxies that are plying on the road all over the day and the major sources of emitting gaseous pollutants in the city air. On the other hand the private vehicles (like car，jeeps，micro bus) should use d e a n diesel fuel because the private car ownership is quite limited. Using diesel b y these limited private motor vehicles may not pollute the air as public transport modes do. In Dhaka City, the people per private car ration are only 1100:1 (Choudhry, 2000). If these limited numbers of private motor vehicles use clean diesel, it may not have an impact on the city environment but the government needs to assure clean diesel for them. But for the diesel operating vehicles the government transport authority (BRTC & BRTA) need to ensure the quality and the age of the engine as well as the quality of the fuel used b y the vehicles other wise high duties need to be imposed to stop its operating on the road. In such way，there could be a balance in the used of different fuels at the initial stage and ensure the reserve of the natural gas for 汪 sustainable use. With the discovery of more gas fields and modem technology the diesel operated vehicles could be transfer to C N G in the long run.

Regulatory control: transport authority (BRTA & BRTC) should identify the major nodes and regions (New Market more，Bijoy Shorony) on which atmospheric pollution reaches at a threaten level and need to introduce traffic flow management on such areas. In this case all vehicles except buses, taxi and police-emergency vehicles should be prohibited from, circulation for certain time period (like 2 Vi hours in the morning snd 3 Vi hours in the evening) once a

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Chapter 5 week to minimize the vehicular emissions. On such period alternative road net works need to be managed to minimize traffic congestion. This type of regulatory control was first adopted in Santiago de Chile to mitigate air pollution by the year 2000(Fjellstrom，2001). Thus awareness of the issues，proactive policies, economically affordable technology, international standard of monitoring and proper enforcement are the key elements to mitigate air pollution generated from the vehicles and to ensure a better living environment in Dhaka City for present and future generation. 5.3.2 Urbanization and Urban Transportation: During last three decades Bangladesh has been experiencing a rapid growth in urbanization. During that time the urban population in the country grew much faster than rural population. The urban population in the country，which was about 23 million in 1990，is estimated to reach about 68 million by 2015 (CPD，2001). Being the capital the urbanization rate in Dhaka is higher than other urban centres. Major economic activities, better educational institutes，better medical facilities, more job opportunities are centralized in Dhaka. This internal migration is one of the major causes of rapid urbanization for Dhaka City. The following table presents the expansion and population growth of Dhaka City in different decades‘ (The extent of urban growth of Dhaka is shown in appendix 4.) Table 5.1: Expansion of Dhaka city. Year 1951 1961 1974 1981 1991 1997 2001

Expansion of Dhaka City (area in sq km) 15.5 40.1 -

131.6 153.8 360 360

Population. 276033 368575 1403259 2475710 3612850 6000000 9910000

am，1998. 89

Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches With the rapid increase of population, the urbanization rate also increases in different decades for Dhaka City. The following diagram illustrate the level urbanization for Dhaka

— • 一 Level of Urbanization

1951

1961

1971

1981

1991

2001

Source: BBS, 1997 & 2001.

Figure 5,2: The level of Urbanization for Dhaka City in different decades. With such growth of urbanization，transport demand has also increased significantly. But the transport infrastructures, services and facilities in Dhaka Cities did not develop commensurate with the need. As a result, of the demand supply imbalance inefficiency in vehicular movement was ensured. There is high dependency on slow moving nonmotorized vehicles，poor public transportation service and haphazard traffic flow become a common phenomenon quality of service and level of safety has deteriorated. Urbanization cannot be avoided for Dhaka City at the same time scarcity of resources and land for future development to meet the need is also another concern. In such case the best way for sustainable transportation policy is the effective management of the existing transportation system. 5.3.2.1 Traffic Congestion Management approach: Traffic congestion is a very common phenomenon in Dhaka City. A preliminary estimates by transport experts indicate that the average economic loss due to routine 'traffic jam 5 in Dhaka City is running in to millions of dollars per annum- in terms of lose man-hours of top managers，mid-level managers，executives, administrative and logistic staff and skilled/semi-skilled and unskilled workers (Khalek，1999).

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches With an average Jam period5 of about two hours a day and a movement of about 3.8 million passenger trips，the financial value of such loss amounts to about US$ 570 million per year，even if the average opportunity cost of lost time is estimated at a conservative value of about US$ 0.25-per man-hour (CPD, 2001). The major issues that cause traffic jam in Dhaka City are mentioned in chapter four, here some policy approaches are recommended to get the solution of such problem for a sustainable transportation system. Increase speed on all major roads: To minimize traffic congestion，and increase speed on all major roads，by rationalization of routes i.e. through identification of trunk routes for buses，feeder routes for paratransits on an area basis. Mark different lanes for different public transport modes based on their speed. For example different lane for buses, taxi and other light motor vehicles have another lane and lane for non-motorized slow moving vehicles. Motorized and non-motorized traffic separation to reduce conflict among the vehicular modes, as well as by reducing dependency on paratransits (baby taxis, autotempo, rickshaws). Route and timing management: Based on the different routes and daily passenger size in different routes the transport authority as well the private sector need to arrange the number of vehicles and capacity during the peak and off peak hour and also the frequency. For example during the peak hour the high capacity vehicles like doubledecker should operate after every 10 to 12 minutes especially to the commercial and official areas from high-density residential areas. During the off peak hour the frequency and the number as well as the rout for heavy vehicles need to be changed. The route and frequency of the public transport need to be managed according to the demand and time. Enforcement of traffic rules and regulation: Improve the existing traffic legislation, and achieve effective traffic management, through improvement in manpower and equipments. In this context it is important to recognize urban traffic management as a

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches separated discipline, and efforts made to develop human resources for planning and management of urban transport and traffic services. Establishment of traffic control centers manned by properly trained personnel for efficient management and traffic would also be essential. A t least 3 days comprehensive training should be arranged for the registered vehicle drivers about safe driving, traffic rules and regulation, road use and only these trained drivers will get the route permit to drive the heavy town service vehicles. Any driver breaks the traffic rule more than one his license should be canceled.

Implementing Fly-over and Underpasses: pedestrians) need to be implemented on a priority basis. Government transport authority needs to find out the most vulnerable nodes and intersection in terms of traffic congestion and accident (for example Farmgate, Mohakhali, Kilgao intersections) and implement underpass or fly-overs to diversify the traffic flow and insist the pedestrian to cross the road. Road design needs to be rearranged and the traffic signals need to be placed at the right locations so the delivers can be charged i f they do not follow the traffic signals (for example stop their vehicles any where in the road for passengers). As it was mentioned in the previous chapter that 60% of the daily trips are made by walking in Dhaka City and rest of the 40% o f the total trips, 20% are made by non-motorized transport modes and 20% by motorized transport modes. Thus to ensure safety to the travelers who made their daily trips by walking and non-motorized transport，it is important to arrange and design better pedestrian facilities as well as road lanes for non-motorized transport modes. Traffic flow management: The government along with all public and private authorities who are responsible for providing transport services in the city may take a scheme，which prohibited the use of motor vehicles through out the major congested areas and intersections with designated number plates, like number plates ending in “1” and ‘‘5” on Mondays，“2” and “6” on Tuesday etc for the 5-day working week. Such scheme was first

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Chapter 5 introduced by Mexico City to minimize the traffic congestion during peak hour (Fjellstrom，2001). So this foreign experience can be adopted for Dhaka City. But to introduce this scheme first the government needs to evaluate the methods and its impact and let the drivers and owners know about the scheme. Another scheme could be 40% of the total private vehicles cannot operate in the city between 7-9 AM and between 5:307:30 P M in accordance with designated number plates. But before implementing such policy responsible authorities need to announce in a public place and advertise on the dailies so every one can be well informed about the new scheme to minimize the traffic congestion as well it could be a positive step to mitigate air pollution. Land Use: Strict land use policy need to be implemented for Dhaka City by introducing restriction on approval of new construction of building without taking into consideration the impact of the proposed construction on the traffic situation in and adjacent. Construction without proper setback rule should not be approved for saving road space. Adoption of appropriate policy for land and pre planned residential area developments as well as creation of pedestrian zone in congested urban areas would be essential. More

vedestrian

facilities: More infrastructure facilities for pedestrians at the

intersections and mid blocks through provision of more and more footpaths，cycle trucks if possible，guardrails, pedestrians over pass，zebra crossing and b y eliminating encroachment of pedestrian facilities by illegal hawkers，and illegal storage of building materials and garbage especially in the residential area. Parkim Facilities: There is no clear and strict parking rule for Dhaka City (Rahman, 2000)，thus haphazard and on street parking is a very common scenario, which is one of the major concerns of traffic jam because one street haphazard parking block the normal traffic flow especially on the intersections. Parking is key issue in the push-and-pull approach towards better urban transport. Government needs to implement adequate

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches transport infrastructure facilities that may include improvement of the Intersections, development of off-street multi storied parking facilities together with a clear policy for on-street parking and enforcement of rules including earmarked parking for cars，taxi and rickshaws. Another approach could be arranged to use open space in the major commercial and official areas for parking and they need to be charged per hour. Strict parking pricing policy need to be imposed to stop on-street parking，the policies could be > Regulation of all parking areas via parking meters; > Parking charge may vanes according to the importancc of the area. For example (for illustrative purpose it might be) 1 • residential area at Tk. 20 (US$ 0.34) per hour; 2. low density commercial area Tk.30 (US$ 0.51)per hour; 3.

high density commercial area Tk. 50 (US$ 1) per hour.

> Polices for immediate legal action against illegal parking (especially on-street illegal parking). The government needs to fix the underground parking criteria for different commercial, and official buildings and hotels according to their purposes and services (especially in the city center)，and the planning authority should not approve the design of high-density commercial buildings and offices with out satisfying the underground parking criteria fixed the government. C/zangmg time schedule: In the city usually the office hour and the school hour start from 9 A M that causes a huge rush in the peak hour and the result is traffic jam because the demand of public transport is higher than need in that time. Thus the government may take the scheme to rearrange the office and the school schedule according to its importance. Like according to the importance the office hour could be rescheduled from 7:30 AM，8:00AM，8:30AM，9:00AM and 9:30AM. In the same way the timing of

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Chapter 5 primary and secondary school need to reschedule to minimize the rush in the peak hour especially in theA M and PM. With this scheme the transport companies can carry more passengers with limited number of vehicles and the fare will decrease too. The most important issues to implement above policy approaches are public awareness and government willingness. Proper and strict traffic legislations need to impose to get the maximum benefits from such approaches，mitigate traffic jam and to ensure a smooth traffic flow all over the city. Common people and the drivers need to be aware and trained about the traffic rules, they also should have respect for the traffic and road rules. Highly skilled staffs are also needed to manage the traffic system in the city to ensure mobility. 5.3.3 Non-motorized Transportation (NMT) Issues: These days non-motorized transport modes like walking, cycling are highly appreciated and a foremost criteria for sustainable transportation system around the world (Deakin, 2000). In this sense Dhaka has acquired some of the significant characteristics, because about 60% of all passenger trips are made on foot and further 20% by rickshaw and remaining 20% by the motorized vehicles. Despite this Dhaka City is still far from having sustainable transportation system. As it was mentioned that there is no balance between motorized and non-motorized transportation, thus present transportation system is best with serve problems like air pollution，congestion，slow movement and high user cost. The city has developed a bad image in the eyes of her people and foreign investors, who consider that the city's transportation problems constitute a major impediment for her economic growth and fail to provide a better living environment for the future generation (Quium, 1999). Thus it is now important to have a balance with the demand, existing transport modes and injfrastmctures. A sustainable transportation system would be one，which is balanced

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches considering the functional categories of trips purpose and operational characteristics of available modes (Quium, 1999). 5.3.3,1 The Role of NMT (Rickshaw); The unplanned and unorganized transportation system gives birth of this huge number of NMTs (particularly rickshaws) that literally clog the streets of Dhaka and almost paralyze the whole system. However they are the backbone of the transportation system，they fill the gap left by the inadequate transit system, provide door to door service that any other transit system can meet effectively and create a link between personal travel modes and transit modes. A huge number of people are employed in the rickshaw sector. Most of the rickshaws (about 80%-90%) are operated by two drivers，who changes shifts at around 2 PM. If the average employment is 1.8 drivers per rickshaw, the overall there could be 540000 rickshaw drivers employed in the Dhaka City area，plus another 40-60000 people employed in ancillary occupations (owners, repairers, shopkeepers selling spare parts, and so on). Roughly 20% of the city populations are employed in providing services and a fhrther one and a half million people in Dhaka and in the rural areas depend on these people's earnings (CPD, 2001). Passengers with luggage or goods cannot normally use buses and tempos，which are often crowded and therefore out of reach for women， children and the elderly people. According to the DITS road transport survey in 1994 about 11% to 14% of the rickshaw trips involved goods another 21% involved female passengers and further 7% involved for children. The rickshaw is cheaper than the auto-rickshaw (3 wheelers motorized vehicles) but considerably more expensive than buses and 'tempos'. According to a estimation undertaken recently，the relative economic costs per passenger-kilometer in 2000 were: rickshaw Tk. 3; auto-rickshaw Tk. 3.5/-； tempo Tk. 1/-; minibus Tk. 0.9/-; large Tk. 0.5/-.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches H o w e v e r t h e c a r sa n d

， a t T k - 4.5/一 to Tk. 5.8/- per passenger-kilometer, are far more

expensive than any of these modes (CPD，2001). While the buses and other motorized transport modes are cheaper than rickshaws even they are not so user friendly, especially for the elderly, women，children and the passengers with goods. For more profit, the public buses usually carry passengers even more than their capacity. To get more passengers, they used stop more frequently and wait in the stoppage for a long to have more passengers that always time consuming and create troubles for the passengers (field observation b y the author, 2001). In other words where demand is low，or irregular, the large modes may not be able to operate economically in that case small rickshaw is a more economical alternative. One further characteristics of Dhaka City ensures the role of rickshaw. Most of the residential neighborhoods in the city have developed without any systematic planning control (Quium, 1995). The neighborhood roads are very narrow, and in many cases are not wide enough for minibuses. Overall the city lacks secondary roads heaving either wide primary roads，or narrow tertiary road，which often do not link up. This road pattern makes it very difficult to introduce large public transport in many parts of the city and rickshaw is the only solution. Despite these facts，rickshaws are often identified as the root of the present traffic problems in Dhaka City because of their mode of operation. 5.3.3.2 Impact of NMT on Traffic Congestion: A 16 hour traffic count by the Dhaka Urban Transport Project in 1996 indicated that buses and tempos carried 65% of all the passengers but covered only 18% of the total road space，where as rickshaws occupied 40% of the road space only for 15% of the passengers compared to 18% of the space occupied by the taxies (3 wheelers motorized transport) carry the same percentage of passengers (DUTP，1996). It indicates that using rickshaws as a public transport mode in the most inefficient use of road space and at the

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches same time this analysis clearly illustrate that rickshaws contribution a great deal of traffic congestion but do not pay even a function o f road users charges. The following photographs may draw the present traffic situation of Dhaka City with rickshaws

(Fast moving vehicles are slowed by Rickshaw)

Photo

b the

author

Photo 5.1: Traffic jam caused by non-motorized transport modes (rickshaw). Sharing the same lanes. According to the above photo it could be reveled that rickshaw is also one of the major contributors to air pollution. Usually when fast moving 4-stroke motorized vehicles like a double-decker bus or even a minibus followed by a rickshaw (marked in the photographs), has to reduce it speeds just like a rickshaw like 5-6 km/hour where as it has to b u m the same amount of fuel to generate same amount of energy for the engine. This cause huge loss of energy and pollute the air. Mainly in the traffic j a m the rickshaw passenger has to suffer a lot for air pollution and black smoke emitted from the surrounding motor vehicles because rickshaw has no such protection from gaseous pollutants. Rickshaw is also quite vulnerable for safeties because of its lightweight, very often it just fall in the road and hurt the passengers.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches 5.33.3 Policy approaches for NMTs: As it was mentioned that rickshaw is the bridge between personal travel modes and transit modes, and this is the most suitable modes for most of the unplanned neighborhoods in the old part of the city even some new parts. They fill the gap between the poor transit systems. So it never could be a wise decision to remove rickshaws from Dhaka city to mitigate traffic congestion. The best policy approach for NMTs should be the system integration.

System integration: For the purpose of integration the whole city area can be developed into suitable number of traffic cells boundary by some physical barriers. The operation of the NMTs can be kept limited primarily within these cells. To restrict their operation (particularly rickshaws) along the arterials (to be used by motorized modes serving the demand for longer distance intracity travel)，they may be separately color coded for each cell and be allowed to cross the arterials to a neighboring cell at designated intersections only. All ready the Dhaka Cantonment area is using such measures to mitigate traffic congestion within the area and they are completely success on this regard (field observation by the authoe, 2002). So the government can take this approach an example as reference for rest of the city. Short-term Policy Apvroaches: Goveminent needs to take some immediate actions to control the NMTs to minimize the traffic congestion on the main streets because they are one of the main causes oftraffic congestion in the city. The possible policies could b e 1 • to restrict NMT on some main roads. Government already took some initiatives in this regard like from 20 th December 2002，Mirpur road one of the major roads in Dhaka City are free from rickshaw (The daily Inqilab, 2002).

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Chapter 5 2. to restrict N M T on some main roads during the peak hours; during the peak hours they just serve as a link between the neighborhoods and the public transit road networks. 3. to segregate N M T from motorized transports in other road through road lanes，but in needs proper road maintenance and enforcement, there should be no option to cross the lane for any reasons. 4. immediately the government needs to make all efforts to develop a network of secondary roads for NMT to ply，and improve road links with the neighborhoods so the NMTS can serve with in the localities and no need to ply on the major highways and streets. 5. most of the rickshaw drivers in Dhaka City are from rural areas，they just come to the city for better income and they have no ideas about the traffic rules and road regulation (Choudhury, 2000). They usually just hire a rickshaw from any rickshaw owner and start working. Usually they make mistakes and become the cause of traffic jams. So the government need to be aware about this，without a minimum training about traffic rules they should not any one to drive a rickshaw, other wise the rickshaw owner and the drivers both should be penalized. The transport authority may post different color posters abut how to follow the right lane and obey the traffic rules and the illiterate rickshaw drivers may learn from there. Government needs a strict policy and enforcement for the NMTs to manage the city traffic system. There needs to be a complete balance with the motorized and nonmotorized transportation management system，other wise the city could never be able to achieve a sustainable transportation system for better living.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches 5.4 Mass-transit According to the previous chapter Dhaka City including the suburbs has already got a population about 10 million. Average growth rate of city population is about 4% per annum. For this huge population only the public buses，mini buses, tempos, airconditioned buses and 3 wheelers are the major mass transport modes. Based on 1991/92 DUTS data and extrapolations made for the year 2000，indicate that about 3,856,560 passengers travel in Dhaka City on a daily basis，using various modes of motorized and non-motorized transports (CPD，2001). Buses in Dhaka are the primary mode for about 9.5% of person trips with further 1% by tempo. Buses and tempos combined are the primary mode for about 60% of motorized trips，the bus operating industry has failed to keep pace with demand and efforts should be concentrated on expanding it as the most practical means by which the city's mass mobility can be improved as quickly and cheaply as possible (DITS，1994). The government has been working for long-term Transport Development Strategy ( I D S ) based on the DITS survey and analysis. The DITS team has also developed some recommendations for Dhaka City transportation (DITS, 1994). In the light of their views, and with the analysis in chapter four，this research come up with the following policy approaches and policies are recommended in short and long-term basis to achieve sustainable transportation for Dhaka City to ensure mobility for the city dwellers. 5.4.1 Short-term Policy Approaches: Short-term policy approaches need to be taken as immediate action basis. The main objectives are to identify the existing gaps for providing better transport services and the immediate action plan，techniques and methods to solve the existing transport problem in short-term basis. 3

Including all "public service vehicle” buses，minibus and tempos o f the private sector and BRTC plus the “non p u b l i c service vehicles" buses and minibuses operated for the sole benefit o f privileged businesses, government and educational establishment.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches Institutional setup: responsible for public transport needs. Instead this is a responsibility of B R T A (Bangladesh Road Transport Authority) and B R T A is responsible for the whole country not for a particular city (Choudhury, 2000). Its responsibilities cover all aspects of road transport from highway infrastructure to all categories of vehicle licensing. They have no other wings to work with urban public transport demand with rapid urbanization process, no particular research to assess the problems and solution especially for Dhaka City. Even with its scarce resources it cannot hope to manage on-going and effective means by which the small details of public transport service of the city are deteraiined. So it is very much important for the govermnent to set up a complete independent wing named ‘Public Transport Assessment and Management Wing，under BRTA or Transportation Ministry. This wing needs to work at the field level and the main responsibilities of this wing to conduct a regular basis field level research and survey to assess the public transport needs, identify the specific problematic zones in the city for immediate improvements and give back up to the central transport research unit for longterm policy adoption. This wing should be composed of land-use planners，traffic engineers, civil engineers, surveyors, transport planners and transport economists. Government may hire foreign experts to train the local experts but not allow them to work with the problems because their views about sustainable transportation policies is not similar with Dhaka City transportation. Because the huge number non-motorized transportation and poor management of these non-motorized transportation modes is one of the major concerns that make the city transportation system unsustainable, where as most of the developed country going to introduce non-motorized modes for sustainable transportation. For Dhaka City，they need balance management of non-motorized transportation modes rather introducing them for sustainable transportation.

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Chapter 5 Introducing 1 (rickshaw) and 3 wheelers taxis an alternative public transport mode need to be introduced immediately for the city. Because the rickshaw and the 3 wheelers light vehicles passenger carrying capacity is only 1.6 to 2 and occupied 40% of the total road space. The new xnotorizcd transport mode should have more passenger carrying capacity, occupy mininium road space, environmenta.1 friendly, comfortable, comparatively low fare and fast to ensure the mobility. In that case C N G operated 16 setters minibus could be a better alternative. These minibuses need to be introduced especially for the secondary roads and some parts of the primary roads base on the public transport demand. The length of such minibus is 10'X4' so they could even serve the local neighborhoods having 8' widths roads (Habib, 2001). They could be a link with local neighborhood networks with mass-transit networks; some of them will also serve as mass-transit modes because of their mode of operation. Government needs to encourage the private sector to invest for such alternative modes， but the public transport authority should be responsible to design the route networks and fixing the fare，so that the private organization may no do the business as their own. Introducing Public buses for Mobility: At present Dhaka City has total 1600 buses to serve its 3,856,560 passenger per day and the ration of person per bus is 2410: 1 (GDMITS，1994). A World Bank study has indicated that there is an immediate need for 5000 large buses in the city and the 'classical，outdated small buses should be replaced by more-cost effective，efficient and comfortable modes of transport like large airconditioned and non air-conditioned double-decker buses (CPD，2001). Through Public Private Partnerships (PPP) the government should import large 128-setter double-decker CNG operated buses. These large buses could serve the transport demand along the primary roads and some selected secondary roads where the demand is quite

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches high. Government also needs to import a small number of air-conditioned double-decker buses for the high-income groups to encourage them to use public transport rather private cars. The fare of such large buses may higher Tk. 1/- to Tk. 1.5/- than the previous fare per passenger-kilometer, where as the fare of rickshaw and auto-rickshaw on the same route is Tk. 6-7/- and Tk.5A (mentioned in chapter 4). So the price for the large buses would be even cheaper than the rickshaws and auto-rickshaws. Government needs to restructure the bus fare according to different income groups so everyone can afford the large buses either air-conditioned or non air-conditioned according to his/her income level. On an average about 214，000 passengers travel by auto-rickshaws and tempos，1,471,501 travels by buses (mini，large，double-decker and air-conditioned) and 71?883 passengers use private cars (CPD, 2001). The passengers of buses and other motorized vehicles as well as rickshaw passengers will be the potential user of these large buses as they are paying anywhere between Tk. 10/- (ordinary buses and minibuses) up to Tk. 20/- for airconditioned buses. For auto rickshaws passengers pay as the average about Tk. 3OA, Tk. 20/- to Tk. 25/- being presently their minimum charge (CPD, 2001). At present the passengers are paying a lot and having poor quality of transport services. Thus introducing large buses could be a profitable investment both for the public and private investors. (Proposed mass-transit corridor for the city is shown in appendix 5). Road maintenance:

water logging is a very common problem for Dhaka City road

networks. Every year during rainy season (July to September) a good number of secondary and local roads remain water are logged more than 2 to 3 days (Rahman， 2000). These things happened because of poor road maintenance, lack of integration between different development organizations like DCC (Dhaka City Corporation), Power Development Board (PDB)，Rajdhani Unnion Kaxtipakkha (RAJUK) for their

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches development works on the roads. Usually they dig the roads and never fill that up and that often cause waterlogging problem. Poor drainage system is also another cause o f water logging problem on the roads (Choudhury,2000). The following photograph shows the

>

waterlogging problem in the city,

Photo 5.2: Water logging situation in Dhaka City. (Photos by author，2002) Water logging cause huge traffic congestion and it is too risky both for passengers and drivers even for the pedestrians. The public transport authority along with Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and Roads and Highways Department (RHD) need to mark the particular roads and should vtake immediate action plans to mitigate the water logging problems and ensure mobility. 5.4.2 Long-term Policy Approaches: Three major factors need to be considered for assessing long-term policy approaches: i) Future population and population growth of the city; ii) Urbanization; and iii) Future transport demand. According to these three factors，future transport infrastructure development, better alternative transport modes (water transport modes, railway) need to assess under longterm policy approaches. Therefore the government needs a strategic framework and vision to achieve long-term sustainable transportation policies.

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Chapter 5 The long-term approaches could be Research unit: there should be a high profile Policy Research Unit (PRU) headed by professionals provide to advice and assistance to the transport ministry about their future policies in transport sector. The field level transport regulatory authority should support this research unit with up to date data. There always should be coordination with the field level authority, research unit and the ministry to come up with new possible policies to achieve sustainability in transportation sector. Under the research unit there should be another sub-wing called ‘Monitoring cell'. The responsibilities of this cell would monitor the city air quality, vehicles quality those who are plying on the road and the gaseous pollutants emitted form the vehicles. Air quality monitoring is an integral part of environmental management. There are some environmental pollution monitoring committees have been working for Dhaka City and they are responsible for preliminary level of monitoring (DITS, 1994). With the new monitoring cell，the current preliminary level environmental pollution monitoring needs to be systematized and strengthened with heavy and modem equipments. The cell should keep on continuous monitoring of the city air quality, gaseous pollutants from motor vehicles and the engine quality of the motor vehicles and the data obtained can be used for developing air pollution control strategies. Traffic engineers，traffic surgents and traffic police，environmentalists and chemists will form this wing，so that they can work with day to day data and at the same time they will be able to take immediate action against the polluting vehicles. Infrastructure development: the Dhaka City road network covers only 8% of the total city land space where as the other mega cities cover approximately 25% of its total land for road network (Habib, 2001). The transportation system of Dhaka City is almost exclusively road based，so the best long-term policy approaches to accommodate the

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Chapter 5 future

transport demand is to increase the road capacity with the construction of new road

networks. The second best approach could be introduced alternative transport network like urban railway and water way and diversify the road passengers to rail and water way, that could be minimize the presser on the road traffic. Under infrastructure development approach the first step should be construction of flyovers to increase the capacity of the existing roads and the second step is construct new road networks according to the present and future land use plan and transport demand. 1.

Flyovers: at present total 2230 km of road in Dhaka city serving 650 thousands of

vehicles both motorized and non-motorized per day (Rahman，2000). Considering that land is a scare resource in the city，indiscriminate use of land for unplanned road network to reduce the traffic presser under short-term measures could not be an economically sound solution. The best way to solve this problem and increase the existing road capacity and ensure smooth mobility is construction of flyovers in most vulnerable intersections. The govermnent along with the transport authority already took the initiatives to construct flyovers in some major intersections important for normal traffic flow in the city (the major locations are shown in appendix). Construction of flyovers is not the complete solution rather maintaining traffic flow and the traffic direction at the flyovers intersection is important. Proper traffic lanes, road signs and signals can maintain the traffic flow at the flyovers intersection, otherwise haphazard flow of different transport modes over the flyovers and on the roads will cause huge traffic jam and that could be worse than the present traffic situation. There should be strict restriction for non-motorized transport to use the flyovers because of their mode of operation. So construction of flyovers is not the complete solution to increase the road

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches capacity rather construction, maintenance and traffic flow management on the flyovers could be a complete approach to ensure mobility in the city. 2. meet and accommodate the future transport need for the city. The govermnent already took fixture road network development scheme under “ the Greater Dhaka Metropolitan Area Integrated Transport Study" funded by UNDP (CPD，2001). World Bank also funded for the project “ Dhaka Urban Transport Project" (CPD，2001)，both of the projects has been working for better transportation for Dhaka city and they proposed to identify better and possible sites to develop future road networks to mitigate traffic congestion. (The proposed future road networks for Dhaka are shown in the appendix 6). The major constrains for a new road construction is funding (CPD, 2001). To over come this constrain private sector should be encouraged to build roads on new alignment as “toll roads". Additionally the government could also adopt the concept of “shadow tolling". This concept is not new, many countries in the world including UK has used this concept, where the private sector builds the road with its own resources, and the government pays back annually over，say 20 to 30 years (CPD, 2001). Under ‘shadow toll' scheme，the private sector is responsible to construct the road network and the government is responsible to allocate the land and also the government fixes the toll rate, so that the private sector cannot fix the rate for more profit (CPD，2001). Private sector construct the road but the authority belongs to the government, the private sector work as the shadow of the government. The planned future road networks need to be well connected with the present ‘primary， and the 'secondary' roads，so the traffic can be easily diversified to the alternative links to reduce the presser in the city center. The present system of “Road Classification” also

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches needs to be reviewed to ensure effective planning, development and maintenance when the proposed road networks will link the present road network system.

Alternative transport network networks for Dhaka City because land is the most scare resource in the city. Thus indiscriminate use of land resource for road construction to meet the transport demand where other mode of transport could serve the purpose more economically, could lead to loss of land. A l l over the world railway playing a very important role for mass-transit along with the road transports (CPD, 2001). Dhaka City also has urban rail network serving the intercity rail services (CPD, 2001). Because of poor transport planning policy and lack of vision for sustainable transportation, urban rail network in city has a very small share in the mass-transit system. A t the same time the city also has radial water way and it also used for intercity transport network both for passenger and goods but not for the city masstransit. So under long-term transportation policy approach a complete planning and vision is needed to improve these two transport networks as future alternative transport modes as mass-transit. It could be more economical，environmental friendly as well, as it will reduce traffic jam and ensure mobility in the city. 5.5 Future Alternative Transportation for Dhaka City: Under this issue appropriate long-term policy measures should be introduce railway and waterway as a better alternative modes for Dhaka City to reduce the road traffic presser for mobility，mitigate air pollution and economically sound for all different income groups in the city. 5.5.1 Rail network: The existing intercity rail network linearly passes through the city and serving a very small part of the city. Government needs to have a policy approach to extent the urban

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches rail to connect developing areas to the commercial zones of the city. The proposed urban rail routes may link following location in the city and can serve as a mass-transit system: 1 • Narayangong to Kamlapur; 2. kamlapur to New Market; 3 • Kamlapur to Farmgate; 4. Farmgate to Mirpur; 5. Mirpur to Tongi; and 6. New Market to Gabtoli. The government already has such policy for railway development under "Greater Dhaka Metropolitan Area Integrated Transport Study，，in 1994. The government proposed underground and elevated rail on the same routes as above. The total capital cost for government proposed rail network is about US$ 2122.5 million (DITS, 1994) to recover the construction and maintenance cost the fare of this rail could be more than Tk. 5A per passenger-kilometer，where as the bus fare for the same routes is Tk. 0.5 to Tk. 1 per passenger-kilometer (Habib, 2001). So the government proposed under ground rail could never be an affordable transport mode for the low income and middle income group those who earn Tk. 1500/- to Tk. 5000 (US$ 25 to 86) per month and it could be a sustainable from environmental point of view but for economical and social issues it can never be sustainable. Thus the government needs to rearrange the rail network development policy to make it environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. In that case with appropriate land use plan and control government may construct the ground rail network for the same routes. For that govermnent needs to pay for land acquisition cost，and new line construction cost，obviously the construction and maintenance cost of ground rail is

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches cheaper than the underground rail thus the fare would remain with in the affordability of different income groups. (The proposed future rail network is shown in appendix 7). Shuttle bus services can link the local neighborhoods with the nearest station so the local people will be encouraged to use rail service rather than road transport. To accommodate with the rapid urbanization of Dhaka City and the future transport demand railway could be one of the best sustainable alternative transport mode. 5.5.2 Inland Water Transport; Inland water transport is one of the oldest modes for economically efficient and sustainable transportation, yet it has been perennially neglected. Efforts are needed to revitalize this sector as an alternative transport mode to achieve sustainability in the transport sector and to meet the future urban transport demand. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) is surveying the depths and widths of the present round waterways in Dhaka to ascertain the feasibility of keeping of keeping open and improving them as they could provide for a significant component of fright and passenger movement. Government already has a proposal about “Round Dhaka，，waterway route; it is a proposal to link Dhaka and Narayanganj (industrial and commercial zone) Ports with the northern areas of Dhaka City by means of existing waterways. (Proposed round water routs are shown in appendix 8) (GDMITS，1994). 1. Buriganga River; 2. Turag river; 3. Tongi River; 4. Balu River;and 5. Lakhya River.

Ill

Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches The use of river to shift a large number of passengers will be examined only i f major land use development expected along the river. To make water transport attractive to the users, it should be integrated with other surface modes，including roads and railways and it should be linked with the modal interchange location so the passengers can have more options and they will be encouraged to use waterways. Development，dredging and maintenance of round waterways for navigation all the year round, should be conceived as an integrated project under transport development. There is also another possibility to link the waterway with the city by preserving the existing water channels within the city，like reaching the interior of the city via Begunbari Khal4 and the northerastem end of Dholai Khal. Introducing modem and fast marine vessel to encourage the local people to use the waterway. Introducing inland round waterway for city transport will reduce the traffic pressure on the road，it will diversify the trips and reduce traffic congestion and increase mobility at the same time it would be economically affordable for all income groups. The main causes of Dhaka City transportation being unsustainable are，the city has only road base transportation，low road capacity and unplanned transportation system. Thus the best way to achieve the sustainability in Dhaka City transportation is to diversify the road traffic to alternative modes like railway and waterway that could reduce the presser on the road，mitigate air pollution and traffic congestion, ensure mobility as well as it would be economically affordable for different income groups. 5.6 Land Use Plan: The relationship between sustainable transportation and urban land use plan is straightforward. Better urban land use plans economize on costs of transport and other infrastructure but provide improved access and living condition. In developed comtries

4

Khal is natural water channel which has been made navigable.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches the changes ofurban land use may amount to more than 1% or 2% a year, where as in the cities of developing countries land use change is many times more rapid，and urban area and infrastructure are often double in less than 10 years (World Bank, 1975). For Dhaka City the land use pattern also changed so rapidly with rapid urbanization, according to figure 5.2 in 1951 the urbanization rate was only 0.62 and in 2001 the rate was 7.74. Within 50 years the rate of urbanization in Dhaka City increase more than 12 times. The land use pattern of Dhaka City also changed a lot to accommodate the population and the rapid economic growth of the city in an unplanned way. The changing land use pattern has failed to keep pace with the increasing transport demand of the city, that creates the big gap between transport demand and supply. The physical pattern of Dhaka City is characterized by a central business district，which accounts for a high proportion of employment. The CBD (Central Business District) has the highest accessibility of the city area both in terms of ready access from anywhere in the city and indeed places out the city，and in terms of proximity of one business to others. The tendency towards a predominant single central district not only imposes long average trips but also means that the transport needed to support its growth is，as has been noted，progressively more expensive. With capital so scare，it is prime facie undesirable that the transport infrastructure should frequently be used intensely in only one direction at peak hours with large surplice capacity in the opposition direction (World Bank，1975). The scenario is almost same in Dhaka City, a single central business district dominant the all the major economic activities and employments of the city，thus at the peak hour all transport modes from residential areas even from the suburban areas be used intensively only one direction and that cause heavy traffic congestion, increase the demand for more transportation where as the supply is too limited than the demand* As it was mentioned before，the bus service in Dhaka City is not at all supportive for the women，children.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches elderly and the person with goods，so during peak hour they are in fact forced to use the non-motorized transport or light 3 wheelers vehicles because there is no other alternative way and the fere of such transport modes is higher than bus fare as well as its slower than the bus service that make the whole system unsustainable both in economically and socially. Decentralization of the central business district, mixed land use and urban peripheral development could be the optimum solution to achieve sustainability in this issue. 5.6.1 Decentralization of the Central Business District: As the city rapidly grows in size，many activities found in central business no longer need to access to all part of the city. For many businesses, a smaller activity center with a transport network serving a smaller population area and containing a small range of activities would suffice just as well. Indeed, such a location if available and with lower rents，would often be advantageous. With proper land use plan and zoning goveminent needs to arrange alternative location，with transportation and communication facilities to may relocate the small business sectors from the CBD. The major educational institutes need to be replaced from the center of the city to the periphery with proper transportation facilities, which could mitigate the traffic congestion in the city center during the peak hour. Another most important step needs to be taken by the government for decentralizing the CBD is to change the location of the ‘Ministries’ and ‘Secretariat’ from the city center，where all the economic activates are concentrated. There is no importance of the administrative sector to be concentrated with the economic activities at the city center. It could b e easily replaced to the periphery with supportive transport network and telecommunication facilities. In that case Malaysia could be an example，very recently the Malaysian govermnent relocate their 'Secretariat' far away from the city center just to reduce the rush at the peak hour and to reduce the traffic congestion in the city center.

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Chapter 5 - Policy Approaches 5.6.2 Mixed Land Use: With the mixed land use pattern a reasonably close proximity of work and residence should be ensured，particularly for the poor. So far as economically reasonable，poor family should be located within walking or cycling distance of employment center. Government needs to be technical and selective for introducing mixed land use pattern， like mixed land use planning could be better for low income and middle income groups residential area. According to the previous discussion in chapter four walking makes about 60% of daily trips in the city and 20% are by rickshaw and rest of the 20% are made b y motorized vehicles，so introducing mixed land use could beneficial for these travelers who travel every day by walking and rickshaws. The mixed land use plan could be like; the lower part (groundfloor，1stfloor，2ndfloor)of the buildings could be planned for small-scale commercial and industrial sector and the upper floors could be used as residential area for low and middle income people, so they have their employment within the proximity. The surrounding areas of a large commercial area and industrial area could be arranged for low income residence，particularly for the low paid employees of that particular commercial or industrial sector and the locality should be connected with the other parts of the city through mass-transit system only. 5.6.3 Peripheral Development: The promotion of new centers of activity near the present urban periphery could be another solution to reduce the urban traffic presser in the city center. Especially the peripheral land use can be planned for high income residential area, educational institutions and the government offices to diverse the traffic to the opposite direction during peak hour and that could minimize the transportation demand on the same direction and could minimize the traffic congestion. Already the government has a policy to locate the major industrial sectors to the suburban areas like Shever，Gazipur and

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Chapter Narayangong around Dhaka City, but to support these industrial zones a better transportation link is important to connect them with the existing city center. Industrial areas should be differentiated from the residential areas with proper land use zoning，relatively high proportions of residences should be contained their land use. To provide a sufficiently attractive level of accessibility，transport services radiating from the new centers need to be provided and also improved public transport to join the new centers to the existing central business district. Multinuclear urban forms indeed have many advantages to reduce the dependency on the transportation system，reduce the pollution from motorized vehicles and of course traffic congestion. While promoting close location of major work centers and residences they should also allow minor industry to be located within residential areas without loss of contact with the major centers. Peak-hour traffic flows on main arteries would be in both directions to a much greater extent than with a single business district; cross traffic to other areas should be absorbed more readily. Government needs a complete land use plan， development control and of course planning enforcement to introduce mixed land use.

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Chapter 6 6. RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

6.1. Introduction: According to Rio Declaration on Enviromnent and Development “Human beings are the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature^ A transportation system can only be realized as a sustainable system，when the policy makers priorities people or users over the transportation facilities. Thus a transportation system needs to ensure mobility，affordable to all income groups，convenient and of course environmental friendly to be a sustainable transportation system. Transport system for a livable city “must (i) provide service to all areas where there is a need for transportation; (ii) be available to all groups of people; (iii) satisfy travel volume requirements; (iv) have satisfactory performance (for example, speed, safety，reliability， comfort) (v) involve reasonable costs and be properly priced; (vi) provide for efficient movement of goods and delivers through out the urban areas; (vii) stimulate creation of desirable urban development and forms; and (viii) have low negative side effects” Vuchic (1999，quoted in Barron. 2002，p. 10). According to the previous discussion and analysis (chapters four and five) and from Vuchic perspective of a livable city transport, followings could be the conditions or targets for the existing transportation system of Dhaka City to make it a sustainable transportation, L

accessible from every parts of the city;

II.

affordable to all income groups, and convenient especially for the women， children and elderly;

6

UNCED (1992，Report of The United Nation Conference on Environment and Development^ Annex 1，Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, quoted in Barron. 2002，p. 10)

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Chapter 6 - R ecomm en da lion and Conclusion III.

reduce the traffic congestion;

IV.

satisfy the present transport demand and meet the future needs;

V.

ensure a balance between motorized and non-motorized transportation modes; and

VI.

environmental friendly transportation, means low level of environmental pollution.

For last 3 decades government, and the transport authorities under took many projects to solve the transportation problems, through the conventional methods as an immediate measure. The measures taken by the government or transport authorities are mainly infrastructure development, or restrict the non-motorized transportation or even import more motorized transports to meet the immediate transport demand (Habib, 2001). With the increase o f population，rapid urbanization and of course poor transportation policy and management system, make the over all situations haphazard and unsustainable once again. The policy makers, transport planners, transport authorities need to be concerned about the following three steps to achieve sustainable transportation system for Dhaka City. Identify the root causes of the problems.

Selection of strategies for sustainable transportation.

Source: Author, 2003. • # Figure 6.1: Three steps to achieve sustainable transportation for Dhaka City.

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Chapter 6 ~~ Recommendation and Conclusion Acceding to the previous discussion, the existing transportation of Dhaka City become unsustainable because of: 1. enviromnental pollution, around 70% of total pollutants come from the motor vehicles in the city every day; 2. traffic congestion, according to World Bank every year the economic loss in Dhaka City due traffic congestion is US$ 27.5 million; 3. inadequate transport modes in terms of demand，at present the ratio of passengers per public transport mode is 68: 1; 4. there is no integration between motorized and non-motorized transportation, that is one of the main causes of traffic congestion (at present total 1488 motorized public transport modes and about 500000 non-motorized transport modes serving the city dwellers); 5. public transportation is not affordable for all income groups as well it is not convenient for women and children; and 6. lack of complete and long-term transportation policy and poor traffic management system. The policy makers, concern authorities，along with the govemment need to focus on the root cause of such problems and develop sustainable transportation strategy to over come this problem and implement a long-term sustainable transportation policy for Dhaka City. 6.2 Deficiencies in Present Transportation system in Dhaka City: An evaluation of the existing transportation system in previous discussions has revealed that there number of deficiencies in the existing transportation system that makes the whole transportation system unsustainable. Indicated below are some of the major weaknesses.

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Chapter 6 ~~ Recommendation and Conclusion The

Transport

system

not in

tegrated:

now become a major issue and has particular significance for Dhaka City. Thus, there is an urgent need for an optimum mix of modes and minimization of consumption of resources. However，such a mix cannot be achieved if one looks at a mode in isolation from others. Thus，although rail and water transport is generally more efficient than road transport because of their higher energy efficiency and better labor productivity this fact by itself cannot ensure greater use of these modes. The better link with road networks and road transport modes could encourage the demand of rail way and waterway as alternative transport modes for the city and may reduce the traffic presser on the roads. These inherent characteristics of different modes require that to improve over all efficiency each mode should be used for what it does best in an over all transport chain. The non-motorized transportation modes also need to be integrated with the motorized modes, so they could serve their best rather become a major cause of traffic congestion for the city. Unsustainable infrastructure development: The transportation system in Dhaka City almost exclusively road based transportation. These infrastructures are not constructed in a planned way to meet the increasing demand of the city. With the rapid urbanization the transport infrastructures failed to accommodate the transport demand and become overcrowded. Most of the road networks for residential neighborhood especially in the old part of the city developed without any planning control and some of them are even too narrow to serve the motorized public transportation services，only the non-motorized small transport modes can serve the needs. The existing road infrastructure is not at all sustainable for the present transportation service (that is 650 thousands of vehicles are operating on 2230 km of different categories of roads every day in the city would means the transport modes density per kilometer is 295 including motorized and non-motorized

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Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion transportation). Thus，it is very much important to introduce alternative transport modes like waterway and railway to reduce the presser on roads and make the system sustainable. Lack of vision for sustainable transportation: A vision for sustainable transportation needs to set the direction for development and guides the formulation of policy measures a s well as develop strategies to attain the major objectives of sustainable transportation. Unfortunately there is no such vision exist for transport development in Dhaka. A vision is needed to implement the long-term planning, which can address the present deficiencies and at the same time develop transportation strategies to meet the future needs. This should also take in to account the changing needs，affordability, system efficiency, and effective utilization of the existing facilities，technological development and minimization of resource consumption. Institutional

deficiency: The institutions responsible for providing transportation

services, in general have weak and outdated structure (Rahmatullah, 2000). Lack of capacity and shortage of resources seriously undermine their capability for good governance，sound policy making and public management. The manifestations of all these are reflected in the poor and malgovemance of the transport sector, the outcomes of which are loss-making state enterprise, lack of investment in transportation sector, and finally the over all transportation system become unsustainable to serve the present need and to accommodate the future generation's demand. Different ministries and government agencies responsible for the transport sector development currently are following a sector approach with no or very little coordination among themselves. In the past，the Planning Commission used to play a major role in this context, which has diminished over the years. Now all concerned ministries and agencies are preparing their own plans without adequate assessment of what is happing elsewhere.

121

Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion which may have direct implication (Rahmatullah, 2000). In fact these uncoordinated efforts have given rise to some of the major problems in transportation sector in Dhaka City like, the almost exclusively road based transportation (sectoral bias)，lack of integration

between

motorized

and

non-motorized

transportation, poor traffic

management, poor enforcement for traffic law，traffic congestion, poor road capacity, which make the transportation system unsustainable. 6.3 Sustainable transportation strategy development: The next important phase is to selection of strategies for sustainable transportation for the city. Table 6.1 presents a partial list of the transportation strategies, which could be implemented in Dhaka City for sustainable development. The strategies are grouped into several categories based on transportation problem identified in the previous discussion and analysis. Table 6.1 Sustainable Transportation Strategies for Dhaka City. Vehicle/ Fuel Technology Changes: 1. Improved Efficiency of Conventional Vehicles •

Environmental friendly, light and fast motor vehicles;

•

Goveminent needs to fix the vehicle standard and engine quality and carrying capacity;

2. New Vehicle technologies •

Four stroke light vehicles transportation like CNG operated minibus to reduce the dependency on non-motorized transport;

•

Introduce alternative transport modes，like commuter rail and water transport to reduce traffic pressure on the road;

3. New Fuels •

CNG，and LNG especially for public transport modes;

•

Clean diesel and engine to minimize the air pollution from the vehicles.

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Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion RoadA^ehicle Operation Improvement: 1. Conventional Flow Improvement •

Traffic signal timing;

•

Road signs;

•

Ramp Metering;

•

Bottleneck Removal;

•

Separate Road lanes for motorized and non-motorized as well as heavy and light vehicles;

•

Intersection improvements, especially removing illegal parking at intersections;

•

Strict law enforcement for random parking

•

Improve road crossing facilities for the pedestrians like Zebra-crossing, over pass and underpass

2. Transportation System Improvement •

Smart highway, by Introducing Traffic lanes，Traffic signals lights，and road signs;

•

Smart vehicles;

•

Routing and Scheduling the traffic follow especially in the Peak hour to reduce traffic congestion;

3. Driver education 4. Improve Logistics and Fleet Management Demand Management: 1. Modal Substitute •

Mass-transit，Transit，Ridesharing,

Walking,

Biking Improvements

and

Incentives; •

Inner-city Rail substitute, Using Radial waterway as alternative mass-transit network

2. Telecommunication Substitutions •

Telecommuting;

•

Teleshopping;

•

Teleconference;

•

Information Technology-Enhanced Routing and Scheduling (Passengers，Freight)

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Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion 3. Pricing Incentives/Disincentives •

Fuel Tax increase, especially for diesel, and petrol engines;

•

Vehicle Sales Tax Based on Fuel Efficiency and Expected life;

•

Vehicle Registration/ License Fee Based on Fuel Efficiency and Engine (Use of Fuel);

•

O&er Impact Fee based on Use，like extra charge

•

High Charge for Indiscriminate and Random Parking especially in the high density Commercial and Residential areas;

•

Subsidies for Preferred Modes，like CNG operated vehicles, tax release for importing parts for improving vehicle quality，as an environmental friendly vehicle，Telecommunication Substitutes, etc.

4. Land Use-Transportation Strategies •

Compact Development;

•

Mixed Land Use Development;

•

Peripheral Development;

•

Decentralization of the Central Business District;

•

Enforcement for Planning and Development.

Vehicle/ Fuel Technology Changes: The first category of strategies would reduce the adverse environmental impacts of motor vehicle use through technological change in vehicles and fuels. In the short run this would most likely focus on strategies for improving the efficiency of conventional vehicles in order to reduce emission of pollutants，especially gaseous pollutants. In the long term basis strategy，new vehicles and new fuels might be an option like CNG operated mini buses within the local neighborhoods and for the secondary roads as it is mentioned in the previous chapter. CNG and LANG could also be introduced as an alternative and clean fuel.

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Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion Road/Vehicle Operation Improvement: Smoothing the/low of traffic and reducing stop-and-go driving have the potential t0 cut energy

use

THdhc the systoTH sustdincible by ensuring fnobility A second category of strategies is proposed for ensuring mobility through vehicle operations. Conventional traffic flow improvements such as traffic signal timing，ramp metering, proper road signs, road lanes for motorized and non-motorized transports，slow and fast moving vehicles, light and heavy vehicles, remove illegal parking and stoppage for different vehicles and bottleneck removal. Driver education could reduce vehicular emissions by training drivers to avoid heavy acceleration and deceleration and to be mindful of the fuel consequences of high speeds. Driver education for non-motorized transportation (rickshaw) is more important to reduce the traffic congestion，as it was explained in chapter five. Scheduling trips outside of the peak periods could reduce congestion and thereby cut a major source of economic loss. Information technology-enhance the routing and scheduling that can reduce traffic congestion. The goveminent is going to implement a technological set up for Dhaka City so the drivers can easily be informed about traffic congestion in different intersection through website and can select their route and that could reduce fuel needed for transportation of both passengers and freight (Habib，2002). Demand Management: Demand management is third category of strategies of managing the transportation system. Several subcategories of demand management are in use like， modal substitution，pricing，land use，telecommunication for sustainable transportation. Modal substitution means，for example reducing the traffic pressure from road to rail and

7

Deakin (2001). Sustainable Development and Sustainable Transportation. Working Paper 2001-2003. University of California, p. 9. Sustainable Transportation strategies for Dhaka City are recommended in this research by the author, from Deakin's perspective about Sustainable transportation and Sustainable development.

125

Chapter 6- Recommendation and ConcJusmn waterway，reducing Mgh dependency on non-motonzed slow moving vehicles to fast ^

— 施 — - o d e s

5

introducing, mass-transit, ndeshanng, bMng and

觀Iking. Telecommunications substitutions for travel also can be considered a form of demand management. In the developed countries telecomnumication 丽

become quite

popular to manage the travel demand for work, shopping. Telecommumcation could be introduced as an alternative for travel demand management, especially for the highincome groups with proper network setting, and business management policy. Pricing incentives could be used in the short run to reduce demand and encourage the use of alternative modes. Price intensive for alternative fuel like CNG may also encourage using environmental friendly transport; also tax redemption for importing the C N G operated vehicles, engines and motor parts could minimize pollution and provide better public transportation for demand management. Land use and urban development strategies alert demand by reducing trip length (by providing a choice of close-by destinations) or by making alternatives like decentralization of Central Business District could be more cost effective as it was proposed in the previous chapter. For example compact development，low income housing around the industrial and commercial areas，mixed land use planning and peripheral development. This list of strategies will sound similar with many developed countries, so it is important for the policy makers and the transport authorities to evaluate the strategies in terms of present transportation situation in Dhaka City，along with the city growth and the per capita income and expenditure of the urbanites to adopt such strategies. It is also important to assess the failure and success of some strategies already used in some countries for sustainable transportation and modified those strategies according to the Dhaka City transportation characteristics for better and effective outcome.

126

Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion 6.4 Long-term Transportation Policy Formulation: The sustainable transportation policy approaches for Dhaka City here discussed in the preV10US C h a p t e r T h e

needs to formulate a long-tenn transportation policy

framework for the city rather than giving priority to any short-tenn solution for immediate transport problems. As it was mentioned earlier that govemment needs to set up transport research units both at the field level and the ministiy level, they will continue the research on the present transport demand, future urban growth, urban population, development, future income patter of the urbanites, present problems in the transportation sector. With the proper analysis of field level data along with past growth trend for transport demand and urbanization trend, the unit will forecast the future transport demand and the effective measures to meet the Mure needs. The transport authorities， transport planners along with the govemment and the transport ministry should formulate long-term policy framework, with available data from the researches and the research units also suggest the authorities to formulate the policy framework for sustainable transportation, which could meet the future demand，economically affordable for all income groups and environmental friendly. It is also important to identify the implementation stages phase by phase, so there always have a better option to evaluate the policy with the present need and future urban growth. 6.5 Planning for Healthier Transport for Dhaka City: Introducing better public transport especially public bus service could be the better way to make the existing transportation system healthier and sustainable for the city. As it was discussed in chapter four that in Dhaka City 35% of total daily person trips axe made by rickshaw (non-motorized transportation) followed by the bus 27% of the total daily person trips. In fact buses and rickshaws are the backbone of mobility in Dhaka City.

127

Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Conclusion Bus service has to be increased without increasing pollution or the rate of road accidents for healthier and sustainable transportation for the city. Because the bus service has the highest average passenger occupancy (33) and occupy the minim聰 road space per p e r S O n t r i p( a i 6 )

( i l l u s t r a t e di n

4.7). The fare of bus services is also cheaper than

any other public transport modes operating in Dhaka City and they are also fast moving vehicles. With proper management, design, environmental friendly engine a bus could be economically，socially and environmentally sustainable transport mode and it also be a tool for healthier transport planning. This would be possible only the following conditions are met: Public transport: L

T h e cost

effectiveness of underground rail system for Dhaka City needs to be

evaluated very carefully. The goveminent proposed underground railway (DITS, 1994，mentioned in chapter four)，especially the construction of two or three lines at great cost do not help in reduction of traffic congestion or pollution, cause underground railway is not affordable for all income groups. 2. Design and development of modem and sophisticated high capacity bus services to meet the transport demand. 3. Introducing bus engine and transmissions technologies that ensure clean burning and efficient use of fuel with very minimum level of air pollution. 4. Safe enter and exit procedures for bus passengers and adequate sitting arrangement for women and children need to be designed. This would include all buses to be equipped with closing doors, low floors, and appropriately designed bus stands. 5. Operating of buses at safe speeds. This will require setting of realistic trip times and installation of speed limiting devices in buses.

128

Chapters- Recommendation and Conclusion p locations that ensure route changes are convenient and safe for commuters. Segregated lanes for哩 趣 t e g j S M Q j i

an d

safe pedestrianf — c .

1. Urban and road design characteristics that ensure safety of pedestrians and non-motorized transport modes.

2. Provision of segregated bicycle lanes and footpath on all arterial roads. 3. Convenient street crossing facilities for pedestrians. It is true that technical solutions are the important factors for sustainable transportation but not the only ones. Better transport plaming, route designing, urban land use plan are also important factors for sustainable transportation system. 6.6 Conclusion: The purpose of this study is to find out the key factors that make the transportation system unsustainable and also come up with a policy approaches for sustainable transportation for Dhaka City so that the transportation system could be environmental friendly, ensure mobility, satisfy the present need as well as meet the future transport demand. 6.6.1 Summary of the research: This study set out to consider three m^or key factors that make Dhaka City transportation system unsustainable; they are i) air pollution (especially air pollution for vehicular emission); ii) traffic congestion; iii) mobility (travel pattern of different income groups and their affordability for public transportation). The findings for cair pollution' indicates that 70% of total gaseous pollutants are injected into the city air from poorly managed motorized transport modes. Every year more than ten thousands unfortunate death is occurred in Dhaka City because of air pollution; even the polluting vehicles emit greenhouse gases and increase the global temperature. The

129

Chapter 6 - Recommendation and Condusion findmgs illustrate that al most 90 % of the veMcles in the dty emit black smoke more than 90 H S U (Hetridge Smoke Unit)，where as the standard for Bangladesh set by DOE is 0 n l y6 5 H S U

,

I n t h e y e a ro f 1 9 9 8

_

gaseous pollutants emission from motor vehicles

m Dhaka City was 662 tons/day, and the present estimated growth rate of gaseous pollutants is 27% per annum, if the appropriate and strict immediate actions are not taken the estimated amount of gaseous pollutants emission from motor vehicles would be 12437 tons/day b y the year 2010. Another important key factor is 'traffic congestion' to make the whole transportation system unsustainable. According to the previous discussion the transport modes density per kilometre in Dhaka City are 294 both motorized and non-motorized transport modes. The motorized and non-motorize transport both share the same road lanes that decrease the speed of the motorized vehicles and increase the operating cost as well increase the air pollution. The calculation presented in chapter five, with an average ‘traffic j a m ' of about two hours a day and a movement of about 3.8 million passengers' trips，the financial value of such loss amounts to about US$ 570 million per year even the average opportunity cost of lost time is estimated at a conservative value of about US$ 0.25 per man-hour. This is a huge amount of national economic loss，because 50% of the total populations in the country live below the poverty line who earn less then US$ 54 per month. In terms of mobility, non-motorized transport modes (rickshaw) and public buses are the backbone for Dhaka City transportation. From the previous discussion, at present total 14800 motor vehicles are serving about 10 million people in the city，means the ration of passengers per vehicle is 68:1，where as the average passenger occupancy of a bus is only 33 and a car is only 1.2. So there is always a huge demand for motorized public transportation in the city，but the irony is the light three wheelers motorized vehicles and

130

Cha ter

P

6

non^otorized transportation modes poorly meet this demand.

According to DITS

household survey in Dhaka d t y (mentioned in chapter 4) those who earn Tk