| Increase use of Public Transport & Reduce
Emissions Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh is spread
over an urban area of about 2000 sq. km, and has approximately 10 to
11 million people. Residential, commercial, and industrial areas,
and slums are scattered throughout the metropolitan area. Rapid
growth in population and fast urbanization has led to the demand for
better transportation facilities. Existing roads were not planned to
accommodate the growth. Certain road links, i.e. east- west and
north south, are insufficient to provide for the efficient movement
of traffic. As such, some roads and intersections are nearly always
congested. Within the past 25 years, the number of vehicles plying
the streets of Dhaka has seen explosive growth, with registered
vehicles growing from 35,800 to 242,800.
Although the total numbers of vehicles in the city of Dhaka is not
large relative to the human population, visual observation of the
main arterial roadways suggests high levels of ambient pollutants
due to the density of traffic, poor traffic flow and poor
maintenance of the vehicles. Figure below shows the number of
vehicles based on registration records within Dhaka. It should be
noted that there is a widespread belief that the registered vehicle
numbers are low by from 25 to 50 percent, with a large number of
unregistered vehicles plying the roadways due to limited enforcement
of registration regulations.
In addition to the motorized fleet of vehicles,
there are significant numbers of cycle rickshaws within the city
(estimated at over 400,000). Although they are not a direct emission
source, the congestion exacerbated by such an abundance of
non-motorized transport (NMT) is a relevant component of the
transportation and air quality problem.
Effective traffic management reduces fuel
consumption, congestion and emissions by idling vehicles. As an
example, a vehicle with an average speed of 50 km/hr. takes 30
minutes to cover a distance of 25 km. It emits pollutant for 30
minutes at fairly efficient engine operation mode, whereas, if the
time taken by the same vehicle to cover the same distance is doubled
to one hour, less efficient engine operation, idling, and repeated
acceleration/deceleration will cause at least double the emissions.
At places in Dhaka where there is serious congestion, pollution
levels are dangerously high. The mixture of slow and fast moving
traffic and the general congestion in the city has led to
significant increases in air pollution. In addition to the detriment
to air quality, traffic congestion has economic costs.
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