[sustran] Buses in Dhaka

[Alan Howes]

What an excellent contribution, Paul. Oh that the so-called "developed"
countries of the world could do more to encourage true democracy in
countries such as Bangladesh, instead of concentrating on their own selfish
ends.

However, I am curious as to the background to the lack of buses in Dhaka.
Who administers and runs the city bus operation? (I assume there is no
subsidy.) And who keeps women off the buses? I thought that sort of thing
was restricted to this country (where there aren't too many poor urban
women - and those there are tend not to need to travel). Mind you, I am not
familiar with bus operations in Afghanistan.

Cheers, Alan.

--
Alan Howes, Special Advisor, Saudi Public Transport Company, Riyadh
howesap at saptco.com.sa            Private: alanhowes at usaksa.com
Tel: +966 1 454 5000 ext 156
----- Original Message -----
From: "SUSTRAN Resource Centre" <sustran at po.jaring.my>
To: <sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org>
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 5:24 AM
Subject: [sustran] Re: Banning NMT (Rickshaw) on roads of Dhaka city


<snip>
Gallagher goes on to say: "Although the bicycle is the most efficient
vehicle on the road, the bus comes a close second, and no-one would dispute
that Bangladesh needs a lot more buses." (p. 215) By any standard, Dhaka is
grossly under-provided with buses.

I would suggest that a top priority of traffic management in Dhaka must be
on improving bus movements. I wonder if centre-of-the-road bus lanes (like
in Taipei, Nagoya, Kunming, Curitiba, Quito and soon Bogota) may be a
possibility on the largest roads in Dhaka, since this will reduce the
friction with the rickshaws and also improve safety.

One crucial issue is that women in Dhaka find it very difficult to use the
crowded bus system (they are regularly denied entry) as was emphasised to
me last week by Ms Mashuda Khatun Shefali of the Centre for Women's
Initiatives in Dhaka. This means long walking trips for poor women workers
and a tendency for other women to depend much more on rickshaws than men.