Un-walkable footpaths

A photo published in this newspaper last Monday is a perfect example of how good initiatives, when conduced without proper planning or implementation, end up achieving nothing. In order to prevent bikers from using the pavements recently built by the DNCC, which include a special lane dedicated for the visually impaired, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has set up concrete pillars on them on both sides of Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue. This in turn makes the footpaths difficult to use for general pedestrians, and especially for the visually impaired. On top of that, as the picture shows, now these walkways have turned into parking spots, for cars and motorbikes.

Here, the issues involved are many: making the city friendly for the visually impaired, the non-compliance of motor vehicles with traffic laws, absolute disregard for pedestrians and the scarcity of parking spaces in the city. But the overarching issue is that of coordinated planning, and in effect, wastage of public money. If the DMP and the DNCC had coordinated their work, ad hoc solutions to known problems—in this case of bikers using the footpaths—might have been prevented. At the same time, that such measures have to be taken in the first place shows that traffic laws in the city are virtually never followed. Bikers have been using these walkways regularly, clearly visible from the fact that the new tiles are already broken.

It is high time a coordinated approach, involving all authorities, was taken to fix the issues that plague the city. Without a holistic understanding of the problems—traffic, infrastructure and making the city liveable for all, including the physically disabled—no good plan will bear fruition. At the end of the day, this just means a waste of public money.