Dhaka is a huge city. Well, it's pretty huge by my standards. Most of the cities that I've lived in, worked in, or just had the opportunity to visit through my life so far have been kind of small cities. Even the fantastic Lisboa, which I lived so close to for three years, is tiny in comparison to Dhaka. Wiki currently quotes the population of Lisbon at about 550 thousand people; a mere drop in the ocean compared to the 15 million people living currently in Dhaka. And having all those people living all together in one big city means that you really do feel the enormity of it all.
Of course with so many people needing to get to work, or school, to the shops or just running the odd errand, there needs to be a strong transport infrastructure to get all those people moving. You may well have seen the pictures of trains and buses that are so full that people are sitting on the roof, but until you've actually witnessed it for real, in the moment, it is difficult to believe that it actually happens. The buses are old, beaten up and scarred, wounded from a thousand scrapes, patched over and over with recycled sheet metal from other things. The lights are gone, and the holes where they were patched over with more sheet metal. In some, the windows have long disappeared, never to be replaced. I'm told that travelling on a bus here is quite an experience; one that personally, I'm not in such a hurry to try out!
Further down the Wiki page, Dhaka is described as "The Rickshaw Capital of the World" with 400 thousand rickshaws working the streets of Dhaka every day. They are everywhere, on every road, street and back alley. Some of them are fantastically decorated, most are obviously well used, and all are driven by very lean, hard working men. And these men are fearless. Or possibly mad. They drive these rickety rickshaws around the city, ferrying people from A to B, fearlessly dodging their way between the cars, trucks and buses, trying to make a living. Of course my kids absolutely love traveling by rickshaw. I'm sure that the novelty will wear off sooner or later?
Rickshaws and buses aren't the only way to travel in Dhaka though. You could always take a CNG (which stands for Compressed Natural Gas) to get you to your chosen destination. These are basically a cross between a Rickshaw and a Reliant Robin, having a small motor and (so I'm led to believe) scary manual brakes! Again this really isn't something that I'm in a hurry to try. Being trapped inside one of those green cages while darting between the other traffic just simply doesn't appeal!
With 15 million people to transport around the city it is inevitable that the traffic is often slow, stationary and even gridlocked in "rush" hour. Junctions of course are the worst (and easiest) areas to get caught in traffic, where cars, buses, rickshaws and CNG's run nose to tail with barely enough room between for pedestrians to cross the roads. Horns sound in a chorus, with little result other than to make a noise, and yet somehow, the traffic keeps moving through, creeping, weaving, dodging in and out until the junction is passed.
Of course, I'm told by many that the traffic right now is easy and generally not too bad. "Wait until Eid," they say, "when everyone is out celebrating, visiting family or just trying to get in or out of Dhaka. That's when it's really bad." The next Eid (festival) coming up is Eid al-Adha, which this year falls on October 4th in the Gregorian calendar, so not long to wait to find out!
Of course with so many people needing to get to work, or school, to the shops or just running the odd errand, there needs to be a strong transport infrastructure to get all those people moving. You may well have seen the pictures of trains and buses that are so full that people are sitting on the roof, but until you've actually witnessed it for real, in the moment, it is difficult to believe that it actually happens. The buses are old, beaten up and scarred, wounded from a thousand scrapes, patched over and over with recycled sheet metal from other things. The lights are gone, and the holes where they were patched over with more sheet metal. In some, the windows have long disappeared, never to be replaced. I'm told that travelling on a bus here is quite an experience; one that personally, I'm not in such a hurry to try out!Further down the Wiki page, Dhaka is described as "The Rickshaw Capital of the World" with 400 thousand rickshaws working the streets of Dhaka every day. They are everywhere, on every road, street and back alley. Some of them are fantastically decorated, most are obviously well used, and all are driven by very lean, hard working men. And these men are fearless. Or possibly mad. They drive these rickety rickshaws around the city, ferrying people from A to B, fearlessly dodging their way between the cars, trucks and buses, trying to make a living. Of course my kids absolutely love traveling by rickshaw. I'm sure that the novelty will wear off sooner or later?
With 15 million people to transport around the city it is inevitable that the traffic is often slow, stationary and even gridlocked in "rush" hour. Junctions of course are the worst (and easiest) areas to get caught in traffic, where cars, buses, rickshaws and CNG's run nose to tail with barely enough room between for pedestrians to cross the roads. Horns sound in a chorus, with little result other than to make a noise, and yet somehow, the traffic keeps moving through, creeping, weaving, dodging in and out until the junction is passed.
Of course, I'm told by many that the traffic right now is easy and generally not too bad. "Wait until Eid," they say, "when everyone is out celebrating, visiting family or just trying to get in or out of Dhaka. That's when it's really bad." The next Eid (festival) coming up is Eid al-Adha, which this year falls on October 4th in the Gregorian calendar, so not long to wait to find out!
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