Research on problems of pedestrian facilities in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Existing transportation system of Dhaka City has now become a mounting menace for the entire city system due to its inherent system deficiencies and jeopardized functional efficiency of the city due to various transportation problems. In Dhaka, about 60% of trips are on foot while almost half of the remaining trips are on Non Motorized Transport (NMT). By contrast, in American cities, about 5% of trips are made without motorized vehicles and in European and Japanese cities, about 20 - 50% of trips are made without motorized vehicles. Because of lower income level, majority of the population in Dhaka are unable to afford private transport and are dependent on low cost public transport or even on walk. But many problems always create hindrances for easy and convenient pedestrian movement on the walkway. The aim of this paper is to examine the existing pedestrian problems of Dhaka City along with some guidelines and policies to overcome the problems for the convenient walking ways especially in the central business district (CBD) area of Dhaka city. We use the database collected from the field through questionnaire surveys and observation surveys to show the extent of the problems. Observation surveys utter the design standards, problems etc. whereas the questionnaire surveys give the responses of the users of the pedestrian ways about their purpose of walking, age and income groups etc. Finally, the outcome proposes the necessary guidelines for more convenient and safer pedestrian movement in the study area. The guidelines can be applied for both in short-term and long-term basis according to the priority indeed.