Why do we disrespect traffic laws so much?

On our last visit to Kathmandu, we saw that the key roads of this capital are not nearly as large as Dhaka roads. But surprisingly there was no severe traffic gridlock on the streets, and most importantly, people were following the zebra crossings while the drivers didn't inundate the entire area honking the sanity out of our minds. 

Dhaka is regarded as more 'advanced' and 'developed' than Kathmandu. But with the residents in Kathmandu showing a civilised approach to traffic regulations – by that, we mean people's obedience to traffic rules – in comparison to Dhaka, the mass behavioural difference between Dhakaites with Nepalese couldn't be far more clearly displayed.  

The massive difference in the population between the cities (Dhaka being six times bigger than Kathmandu and the population is also 16 times more than Kathmandu) and vehicles on the streets could be contended. But two factors putting Kathmandu ahead in traffic management still prevail – the implementation of laws (one driver told us how violation of traffic laws could put him in legal trouble), and people's respect for traffic rules.

Dhaka North Mayor Atiqul Islam on 8 July said 3 lakh cars have broken the traffic signal in the Gulshan-2 area of the capital in the last month. The city corporation found this from an on-trial AI system placed at the intersection. 

The picture could be the same or worse in most other areas of the capital – illustrating the larger problem at hand. 

So why do we disregard traffic laws so much? 

The issues with the disorderly traffic in Dhaka unarguably resulted from inefficient or flawed traffic management, corruption, poor infrastructure, lack of coordination among the public entities (such as WASA, Titas, etc) and little to no implementation of traffic rules. 

Dr Md Asif Raihan, Associate Professor of the Accident Research Institute of Buet pointed out the point-based traffic system works as an influence among drivers to break or flout rules.

"In Dhaka metropolitan, we can see a point-based traffic system, where traffic rules are more strictly observed in some important points, but not throughout the entire system. For example, if you enter the cantonment area, you will see people abiding by the traffic rules, but that same person will violate the rules when he gets out of the cantonment," Dr Asif said.  

According to him in a point-based traffic system, the drivers are used to breaking rules, they know that they will not be punished. So it develops as a habit, almost like muscle memory, when the driver reaches a certain point, unknowingly he/she follows one's instinct to break the rules.

And this is interesting because when explaining the ails of Dhaka traffic management, public behaviour is hardly ever included in the discourse. 

Several years ago, a columnist in a national newspaper, while explaining the public violation of traffic rules, wrote that in Dhaka, "some people get pleasure in flouting traffic rules." It is a debatable argument but the overall public disregard for traffic rules – which derives from authorities' lack of implementation of the traffic laws in general – is perhaps indisputable. 

For example, the idea that traffic lights would reduce congestion is not entirely true because people need to accept it in the first place as a basic traffic guideline and thoroughly abide by it for traffic lights to work out. Basic awareness among the citizens including the drivers and passersby is imperative to follow the traffic rules which requires a serious campaign that we hardly see in this city. 

Moreover, the Kathmandu example of people choosing to properly use zebra crossing is not a fair comparison with Dhaka dwellers. The same can be said about footpaths in Dhaka as well. 

There is public apathy to both zebra crossing and footpaths, true. But the most important question here is the absence of adequate footpaths and zebra crossings in Dhaka. Perhaps you will find zebra crossings on major roads, but again, they are taken over by cars which also raises questions about drivers' behaviour and awareness. 

During the students' protests for road safety in 2018, we saw them walking over cars that flouted the zebra crossing mark in protests. 

The footpath is a never-ending obstacle in Dhaka city. If you walk the road from Moghbazar to Banglamotor, there is no way you can take the footpath. Much of it is taken over by the store owners. The overall Dhaka footpath scenario, except perhaps the roads in Gulshan and Banani, is more or less the same. So it is hard to question the citizens' habits when there is a clear issue with infrastructure. 

Dr Asif explained the footpath dilemma from a psychological point of view. "When a person knows that no one is going to stop him, he will do what is convenient for him. For example, as a pedestrian, I would want a plain walkway for comfort. But if the footpath or the walkway has random height differences like driveways in every few yards, or random vendor activities taking up most of the space or accumulated dirt or water on it,  it's obvious that I would be forced to walk on the road, leaving the footpath. Because for me it's not a functional footpath."

But there are indeed issues with city etiquette concerning citizen behaviours because they don't utilise whatever infrastructure the city already has. You will see people crossing roads risking their lives unreasonably even though there is an overbridge right above their heads. Another everyday example could be the bikers running over the footpaths risking passersby's safety, and the bus, truck, CNG and private car drivers flouting traffic laws wherever they have the chance to go faster, in an ill bet to save some minutes of their time. 

"Behavioural pattern development or someone's personality depends on two factors – the environment or the culture and the heredity or what the person acquires from his/her ancestors. 

And both these things develop our morality, which has a significant impact on our behaviour. What we experience from our childhood is what is reflected in our behaviour," explained Syed Tanveer Rahman, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Dhaka.

And for this to change, there should be a concerted social campaign. The culture to abide by urban laws is not easy to create. Like any Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) campaign, this would take all-out engagement and continuous efforts from government and non-government agencies to enlighten people and create mass awareness.  

Both Dr Asif and Syed Tanveer Rahman agreed on the issue that it is a behavioural pattern that needs to be addressed through behavioural change campaigns. And behavioural changes always take time.

"What we can do is, provide a proper level of service for the traffic and then observe the users how they are taking it, whether they are liking it or not, or whether the system is user-friendly or not. If we cannot provide a quality service, the traffic will behave randomly," said Dr Asif.

While Syed Tanveer emphasised behavioural change campaigns like including traffic signs in the school curriculum, implementing some strict rules, training and proper certification courses etc.  

According to him, human beings can be brought under a system, a rule if a user-friendly, well-structured system can be built and monitored regularly.

But this is in no way an attempt to say that the city's traffic issues could be solved with a campaign creating a culture to abide by urban laws. There are significant other issues like decentralisation because Dhaka is currently hosting 18 times more citizens than its capacity. 

The mindset of delving into mega projects instead of good governance, simple planning and making the city inclusive for all speaks of the missing link: Our inability to see things in Dhaka from its anthropological roots and inching towards sustainable mitigation is still pervasive. 

In a recent interview with The Business Standard, urban planner Adil Mohammed Khan talked about the significance of simple city planning rather than extravagant projects. "For example, if we ensured standard public transport instead of Metro Rail, and standard footpaths, we could reduce Dhaka's transport problem by 50% whereas with the metro addresses about 6% to 7% of the problem."

However, social awareness to abide by the existing laws could mitigate Dhaka's maddening chaos of traffic significantly. 

Bangladesh has had success in social and behavioural change in different fields, through communication campaigns, such as in the case of handwashing. So, along with addressing the infrastructural issues and improving the governance mindset, there should be a concerted effort to create social awareness and a culture of respect for traffic laws.