CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Rapid urbanization in developing countries put tremendous challenges to the
transport systems of expanding cities if they are to meet the access and mobility
needs of these communities and provide a sustainable, safe and healthy environment.
It is estimated that urban populations in developing countries will increase at more
than 6% per annum and that, within the generation, more than a half of the
developing world’s population and a third of its poor, will live in cities (World Bank,
2002). To meet this expansion, many developing cities are increasing the capacity of
their road networks, but often at the expense of the safety of the vulnerable road
users. As a result many people die and are injured unnecessarily in road crashes, with
the consequential social, economic and health burdens imposing heavy constraints on
sustainable development.
Almost three quarters of people killed in road accidents in Dhaka city are pedestrians
while mostly minibuses are involved in these accidents. Even though pedestrians
constitute around 60 percent of the road users in the capital they are one of the least
cared for. (Haque, 2003)
According to Accident Monitoring Cell of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority
(BRTA) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), 377 people died in 620 accidents in
Dhaka metropolitan area in 2008. Of them, 283 were pedestrians. Another
79 walkers were seriously injured. Experts say that lack of pedestrian-friendly
policies, poor planning and design, and high concentration of pedestrians in a small
area are the main reasons behind this high death rate. They also identified the
absence of unbroken pavements, poorly planned, badly-placed and ill-advertised
zebra crossings, encroachment of pavements, and lack of pedestrian awareness,
reckless driving as prime contributing factors for the present situation. In 2007, the
total number of accidents in the city was 696 that caused deaths to 451 people.
Among them 336 were pedestrians. At least 108 persons were also seriously injured.
The percentage of pedestrian fatality in road accidents across the country is 54. Most
of the accidents occur on national highways. BRTA and DMP officials, however, say
that the actual number is much higher as many accidents go unreported and many
other incidents are settled through arbitration.

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In Dhaka city 60 percent of all road users in the city are pedestrians, whose needs are
mostly ignored in the planning and design of streets. Pedestrians’ “degree of
exposure” to risks is too high in Dhaka city with high concentration of pedestrians
and vehicles in a limited road network. Pedestrians and drivers are not at all aware of
road safety issues, he added.” Most accidents occur during rush hours at intersections
when people hurry to work or return home and compete for boarding a vehicle amid
the chaotic traffic management system,” he said.” Dhaka city dwellers also take
comparatively long trips to go to work, take children to school or run errands. Local
facilities should be developed so that everything is available within walking distance.
According to Accident Monitoring Cell of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority
(BRTA) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), 377 people died in 620 accidents in
Dhaka Metropolitan area in 2008, of them, 283 were pedestrians. Another 79 walk-
walkers were seriously injured. Experts say that lack of pedestrian-friendly policies
poor planning and design, and high concentrations of pedestrians in a small area are
the maim reasons behind this high death rate. (The Daily Star, 2009,16 May)

Road safety in Bangladesh has been rapidly deteriorating with increasing number of
road accident, deaths, largely as direct consequences of rapid growth in population,
motorization and urbanization. There is an urgent need and scope for improving the
road safety situation by implementing an effective and coordinated safety policy and
actions, which require significant improvements in relevant sectors i.e. better
enforcement, better road system (including the treatment of accident black spots) and
public awareness programs. It is important to maintain the impetus in road safety
engineering strategies by the introduction of newly developed measures and
approaches. Sustainable community road safety programs and the road safety
auditing seem to be the most promising and cost effective ways to improve road
safety.(Haque, 2003)

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1.2 Objectives
The major objective of this research is to ensure the road safety in the neighborhood
area in Dhaka city. The specific objectives of the study are:

• To identify the significant characteristics of road accident in the neighborhood

area;
• Identification of the hazardous location in study area;
• Recommendation to ensure road safety in the neighborhood study area.

1.3 Scope of the Study

Road safety is concerned with so many related topics. But the spotlight of this paper
is identifying the accident on the hazardous location in the study area and how to
ensure safety of the area. It is very mush essential to develop a comprehensive safety
management system own the basis of overall consideration of all accident
characteristics. This study investigates the various causes of road accidents and
hazardous location on the selected area, Dhanmondi R/A. It is expected that the
findings of this study help to understand the problems involved in road accidents so
as to provide a direction for enhanced road safety in the Dhanmondi R/A, which can
be used for whole Dhaka city and all over Bangladesh.

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1.4 Limitation of the Study
Numerous difficulties were encountered during the study. Of most significance is the
data limitation, which main cause the accident data is not available at the police
station. One important limitation is the accident place is not mentioning, at the
accident data. For this reason the data is not collect properly and accurately. The
numeric specific problems related to this study are summarized as flows:

§ The accident reporting process is designed for establishing legal liability,

only total figure (accidents, fatalities etc.) are collected by the police.
Accidents historiy do not contain detail information on road user
development. The lack of understanding role of the road environment leads
this bias towards identifying the characteristics of road accidents on the basis
of general accident factors.

§ Under reporting of the accidents, the most serious limitation of the data
collection procedure is the widespread under reporting of the accident events,
in the Thana documents mainly the accident date, location and the casualties
are expressed such fatality or injury. Other, factors which are inter-related
with the accident, is not found in the accident report. Hospitals, other source
of accident, but in hospital only patients description other localities are found.
So the whole scenario of the accident is not present.

§ No information was found from collected data on post accident injury

conditions from collected data on post accident injury condition of the
victims. Moreover there are accidents where the number of persons injured
was not mentioned. As a result the actual conditions of road could not be
presented.

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CHAPTER 2: THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Road Safety

A basic problem in dealing with road safety in developing countries is that not much
is known about the accident characteristics and the impacts of road safety measures.
The important steps in road accident investigations are identification of the factors
contributing to accidents, reporting and collection procedure of accident data, nature
of accident problems and prescription of effective counter measures. In this chapter
the road traffic system, accident classifications, accident factors, different aspect of
traffic accident, major aspect and practice in developed and developing countries,
review of local research works, possible accident and remedies are highlighted.

2.2 Road Traffic Accident

Road traffic accident is common issue for both developed and developing countries.
But at present many researches try to define the different issues, which are related
with the accidents. Some of these issues are:

2.2.1 The Road Traffic System

The road traffic system is comprised of three components, the human, the vehicle
and the road. Accidents, which may be thought of as breakdown in the system,
likewise have three components: (Haque, 2003)

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Haddon matrix
Before Crash In Crash After Crash
Human Training, Education, Emergency Medical
on Behavior, In vehicle restrains Service
Attitudes, fitted and worn
Conspicuous cloth
on pedestrian &
cyclist, etc
Vehicle Secondary Salvage
Primary Safety (e.g. Safety(e.g. impact
Braking, Visibility, protection)
etc)Speed Exposure
Road Delineation Road Road Safety (e.g. no Restoration of road
Geometry Surface hazardous location0 and traffic device
Condition Visibility
Source: (Jacobs, 2000)
Second factors is which contribute to a crash, do not necessarily point in the direction
of cost effective countermeasure, such as, vehicle related factors. From a traffic
engineering viewpoint, the important point to note from the above that since the
drive the key, the human factor must be considered for the effective user of traffic
engineering application and countermeasure (Jacobs, 1997).

2.2.2 Accident Classification

One of the fundamental tools in accident analysis is to sub-divided accident into a
variety of classes. In broad perspective, this sub-divided often helps in developing
appropriate accident counter measures for reducing either the occurrence of
particular events (e.g. rear head on collision) or the severity in particular accident
types, because when a relatively few sites account for large proportion of the crashes,
improvements at these sites can give a big overall reduction in crashes (Haque,
1997).

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The road traffic accident can be classified in such way
§ Head-on collision;
§ Rear-end collisions;
§ Side collisions;
§ Rollovers;
§ Single-vehicle collisions;
§ Multi vehicle collisions; and
§ Level crossing accident.
2.2.3 Accident Sub-division
Traffic accidents are traditionally classified by severity of accident i.e. fatal, grievous
injury, and simple injury and property damage only. Secondary classification of
accident are categorized by location, such as rural or urban and intersection or link.
2.2.4 Accident Types
The international practice of document accident types in the context of accident
studies identified and discussed widely. There are a number of accident type system
use in around the world, they differ only by the extent to which they are categorized
and the lack of definitions for the type’s used. The principle behind the determination
of accident types is the accident event. This “Event” is related to collision and on or
off road carriageways. In essence, it is the same concept at used in the traditional
collision diagrams (Samad, 2006).

2.3 Accident Factors

Road, vehicles, driver and law and administration are the four basic component of
the road transport system. Therefore, a road accident can not be attributing to a single
cause but a combination of several contribution factors. These factors include:
§ Human Factors;
§ Vehicle Factors;
§ Environmental Factors Road and Roadside Factors; and
§ Enforcement and Education Factors (Samad,2003).

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2.3.1 Human Factors
The road user responsible for the accident may be:
§ The driver of one or more vehicles involved;
§ The pedestrians;
§ The Passengers.
The contribution of the road users in the road traffic crashes are discussed in the
following paragraphs:
A. Drivers
Driver is one of the main road user elements to cause an accident. So the driver’s
fitness is one of the major factors for save driving. Excessive speed and rush driving,
carelessness, violation of rules and regulations, failure see or understand traffic
situation and road sign and signals, temporary effects due to fatigue, sleep or alcohol
and physical or mental condition of the drivers are responsible for creating an
accident. The factors associated with drivers to cause an accident, are given bellow:
§ Inefficient and indiscipline driving;
§ High speed temptation;
§ Overtaking;
§ Overloading.
B. Pedestrians
Pedestrian’s lack of knowledge regarding road use, traffic rules and regulations,
violation of regulation and careless in using the carriageway are the main reason of
the high incidence of pedestrian casualty. Inadequate pedestrian facilities can also
lead to pedestrian accident. Pedestrian facilities include physical features such as
sidewalks, special; pedestrian barriers, pedestrian refuge islands, pedestrian tunnels
and overpass.
C. Passenger
The behavior of passengers in the vehicles is sometimes responsible for creating an
accident. Passenger’s characteristics, which may be responsible for accidents, are;
§ Causing trouble with the driver;
§ Making noise, joking and diverting the attention of the driver;
§ Projection their body outside the vehicle;
§ Getting into down of the moving vehicles from the wrong side;

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 § Giving sudden instruction to drivers (Jahan, 2006).

2.3.2 Vehicular Factors

The condition and characteristics of vehicles may be responsible for causing the road
accident. Following conditions can be recognized as the vehicular factors for the
causation of accident:

§ Failure of breaks, defects in steering system, lighting system and signaling

device, tire burst and deviation from specifications of the vehicle, such as
laden weight, over hang, length and width may cause accident;
§ The presence of vehicles of varying speeds and conflicts, and thereby may
produce accident;
§ Overloading goods and passenger vehicles is another vehicular factor, which
commonly contribute to high accident;
§ In Bangladesh the motorized vehicles play a major role in road transport.
Rickshaw van, pushcart etc. without lights can cause severe injuries to
passengers (Jahan, 2006).

2.3.3 Environmental Factors

Environmental conditions, which affect the road safety, are weather condition, which
the traffic stream and its characteristics e.g. mixed traffic, composition, speed, etc.
Unfavorable weather condition like mist, fog snow, smokes or heavy rainfall restrict
normal visibility and render driving unsafe. Moreover the road surface may become
slippery and because skidding of vehicle, which can contributes to large number of
accidents (Jahan, 2006).

2.3.4 Road and Road Side Factors

The width, surface condition, geometric standards of the roads markedly affects
traffic accidents. Slippery or skidding road surface, potholes, ruts and other damaged
condition of the road surface may cause an accident particularly at high speed of
movement. Defective geometric design like inadequate site distance, inadequate

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width of roads and shoulders, unspecified speed breakers, curve design, improper
lighting and improper traffic control devices are also responsible for traffic accident.
A. Lighting Support
Adequate lighting of highways and streets has long been acknowledged as a
necessity to provide vehicles drivers with needed visibility. This is being
accomplished by the use of headlights and road side luminaries. It is requirement that
luminaries support must be located no closer than 30 ft from the edge of the road
way. But in the developing countries the concept of the luminary support is not very
popular, especially in Bangladesh there is no provision for luminary supports to
provide needed visibility to the vehicles drivers.

B. Utility Pole
Death trap installation of utility poles like electric pole, telegraph pole, is along the
road way, roads and streets annually take a tragic toll of lives. These utility poles are
normally 10-12 inch in diameter at the base is located in most cases within several
feet of the traveled way, a most tragic roadside.

C. Road Sign Support and Categories, Description, Uses (Jahan, 2006)

2.4 General Design of a Traffic Sign: In Context of Bangladesh

Design details for each traffic sign are set out

in the Traffic Signs Manual published by the
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

In Bangladesh according to the Bangladesh

Road Transport Authority there are six
categories of traffic signs.
n Mandatory Signs;
n Warning Signs;
n Information Signs;
n Route Signs;
Source:http://www.brta.gov
n Road Markings;
.
n Supplementary Plates.

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 § Information Signs

§ Regulatory Signs
Regulatory Signs inform the road users of traffic laws and regulations which it is an
offence to disregard. In some states and territories certain devices such as speed limit
signs and parking control signs when used in certain prescribed situations require
special approvals, generally from the central authority, for their installation,
alteration and removal.
§ Warning Signs
Warning signs are used to warn road users of potential, hazardous conditions on or
adjacent to the road. They subdivided into the following classes.
Alignment Series
• Intersection and Junction Series;
• Width and Obstacle Series;
• Road Obstacle Series;
• Pedestrian and School Series;
• Railway Crossing Series; and
• Auxiliary Series.
§ Information and Guide Signs

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These signs inform and advise the road users about the directions and distances to the
destinations in the road systems, inform them of services and features of interest
among the road, and give instructions although not regulatory should be obeyed.
Temporary Signs
These signs are used as temporary warnings of hazards created by road works and
emergency situations.
§ Different Other Sign and Symbol use in Bangladesh

Stop
The stop sign, a red octagon with white lettering, means come to a full stop
and be sure the way is clear before proceeding.

Pedestrian crossing
Signs shall be triangular in shape with a black symbol of a pedestrian on a
white background with a red border.
Warning
Warning signs are diamond shaped and are yellow or orange with black
letters or symbols. They warn of dangerous or unusual conditions ahead,
such as a curve, turn, dip or side road.

You must not turn your vehicle around in the roadway to travel in
the opposite direction (no U-turn)

Hazard Markers

Hazard close to the edge of the road the downward lines show the
side on which you may safely pass

These sign are important to install at neighborhood communities for safer road.

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4) Road Side Trees, Markets, Bus Stops
Road side trees, markets and bus stoppage also bring haphazard and undisciplined
movements of pedestrians on the roads. Therefore, at these places pedestrians are
vulnerable to accident by trough traffic. In Bangladesh, unfortunately road
transportation engineering is not conformity with the needs of smooth flow of traffic.
Cities are growing mostly in unplanned fashion and roads are being constructed
without giving the consideration on the traffic aspect. Intersections are ill design,
having no arrangement for separating various modes of transport for unhindered flow
of each mode. Canalization of the road is absent. Road junctions are not designed to
separate traffic flow of different directions. May roads are without side walk and
where there is not right of way for the pedestrian.
The net result of these inadequate is the very high incidence of road accident
causalities and fatalities.

5) Enforcement and Education Factors

The enforcement and education factors are important tools for solving traffic
problems. Violation of administrative (tax, fitness, route permit, insurance policy)
and safety (over speeding, overtaking from wrong side, violation red light, over
loading etc) rules and regulations are often loaded to an accident. Furthermore, road
designer’s lack of knowledge about traffic safety features and road user’s lack of
knowledge on traffic rules and post accident assistance also increase the casualty rate
of accident. Proper education through schools, community programs and mass media
campaigns can increase general road safety awareness and thus can decrease the rate
of occurrence of accident (Jahan, 2006).

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2.5 Urban Road Safety: Context of Developed and Developing Countries
This section of the paper draws heavily from experience of World Report on Road
Traffic Injury Prevention (2004), projects and evaluation reports because road safety
activities in developing countries are mostly the result of interventions by external
funding agencies. Whilst there have been some projects which focus on road safety,
these are exclusively national projects. It is much more common to find road safety
components as a small part of larger highway or urban projects as opposed to the
entire project being road safety specific.Road accident is a ‘global tragedy’ with
ever-rising trends in fatalities and injuries. Road trauma has now been recognized as
one of the significant diseases of industrial societies and is an increasing public
health economic issue in developing countries. According to the World Report on
Road Traffic Injury Prevention (2004), worldwide an estimated 1.2 million people
are killed in road accidents each year and as many as 50 million are injured.
Projections indicate that these figures will increase by about 65 percent over the next
20 years unless there is new commitment to prevention. Furthermore, road traffic
deaths are predicted to increase by 83 percent in low income and middle income
countries and to decrease by 27 percent in high income countries. Of the total1.2
million deaths, by far the majority over 80 percent of road accident fatalities occur in
the so called developing and emerging countries, even though these countries
account only about one-third of the total motor vehicle fleet. Accident rates in
developing countries are often 10 to 70 times higher than in developed countries.
Whereas road accident situation is slowly improving in the industrialized societies
(e.g. Australia, USA, UK), most developing countries face a worsening situation.
The escalating road safety problem in the developing world thus represents serious
health, social and economic disaster. Developing countries suffer staggering annual
loss US$ 100 billion for road accidents, which is nearly equivalent to the double of
all developing assistance .It is expecting that over the next ten years developing
countries will experience the alarming increase in road traffic injuries. In fact, the
road safety problem in developing countries may be much worse than the official
statistics suggest because of widespread underreporting of road accident deaths and
an over estimate of licensed vehicles resulting from scraped vehicles tending not to
be removed from the vehicle register (Hoque, 2001).

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2.6 Priority Road Safety Options for Bangladesh
Indeed, it is possible to significantly reduce the number of road accidents by
implementing an effective and coordinated safety policy and actions which
require significant improvements in the relevant sectors viz. better enforcement,
better roads (including the treatment of accident black spots) and improved public
education programs. There is also need for remedial road improvements setting
realistic problem specific targets. It should be realized that the road accidents result
from failures in the interaction of humans, vehicles and road environment- the
elements that producing the road traffic system. The combination of these various
elements to produce road accident means that the road safety itself has to be tackled
in a multi-functional manner. An integrated multidisciplinary approach is required to
reduce the road accident and consequent injuries and economic losses. Indeed road
safety engineering strategies demand priority consideration as the road environment
components remains a major consideration in the overall road safety management
strategies. The potential of the road safety engineering approaches well recognized,
as this approach can aid and influence road users to change their behavior, and
can make the road environment safer through reducing conflicts (Haque, 2004).
2.7 Community participation
The press contains many examples of violent reactions from communities when their
members are injured or killed in road crashes. Examples of their involvement or
participation in the development of improvements are rare but there are many
instances of communities building their own speed barriers to slow down traffic. This
motivation needs to be tapped and built into more rational and objective formal
improvement programmers. There also needs to be more investigation of community
issues to fulfill an essential role:
§ Advising parents, schools and the State on their joint responsibilities and
advising on how road safety education can be improved.
§ Advising on improved training of school bus drivers and supervisors.
§ Advising on how to make roads and the environment safer for children.
§ Making recommendations for improved safety of school buses including
vehicle licensing, safety and design.

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Organize workshops on the safe transport of school children and also on the
improved safety of auto rickshaw and cycle rickshaws (Haque, 2004).
2.8 Community Based Road Safety
Substantial opportunities and scope exist for creating a safer road environment
through sustained introduction of safe community programs at the local levels by
providing wider public participation and awareness as well as making necessary
changes in behavior and environment. The community itself by virtue of its
expertise, enthusiasm, resources and network can greatly enhance existing programs
and even devise new way of tackling safety problems. About 30 to 40 percent of
accidents and injuries could be reduced through such programs. The opportunities
for community road safety cover a wide area, which includes a definition of
community road safety and explanation of its role, outline of the programs, essential
structures required for sustained programs and the other issues viz. good practices,
integration of community road safety and other aspects of local government
activities, wider communication and use of local media (Haque, 2004).

2.9 Traffic Police/Law Enforcement

Although the police in Dhaka have computerized crash data for the past few years,
crash data sharing with the road engineers has yet to be formalized. In Addis Ababa,
Hanoi and Harare, the engineers receive standardized print-outs of crash data but do
not have the data or relevant software for analysis. Road engineers in Lusaka do not
yet receive any crash data from the police on a regular basis. Traffic law enforcement
is influenced by political and public pressure, which sees traffic congestion as a more
immediate problem than road crashes.

2.10 Education and publicity

Urban road safety education and publicity programmes have tended to follow the
national policy, and there are rarely additional programmes specifically for urban
areas. Traffic clubs are organized by the traffic police and traffic volunteers assigned
to assist at pedestrian crossings. It should be noted that there is no traffic safety
lessons for school curriculum. More publicity efforts did occur at the urban level as
campaigns are often too small for national exposure (Jahan, 2006).

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It is important to intensify the enforcement and educational programs to alleviate the
problems of road accidents. The current level of traffic law enforcement, vehicular
regulations and road user’s education is exceedingly low in Bangladesh. It is well
recognized that the most important way to reduce hazards of road accidents is to
reduce road accidents. Road safety education, especially for children is an effective
tool for better road users’ behavior on road (ADB, 1997). Public education through
community leaders and local officials should be done repeatedly. Voluntary
organizations, government/non-government organizations should prepare
educational film on safe driving, defensive driving, etc. Extensive research on
human factors in accidents could contribute significantly understanding of road
users’ behavior involved in accidents. Detailed investigation is also necessary to
identify the gaps and deficiencies in the perceived traffic safety knowledge of road
users, particularly drivers of heavy vehicles (Haque,2004).

2.11 Conditions for Successful Community Road Safety Program

There are certain minimum requirements in terms of institutional structure and
resources at the local level and at the level of National government. While the local
knowledge, effective working partnership and voluntaries have to come from the
local level, central government has an important role in providing general guidance,
expert advice and funding support.
The conditions are considered separately
A. Requirements at the local level
§ A stable representative local body;
§ Effective personnel need to available at the effective level;
§ Effective partnership;
§ Commitment of local resource;
B. Requirement at the central level
§ Management support;
§ Commitment to community road safety;
§ Expert advice;
§ Screening process for activities;
§ Evaluation.

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2.12 Engineering Road Safety: Road Environmental Improvements
In view of the existing problem characteristics and in the absence of any
systematic approach taken, there is specific need and scope for road environmental
improvements aimed at correcting the most common deficiencies in Bangladesh. A
few of pragmatic road safety measures which could immediately be implemented
at relatively low costs and within short periods of time for achieving safer road
operations in Bangladesh are identified. Investigational studies in accident problem
characteristics dictate that priorities be placed on such principles as traffic
segregation to provide separate movement facilities and road spaces for pedestrians
and Non-Motorized Vehicles (NMVs), pragmatic measures to improve and
correct road user behaviors (self enforcing measures) through public
motivational programs, proper canalization of road junctions, effective speed
control/reducing measures and properly enforcement of traffic safety laws etc.
Immediate measures to achieve enhanced road safety and which would also offer
cost- effective results include:
§ Safety conscious planning of new road networks and safety audits of
existing roads.
§ Small changes/improvements in road layout and use of roundabouts.
§ Incorporation of safety features in the design and construction of new road
schemes.
§ Treatments of roadway shoulders (provide wider and stronger shoulders).
§ Intersection designs/improvements (flaring, canalization, traffic islands
etc.).
§ Installation and up gradation of median barriers, edge barriers at
turning roads and refuse islands.
§ Treatments of roadside hazards (trees, ditches, other fixed objects).
§ Improvements of narrow and deteriorated bridges, culverts and lanes.
§ Control over speeding and dangerous undesirable overtaking including
traffic calming measures.
§ Improved access controls, cross-sections, sight distances and alignments.
§ Setting safety standards for fronts of vehicles, which would be less
hazardous to pedestrians and cyclists.

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 § Improved conspicuity of vehicles in general, bicyclists and pedestrians in
particular.
§ Compulsory helmet use for motorcyclists and effective enforcement of
laws and sanctions against alcohol impaired drivers.
§ Compulsory use of seatbelts by motor vehicle operators and car occupants
including child restraints (Haque, 2000).

The safety of the vulnerable road users must also be sufficiently catered for in the
road safety engineering strategies and principles. Vulnerable road users are much
more susceptible to accidents when vehicle speeds are high and can even suffer fatal
injuries in accidents with motor vehicles at moderate speeds. Thus the most critical
and effective measure which should be immediately adopted in every country is to
reduce speeds particularly in urban areas. This measure alone will greatly reduce the
overall number of road deaths as shown by experience all over the world (the
number of fatalities was reduced by 32% in urban areas after speed limits of 50 km/h
were enacted strictly enforced in Hungary). A necessary prerequisite to the
development of such cost-effective solutions to the accident problems is of course an
improved understanding of the accident problem.
2.13 Possible Safety Issues of Concern
After determining the contributory factor responsible for specific accident types at
specific location from the analysis of data, the countermeasure are proposed to
reduce accidents. There are number of principles which should be considered in the
development of countermeasure for specific locations general, traffic engineer should
attempt to satisfy these principles to an extent determined by the individual needs of
significant road user groups and the pattern of accident at the study area.

There are few safety issues of concern:

§ Defective and road unworthy motor vehicles;
§ Driver incompetence;
§ Under reporting of accident;
§ Inadequate in police inspection and safety education (Haque, 2003).

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2.14 Accident Data collection System
To identify particular problems that are treatable and for which specific appropriate
action can be designed a reliable accident data base is essential. Accident data can be
used at the national level by policy makers to understand the broad nature, scale, and
characteristics of the problem so that appropriate nationwide interventions. This
includes safety officer and highway, engineer, police, lawyers, researches
.politicians, teachers, insurance companies, and member of the public. Key
Components for Data Collection System are:
There are four basic components to the way an accident data system operates, as
follows;
§ Accident reporting and recording system;
§ Accident data storage and retrieval system;
§ Accident analysis system; and
§ Dissemination of data (Haque, 2003).

1).Accident Repotting and Recording System

In the world difference types of accidents on different types of road are reported by
difference section of the police or even by separate organizations because of
jurisdiction agreements. This often leads to problems and it is strongly recommended
that there by only one single organization responsible for collating and compiling the
national accident data base and that the police are the most appropriate group to carry
out this important task (Haque, 2003).

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CHAPTER 3: STUDY AREA
3.1 Description of the Dhanmondi R/A
The study area, Dhanmondi is located at 23.7389° N 90.3847° E .The starting point
of the study area, Mirpur raod- 27(Old) to 2 No. road(city college)of Dhanmondi. In
the west of Sathmosjid road to Zigatola Dhanmondi( has a population of 201529.
Males constitute 56.37% of the population, and females 43.63%. This Thana's
eighteen up population is 128389. Dhanmondi has an average literacy rate of 71.7%
(7+ years), and the national average of 32.4% literate. Dhanmondi, since the
beginning (even before liberation war) has been known as an upper class residential
area. After the war it was mostly two storied houses everywhere and a quiet peaceful
neighborhood. The recent migration issue and aggressive real estate business
policies, not to mention the ever increasing schools and 'shopping malls' have ruined
its status as an upscale residential area (Banglapidea, 2006).

3.2 Land Use Characteristics of the Study Area

Dhanmondi is a planned residential area of Dhaka city. At present, nearly half the
plots of Dhanmondi Residential Area are used for non-residential purposes, which
include shops and stores, government and semi-government offices, show rooms and
warehouses of business firms, NGO offices and clinics, educational institutions and
even manufacturing units Dhanmondi nowadays is more of a commercial area than a
residential area. Although there is a growing number of an apartment complex
replacing the original two-storied houses, there are many non-residential
establishments almost on every street, most of which are schools, universities,
hospitals, restaurants and shopping centers.consequence is huge traffic generation
and acute traffic congestion in the area during the peak hour. Consequently, the
residential character of the area has changed very drastically. (DCC, 2009)

21
Map 01: Dhanmondi Thana and the Study Area

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) 2003

22
Map 2: Road Hierarchy of the Dhanmondi R/A

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

23
Table 01 shows the amount of various types of building structure in Dhanmondi.

Table 01: Type of Building Structure in Dhanmondi R/A

No. of
Type Building Percentage

Residential 1008 62.30

Commercial 110 6.80

Educational 92 5.69

Governmental 22 1.36

Health centre 48 2.97

Mixed use 163 10.07

NGO 41 2.53

Religious 8 0.49

Recreational 7 0.43

Social 19 1.17

Under construction 100 6.18

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

24
Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

25
3.3 Present Traffic Condition of the Study Area
In Dhanmondi R/A there are more than 30 entrance around Mirpur road,Zigatola
road, BDR head quarter to City College and old 27 road.
3.3.1 Provision for Pedestrian (Footpath)
According to thumb rule, 10% of a road’s width should be allotted for pedestrian
circulation but it is often impractical to set the standard for the width of pedestrian
paths with the help of thumb rule. In fact, the size of footpath is dependent on the
type, volume and frequency of use. Minimum width of footpath should be 4 ft in
residential areas while in busy areas 12-20 ft .The width of footpath is appropriate in
Dhamondi Residential Area. The following Fig shows the pedestrian’s facility of the
Dhanmondi area.
3.3.2 Intersection
In the study area (Dhanmondi residential area) mainly canalized T junction and
canalized cross section is available. Canalizing intersection reduces accidents,
conflicting turning movement, high speed etc.
3.3.3 Over Bridge
In study area there is an over bridge at Kolabagan for the pedestrian. But its physical
condition is not comfortable such that people do not like to use that over bridge at
Mirpur road at Kolabagan. The stair design, height of over bridge is not comfortable
to uses.
3.3.4 Speed breaker
In Dhanmondi R/A area there is some speed breaker on some location of the road but
they are not located on appropriate location such as on zebra crossing, in front of
school, colleges or university, or in front of shopping mall where vehicles need to
reduce their speed for pedestrian crossing.
3.3.5 Road Signs and pavement markings
Road Signs in the study area is newly arrived and the position and condition of signs
is satisfactory. The digital traffic signal install at Mirpur road, Zigatola road, Old#27
and Satmosjid road. The digital traffic signal shows at map 4.
Pavement markings in the study area are not always satisfactory situation. In most
cases there are necessary pavement markings but in some cases the condition is
worse. At the intersection in front of Metro Shopping Mall there is no provision of

26
zebra crossing which creates haphazard condition at that location and there is a risk
for pedestrian. And road #15 English medium school,road#12A In front Bangladesh
dental college there no zebra crossing for pedestrians.
Map 03: Pedestrian Facilities at Dhanmondi R/A

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

Map 4: Digital Traffic Sign, Over bridge, Speed breaker at Dhanmondi R/A
Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

27
Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

28
3.4 Existing Roadway Situation
3.4.1 Road Hierarchy
According to the width of the road, three types of road are found in the study area.
They are classified as follows.
Ø Primary road
Ø Secondary road
Ø Tertiary road
Width of those types of road, their median width and footpath width is given below:
Table 2: Road Hierarchy of Dhanmondi Residential Area

Type Road width Median Width Footpath Width

Primary Road 50-60 2-3 5-6
Secondary Road 24-30 - 4-5
Tertiary Road 8 to 12 - -

3.4.2 Provision of NMT and MT

A. NMT situations
• Rickshaws and other NMT account for 50% or more of the overall traffic
flow on roads.
• About 60% of trips are on foot while almost half of the remaining trips are on
non-motorized vehicles.
B. MT situation
• 76% of the residents have personal motor vehicle.
• 24% have more than one vehicle. Those motor vehicles include Cars, Jeep,
and Microbus etc.
People of high income groups, who have more than one car have tendency to make
travels with their own cars for comfort, safety and time saving purposes. Even they
make travel with their private cars for shorter distance. (Field Report, 2008)

29
3.4.3 Existing Road Infrastructure
Dhanmondi has a grid iron pattern road network and almost all the plots were
rectangular and almost in same size when designed. Three type’s roads were
designed for this area. The major through passing through Dhanmondi are the Mirpur
road and Satmasjid road of more than 80 feet wide while the secondary roads are 45
feet and access roads of 25 feet. It was already mentioned that Dhanmondi has
traditional grid iron pattern of road consisting of more than twenty intersections. The
grid has more than 15 deaf ends which dose not fulfills the design standards for a
planned dead end like cui-de-sac. The whole network is divided into two parts by the
Dhanmondi Lake. These two parts are connected only by small bridge.

In Dhanmondi area there are about 42 km pucca and 10 km mud road. Streets of the
Dhanmondi area are arranged basically in grid iron pattern with some semicircular
layout streets shaped by the configuration of the lake and lake side green areas in
order to provide a high standard of connectivity network. Surface quality of most of
the streets is also satisfactory. Present safety scenario of the area people does not
follow traffic signal while crossing road. When the speed of vehicles is slow then
they have a tendency to cross road by running. (DCC, 2009)

30
CHAPTER4 METHODOLOGIES
4.1 Research Methodology
Traffic operation is the interaction of certain base elements such as road users, the
vehicles and the road. Knowledge of vehicles accidents classification, severity type,
variation of accident with time, cost of accidents, various geometric design aspects
are needed to determine the cost effective severity at hazardous sites. A number of
criteria have been used to identify hazardous sites. The most popular methods for the
identification of hazardous sites are accidents rates and number of accidents. in this
chapter an overview of the methodological considerations in traffic accident
research, hazardous location identification, and different methods for determining
accident rates, relative exposure to accidents of a certain type, statistical quality
control of accident data, clustering of accidents, road accident data source, data
collection procedures, traffic count procedures for determining volume, speed data
collection, various geometric design aspects as well as verification and limitation of
the study have been discussed.
4.2 Theoretical Framework of the Methodology of Traffic Accident Research
Traffic accident research methods can be broadly categorized under three major
headings:
• Theoretical
• Empirical
• Simulation
However, by far of the most of the accidents research has been conducted on the
basis of empirical method, which involves the use of sets of data obtain in the form
of observation or counts. These data are then analyzed under two broad categories:
• Detailed technical investigation of accident events (Haque, 2003).
• General surveys of system wide accident patterns
The general category of accident study is mainly oriented towards providing
information on accident data in a manner or less non technical form. It is associated
with describing accident rate, accident number or fatality number in terms of per unit
of population, registered vehicles, vehicles conditions, road design, and traffic
management. The technical category of road safety study is based the site specific

31
location to determine the patterns of accident types, accidents causes and thus give
direction toward appropriate remedial safety measure.
4.3 Methodology Used in This Investigation
In order to carry out comprehensive accident investigation study in line with the
objective set out in the preceding articles. The following methodology was proposed:
A. First, Accident related all Types of Data Collected
§ Collected from Accident Research Institute (ARI), BUET.
§ Collected data from concerned police station.
§ Collected data from road user people.

B. Second, General Characteristics of Accidents was Determined

§ Define the year based data by using different variables
§ Define the accident severity by using variables

C. To Find the Accident Porn Location

§ Define the number of in different location in the investigation time
period’
§ Define the severity of accident in that location’
§ Define the road sections, which are accident prone from the collecting
data’
§ Define the existing roadways’
§ Define the specific locations which are vulnerable’
§ Ranking the road segment and location by using accident data.
D. A limited number of people’s opinion collected to share with their field,
experience and knowledge in tackling accident event. These works was carried
among the authority of accident research institute (ARI), BUET. Thana Dhanmondi.
It was also carried out among the road user, inhabitants of the residence, drivers,
passengers and pedestrians in order to get their views about the safety awareness and
high occurrence of accident in this area.
Finally, based on the finding of the investigation, appropriate suggestions were made
to improve the road safety aspects in the context of a planned neighborhood area like
Dhanmondi

32
 4.4 Technique Adopted for Accident Investigation

Collection of accident Data Source of Accident Data

Accident Data Data Processing Road Condition

Traffic
Management
Road Safety
Data
Secondary Data Primary Data Related Data In
The Existing
Traffic Flaw Area
Data
People Opinion

Study Area
Information Accident Data Analysis
Discussing on
Duty Traffic
Police Sergeant

Determine Accident Types on

the Study Area

Factor/Cause of Accident on
the Study Area

Identify Hazardous Location

on the Study Area

Problem Identification

Suggestion for
Countermeasure

33
4.5 Accident Data Collection Approach
Data was collected tow sources, primary and secondary sources
4.5.1 Reconnaissance Survey
Before collected the data, it is needed reconnaissance survey for the prepare a
concept about the selected area, and also observe the present situation of the area. In
this research, the important points are the types of accident of the study area, present
traffic safety scenario, road condition, traffic flow of that area. From those primary
surveys, a primary concept developed about the causes of accidents, hazardous
location in this area and plan for reduce the accident in this area.
4.5.2 Primary Data
A primary data will be collected from the field survey. These surveys will be done
among the general people, local shop owner, traffic sergeant, drivers, officials of the
transport institutions, official of local Thana and experts related to road accident
research.
4.5.3 Secondary data
Main source of secondary data are research papers, journals, book etc. previous
accident records main source are local Thana’s records, news papers. At present time
the accident data collection main source is the Accident Research Institute (ARI),
BUET.
4.6 Analysis of Data
Analysis of all collected data from primary and secondary sources for collection
exploring the major cause of accidents, and find a possible solution for reducing the
road accident, and comfortable using road.
4.7 Draft Report preparation
Draft report shows the fault and shortage of the data in the research paper. So after
the presentation of draft report, it will be possible to collect the necessary data again.
And prepare the final report correctly.
4.8 Final Report Preparation
Final report presents the whole works beside this paper. And this paper is prepared.

34
CHAPTER 5 ACCIDENT DATA ANALYSIS AT DHANMONDI R/A
Road accident data of the study area, Dhaka and whole of the Bangladesh are
described in this chapter. Data have been collected from Accident Research Institute
(ARI), BUET, and the reported accident data in 2008 also collected from Dhanmondi
Thana. This will help to define the study areas present scenario.
5.1 Road Traffic Accident
Currently road accident is the ninth biggest cause of premature death in the world,
which is estimated to be responsible for around 500,000 deaths and 15 million
injuries every year. Together with the social impact in terms of suffering of the
people, the economic loss of accident to the developing countries alone is estimated
to be around US$ 100 Billion. By the year 2020, it is expected that road accident will
become the third heights cause of death and liability in the world (Haque, 2000).
5.2 Road Traffic Accidents in Bangladesh
Globally Road traffic accidents, injuries and victims are causing great concern to
the community in Bangladesh. According to the official statistics, there were at
least 3334 fatalities and 3740 injuries in 4114 reported accidents in 2003. It is
estimated that the actual fatalities could be 10000-12000 each year. The road
safety is rapidly deteriorating with increasing number of road deaths, largely as a
direct consequence of rapid growth in population, motorization and urbanization
and lack of adequate investment in road safety (Haque, 2004).
The national trends of police reported road traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries
reported to police for the period.1994-2003 of Bangladesh is shown in the Table 1.
Significant fluctuations in the numbers of fatalities and injuries clearly reflect the
problems of reporting inconsistencies. Yet it is clear that the number of fatalities
has been increasing from 1597 in 1994 to 3334 in 2003, nearly 2.5 times in 10
years period. The statistics revealed that Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality
rates in road accidents, over 100 deaths per 10000 motor vehicles. Together with
the social impact in terms of pain, grief and suffering, there is a serious economic
burden. In current prices, road accident in Bangladesh is costing community in the
order of Taka 5000 core (US $ 800 million, nearly 2% of GDP) per annum.
Between 70 -80 percent of accidents occur on highways and rural roads (Haque,
2004).

35
 Table 01: Reported Road Accident Trends in Bangladesh (1998-2007)

Year No. of No. of No. of Total Casualties

Accidents Fatalities Injuries

1998 4769 3085 3997 7082

1999 3942 3314 2620 5934

2000 3970 3058 3485 6543

2001 2925 2388 3285 4953

2002 3941 3053 3285 6338

2003 4114 3334 3740 7074

2004 3970 3058 3485 6543

2005 2925 2388 3285 4953

2006 2512 2854 3544 6125

2007 3584 3125 3487 5876

Source: Accident Research Institute (ARI), 2009

5.3 Road Traffic Accidents in the Study Area

This Chapter presents the road traffic accidents of the study area, Dhanmondi R/A.
Accident Data are collected from Accident Research Institute (ARI), BUET, For the
purpose of collecting information about road environment and the necessary data
were collected from Accident Research Institute (ARI), BUET and Dhanmondi
Thana, and also been identified hazardous location discussing with the local people,
traffic police and police sergeant on duty at the Dhanmondi Thana.
Road accident data about five years (2003-2008), starting January 2003 to December
2008, as recorded a total 151 road accident.

36
 Table 02: Types of Collision at Dhanmodi R/A in Different Years (2003-2008)

Collision 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total

Type
Head on 1 1 1 1 3 3 10
Collision
Rear End 6 8 7 5 13 12 51
90’ 1 2 0 1 0 3 7
Degree
Side 0 0 1 0 1 1 3
Over turn 0 0 0 1 1 2 4
Parke 0 1 1 0 0 2 4
Vehicle
Pedestrian 10 6 13 7 6 12 54
Animal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Other 2 5 1 0 2 2 12
Total 22 23 25 15 26 40 151

Source: Accident Research Institute (ARI) and Dhanmondi Thana, 2009

The present day accident reporting system as followed by the police has considerable
deficiency and weakness with respect to information on accident variables it is
envisaged that major revisions of the existing accident report form be made to
provide perfect, enlightening and useful data are for use in accident analysis and in
the evolution of the road safety initiatives in the accident report.
5.4 Causes of Accident at the Dhanmondi R/A
From the table 2 it can be said that the accident is occurring in the area due to
following reasons:
• Carelessness of Drivers;
• Carelessness of pedestrian;
• Pedestrian are covered by the mobile vendors;
• Tendency of violation of speed rules;
• Not maintained sign and symbols of roads.

37
5.5 Distribution of Total Accident by Year (2003-2008)
Fig 01: Distribution of Total Accident by Year (2003-2008)

Distribution of Accident By Yearly Base(2003-

2008)

45
40
35
No. of Accident

30
25
20 40
15
23 25 26
10 22
15
5
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Year

Source: Accident Research Institute (ARI) and Dhanmondi Thana, 2009

Considering the six years (2003-08) total accident data shows in figure 01 that the
trend of accident increased at Dahanmondi R/A. It also shows that except 2008, last
5 years the accident at Dhanmondi occurred averagely about 20 accidents, but it
quickly jumped 40 accidents in 2008.

5.6 Distribution of Total Accident by Collision Type (2003-2008)

Distribution of accident on collisions types, that the most important analysis part of
the research. Because the types of accident at neighborhood Dhanmondi R/A, the
safety factor is bond awake with the reverse the factor of accident. When the traffic
safety will increasing, than the rate of accident will be reduced. So the first strategy
to identify the cause of accident on the study area, and find out the safety factors that
is available on that particular place.

Fig: 02 Distribution of Total Accident by Collision Types (2003-2008)

38
 Distribution of Total Accident by Collision Types
(2003-2008)

60 51 54
No.Of Accident

50
40
30 Series1
20 10 12
7 4 4
10 2 0
0 e

m
d
n

de

al
n

er
h
re
En
O

ria
Ve
ur

im

th
Si
eg

rT
ad

st

O
An
ar

rk
'D

de
He

ve
Re

Pa

Pe
90

Accident Types

Source: Accident Research Institute (ARI) and Dhanmondi Thana, 2009

Figure 02 shows that pedestrian collisions and the rear end collisions is crucial which
occur at Dhanmondi R/A Last seven years the total pedestrians accidents is the
beigest number 54 ( 37%) out of total 151 accidents. In 2008 the pedestrian accident
is highest in the study area during last six years and it’s also mentioned that the rate
of pedestrian accident is increasing. This data is following with rear end collision,
51(35%) out of total 151 accidents. After that the head on collision is going on
10(7%) in 151 out of total 151 accidents.

The figure 03 shows percentage of all types’ collisions during 2003-2008, which
clearly rival that the most vulnerable user are pedestrian .The accident basically
occur, where there is inadequate footway provision, the accident occur basically at
there.

39
Fig: 03 Distribution of Total Accident by Collision type (2003-2008)

Percentage of Total Accident Collisios

8% 7%
0%
Head on Collision
Rear End
90'Degree
Side
35%
Over Turn
37%
Park Veh
Pedestrian
Animal
Other
5%
3% 2%
3%

Source: Accident Research Institute (ARI) and Dhanmondi Thana, 2009

5.7 Distribution of Accident by Collision Types in Several Years

Distribution of accident on collision types, that the most important analysis part of
the research. Because the types of accident at neighborhood Dhanmondi R/A, the
safety factors is bond awake with the reverse the factor of accidents. When the safety
will increase
The collisions of particular in several years also determine the flow and continuity of
accident pattern in the study area.
Table 02 shows that 2003 the total accidents reported 22. out of 22, pedestrians
accident was10, 6 accident was rear end collisions, out of 22 and others 2
In 2004, the pedestrian accident was 6, out of 23 and the rear end collisions was 8
also out of 23.in this year the rear end collision is the highest.
The pedestrian accident was 12 and 7 was rear end collisions, out of 25 total
accidents was in 2005.
In 2006 the total accident occurred 15. Out of them the pedestrian accidents was 7,
and the rear end collisions was 5.
In 2007 out of them 26 the rear end collision was 13 and pedestrian was 6 and head
on collisions was 3,others 2 accident also occurred at Dhanmndi R/A. In this year the

40
rear end collisions was highest, so rear end collisions also major accident in the study
area.
In 2008 total accident was held 40, of them the pedestrian and the rear end collisions
accident both was 12, and head on collision was 3.
But many of accident which was unreported by the victims, and the police sergeant’s
are not reached in a time at accident palace for reported.
5.8 Hazardous location at Dhanmondi R/A
It is very important for this research to find out the accident locations in Dhanmondi
R/A But the reporting system of the accident data is not provided the location of the
accident place, which is very important to recommend for further traffic safety
improvements of that particular place and the other areas of the study area. For this
purpose, local witness, on duty traffic sergeant, traffic police, rickshaw drivers, CNG
and taxi cab drivers play significant role for identifying the accident prone are at
Dhanmondi R/A area. Most of the police sergeant and traffic police mentioned the
road# 12 A intersections, Kobi Nazrul Islam Avenue road#15 intersection, road#10A
road# 8 front of bridge both of the side,road#11 middle of intersection, and road#15
are the accident prone location of Dhanmondi R/A. The police sergeant also
mentioned that all of the accidents are minor police take report by own
responsibility. They also said, the accident basically occurred when the heavy
congestion of the intersection and during the morning peak hour the schools is
opening and closed at 12.30pm.

This both time lots of vehicle are gathered in a time including other resident of
people, local people also uses non-motorized vehicle like rickshaw, school van also
included. The practical experience shows that, during school opening and closing
time the front of school, foot paths are covered by the mobile vendor shop, including
vegetable shops also. In that time the busy pedestrian are crossing out of the walk
ways and conflict with the vehicles most of the time.

41
Map 5: Hazardous Locations at Dhanmondi R/A

Source: Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), 2009

42
Table 03 shows the accident location and circumstance of the study area found from
of the respondent of that area:

Table 03: Hazardous location of the Study Area

Result
Location Description Collision Injured Dead
Road#12 A A motor cycle was conflict Motor 2 -
with pedestrian cycle vs.
pedestrian
Road#10A A car was conflict with a 1 -
motor cycle
Sathmoshjid road Two rickshaws collided Rickshaw- 3 -
with each other when rickshaw
crossing the intersection.
Road#15 A pedestrian was hit by a Rickshaw 1
Kobi Nazrul Islam rickshaw pedestrian
Avenue(Intersection)
Road#8 Front of A car was hit with a Rickshaw 2
bridge rickshaw Vs car
(old32)
Road#11(Middle Head on collisions with Rickshaw
intersection) rickshaw vs. rickshaw Vs 2
rickshaw
Road#15 Here most of the time
Intersection rickshaw vs. pedestrian,
rickshaw vs. rickshaw
always accident.
Source: Field Survey, 2009

5.9 Present Safety Scenario of Dhanmondi R/A

People do not follow traffic signal while crossing road. When the speed of vehicles is
slow then they have a tendency to cross road by running.

Fig1: people are

running to cross
Road

43
 Fig 2: Street light is
available but
maintenance
facilities is not
satisfactory

Fig 3: Street lights are not at proper distance

Majority of the residence of Dhanmondi R/A, people use their own motor vehicle for
their movement. As there is no parking facility in all buildings, usually people use
the road for parking their vehicle in front of their offices or other educational
institutes. Other people use public transport like buses, rickshaw and other rented
vehicle for their movement. As bus has its certain stoppages so people have to use
walk ways to reach their destination.
Though the provision of footpath is satisfactory in the study area but their physical
condition is very poor few areas.

44
They are broken here and there, wastage is thrown on around the footpath, and
temporary shop (hawkers) is the major obstacle in the footpath. Pavement of the foot
path is not continuous in everywhere. The figure shows the unsatisfactory footpath
condition in road#6A, road#10A, road#14A, road#15A.

Fig4: Broken pavement hampers pedestrians walking flow at Dhanmondi R/A

People do not like to use over bridges because steps of the bridge is so high that they
become tired. There is also other physical risk for aged people and there is no shed to
protect from sun and rain. Various types of intersection are available but the facilities
on intersection are not enough. Major Shopping Malls are located at beside the
intersection but there is no zebra crossing available. For example, intersection
besides metro shopping mall. On the other hand where provision of zebra crossing is
available there is violation of rule by motor vehicle user. So there is a need to reduce
the speed of the
motor vehicle.

Pic 5: Good
pedestrian
design at
Dhanmondi R/A

45
CHAPTER 6 CAUSE OFACCIDENTS IN DHANMONDI R/A
This chapter organizes with the results, which are finding from the data analysis.
There are few variables are taken for analyzing the accident data, to define the
characteristics of accidents, cause of accidents in the study area and also analyses
are using for the characteristics of accident pattern, find the hazardous locations and
cause of each hazardous location are described below:

6.1 Nature and Cause of Accidents Each Hazardous Location at Dhanmondi

R/A
Pedestrian collisions and rear end collisions are the major accident pattern at
Dhanmondi R/A. These two types accident is higher than any other accidents.
Basically the accidents are occurred when the traffic generate a certain time a
particular palace. These places are basically in front of different educational
institutions. In road 15 intersection an accident of pedestrian hit by a rickshaw was
reported. The cause of this accident was during the school closing time lots of private
car, CNG, rickshaw gather at that intersection and the footpaths are occupied with
different mobile vendors. Consequently, the pedestrians are not able to walk on foot
paths. When they pedestrian try to walk on road than the rickshaw hit them.

Pic 6: Illegal parking

front
Of Private medical
universities at road#13A

46
In road 15/A (in front of Drik gallery) is one of the busy roads at Dhanmondi R/A.
This road is always busy with car, rickshaw, school buses, motor cycle and other
motor vehicles. During the peak hours most of the accidents occur in this spot when
the traffic become haphazard in the intersections between Road 15/A and Road 10/A.
The major causes of accidents in these roads are long traffic congestion and delay.
The pedestrian are blocked and unable to cross the roads easily. There is no zebra
crossing marks, traffic signaling and manual control by traffic police in the
intersections of Road 13/A, Road 12/A, Road 11/A and Road 10/A. From the
observation it was found that most of the drivers’ enter or use neighborhood roads as
a shortcut when the major roads (i.e. Old 27, Satmosjid) are busy with traffic jam .It
is one of the important cause for haphazard traffic conditions.

Pic 7: A Motorcyclist
illegally Drive on
Footpath.

A lot of educational institutions, clinic, and private medical universities are situated
in this area, which make the roads busy for most of the time. Bangladesh Dental
Colleges and private university buildings in located respectively in Road 12/A In
front of these building roads are covered with park cars and other vehicles almost of
the day. Even the footpaths in front of these buildings are occupied with different
types of vendors, tea shops.

47
The accidents not only occurred always at the intersections. Some accidents occurred
where the roads are covered with parking vehicles. In front of every private clinic
and diagnostic center in Road 14/A, the road is covered with medical representiv’s
motorcycle and doctor’s cars for the whole day. The parking facilities are not
available for these buildings. This creates conflict between the pedestrian or other
vehicles (like rickshaw) and the park vehicles.

Pic 8: An illegal tea

shop along with the
tree at road 11A of
Dhanmondi

The field observation also gave that the construction materials are illegally stored at
the road side which disappoint the pedestrian’s for safe walking. The pedestrian
facilities are well in both side in some roads, but some footpaths are occupied with
temporary tea shops and rickshaw makers.

48
CHAPTER 7 RECOMMENDATION FOR IMPROVEMENT THE ROAD
SAFTEY AT DHANMONDI R/A

This paper includes the characteristics of accident in mixed land use pattern in the
study area. Here a plan for neighborhood road safety proposed. But it is totally hard
to prepare the road safety plan for a mixed use land useses area. The steps are
interrelated with different sectors. The characteristics of accident related with
different variables are the one side to create a plan for road safety. But one important
is in future it is need to identify the characteristics of accidents in different areas,
road crash types, and this paper will provide valuable insights about the existing
traffic safety related data on the area. For prepare the road safety plan, it is need the
detail studies about the accidents with focusing all sectors, which are added in the
plan for safety improvements on that area.

Dhanmondi residential area was planned than there lived a limited people and now
there is huge number of people living and the traffic conditions are haphazard. The
research objective is road design in neighborhood area to ensure road traffic safety,
for improvement traffic safety the policy must be taken not only road design also
given importance to the special traffic law for mixed land use pattern of
Dhanmondi R/A. The existing situation in Dhanmondi R/A created by non-
residential land uses. It is one of the important reasons for creating road crash and
haphazard traffic condition at the study area. Apparently the traffic congestion in
Dhanmondi R/A is created due to many reasons, such as traffic generation by
different non-residential uses, traffic generation by the lake and recreational area of
Dhanmondi and many other indirect reasons like as shortcut road use.

49
7.1 Plan for Improved Road Safety
Although the road safety condition is determined few points at the study area
one is reduce traffic congestion, second, provide safe and comfortable pedestrian
facilities, third, provide separate lane for NMT and MT and fourth is restrict out
residence vehicles which are use shortcut Dhanmondi’s roads . Immediate
measures to achieve enhanced road safety and which would also considered to be
arranging to ensure the efficiency of traffic flow and road safety.

§ Introducing small changes of intersection designs or improvements in road

layout, install mini roundabouts and also reduce the corner angle at
Road#15/A, Road#14/A, Road#12A and Road#10/A intersection which
will reduce the speed of vehicle, increase efficiency in smooth traffic
flow and reduce the point of conflict at the node.

Pic: Proposed design for each of intersection at Road#10/A

Road#15/A, Road#14/A, Road#12A at Dhanmondi R/A

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The proposed design will be able to reduce the traffic congestions and conflict
at the intersections. When the vehicle travel to a rounded way its speed will be
reduced and the corner angle of intersection points will be eliminated that will also
reduce the direct conflict between vehicles from adjacent road section. So RAJUK
has the legal power to change or eliminate the buildings for better road design to
reduce the traffic congestion.

§ About every road in the study area need to treatments of roadside hazards
(trees, telephone box, electric pole, and other fixed objects) electric poles
and telephone boxes are stand in the footpaths. These objects are creating
uncomfortable for the pedestrian. The responsible authorities DESA and
BTTB can eliminate the object from the footpaths.

§ Control over turn speeding with installing the speed breakers both left side
of the bridge at Road#11 and Road#8.The DCC can install the speed
breakers both left side of the bridge that will reduce the collisions at the
front of bridge.

§ Provision of footpath is continuity, which is important for safe and

comfortable for the pedestrian, but at Dhanmondi R/A there every front of
buildings the footpath are break through making ramp for vehicles by
residence of the owner, but the rules is without intersection or without
major cause the footpath must be continuity. The motorcyclist can easily
use this ramp to ride illegally drive at footpath when roads are busy with
traffic congestion. The traffic engineering and management division at
DCC ensure the optimum continuity of footpath for the pedestrian of
Dhanmondi residential area with install several pillar at the starting point of
the footpath and take action owner of the buildings which are break trough
the footpaths.

§ Every front of school or other educational institutions the foot are occupied

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 with different type’s of mobile vendors that disturb the pedestrian. The
school authorities take initiatives to eviction this kind of vendors and must
sincere the DMP that the illegal vendors can not occupied the footpaths.
§ In Road#12/A in front of Bangladesh Medical College and Road#15/A in
front of College of Development Alternative (CODA) and different other
educational and medical institutions the authority has no sufficient parking
facilities. This park vehicle also creates several road crashes. The DMP and
RAJUK can take action those buildings which have no sufficient parking
facilities and also charge the parking fee at neighborhood areas.

§ Rickshaw is one of the major cause for creating hazard traffic conditions,
because there is no specific lane for non-motorized vehicles at Dhanmondi
R/A. And its also hard for provide a new lane for NMT cause the access
road is only 25 feet along with footpath. Outside other residence like
Mohammadpur, Zigatola, Hazaribug which communities rickshaws are also
use the road of Dhanmondi which also creating traffic congestion within
the study area. If the community of the residence and Dhanmondi thana
take a new scheme to register or licensed a number of fixed communities
rickshaws which are only allow to permit the Dhanmondi R/A and restrict
other area’s rickshaws that will be reduce the traffic congestion and safe for
the community.

§ It was found that most of the drivers’ enter or use neighborhood roads as a
shortcut when the major roads (i.e. Old 27, Satmosjid) are busy with traffic
jam It is one of the important cause for haphazard traffic conditions and
precariously for the residences. The on-duty traffic police and traffic
sergeant must be prohibited these vehicles and can impose charge for illegal
use of residence.

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§ The residence has a community organization Dhanmondi Abasik Elaka
Kalyan Samity. This committee will significance role for create increase
awareness of road user through different policy such as: campaign,
advertisement, training, and also use local cable channel etc or through
implementation of strict rules.

§ In Road#11/A Road#7/A beside the lake the lighting facilities are poor
maintenance and the distance of lighting are not provide accurately.
Maximum roads are covered with front of buildings and at night the
lighting facilities can not given the accurately to see the walk-ways
properly. The DCC can arrange and regular monitor the lighting facilities of
the residence.

§ Finally the characteristics of different non-residential land uses are responsible for
creating hazard conditions. RAJUK has to legal power to eliminate the non-
residential use and take the decisions to restore the residential character of
Dhanmondi.

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CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION

In Dhanmondi R/A t h e road safety problem is very acute. There are different
dimension of causes of influence and priority issues to provide road safety and it
becomes a major pressing problem day by day. Finally it can be said that, traffic
safety is a basic demand of people for a better living condition. Although it is a
difficult task to ensure safety for all, but government as well as public
participation may change the present scenario of road safety. Copiousness of
people, concentrate on geometric design of road way, appropriate implication of
traffic control devices, introducing required policies, proper management of
interchanges may change the existing circumstances.In this research it is try to define
the characteristics of accident and the hazardous location in Dhanmondi thana, which
are needed for preparing the affective road safety plan. This type study is needed for
each area in the country. Considering all study, it will be easy to define the
characteristics of accident, which will be helpful for preparing road safety plan.

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