Abstract:
Environmental consciousness has heen the main stimulant for a new
trend in transportation policy in many developed countries, where a
balanced and harmonious coexistence between pedestrians and vehicles
is sought. Pedestrianization, a technique recognized as the most
comprehensive form of environmental traffic management, has
remarkably been gaining a considerable importance in the current
trend of modernization of urban activity centres. In the developing
countries, pedestrian planning in general has been either totally
ignored or too late in coming.
In Dhaka tity, as well as in other urban areas of Bangladesh, the
pedestrian traffic safety, mobility and accessibility, and the
street environment have alarmingly deteriorated. Among different
causes of these issues, the institutional constraints, road user
behaviour and inadequacy of infrastructural facilities are the main
contributory factors. The contemplated impacts on these issues by
the rapid growth of the city's population, along with other future
implications and constraints, were the main impetus to carry out
this research. Main efforts were focussed to assess the severity of
the pedestrian-vehicular conflict and the impact of the street
infrastructural and environmental conditions on the quality of
pedestrian movement. The main met.hodological technique of this
assessment was to conduct pedestrian and vehicular traffic flow
survey in two main pedestrian intensive activity areas: Mirpur Road
as a major arterial street and New Market Shopping Area as one of
the most important retail facility areas. The research, furthermore,
investigated the pedestrian behaviour at different types of crossing
facilities. Accident statistics were collected and considered a
supporting evidence of the conflict intensity.
Results of this research pinpointed, in facts and figures, the
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severity of different dimensions of the problem and the necessity to
consider changing trends and evolution of conceptual thinking in
urban transportation planning. A package of recommended measures and
guidelines
Management)
termed ETSPAM (Environmental Traffic Syst~m Planning and
Is the maIn output of this research. -'!\hispackage is
designed to deal with the tequlrements relevant to issues of major
concern to pedestrian free movement and safety as an indispensable
precondition to revItalize the urban environment in Dhaka Cit~. The
main goals of the package are the attainment of safe, pleasant and
efficient envIronments for pedestrian routes, and organization of
pedestrian traffic as an integrated part of the city's
transportatIon system. The package proposes a number of strategIes
and policies, in addition to a planning framework, to Implement the
selected goals and objectives. The strategies and polIcies lie in
the domaIn of administrative and institutional development, expanded
traffIc engineering and management, Improvements in pedestrian
plannIng process, and improvements in pedestrian Infra structural
facilitIes, road upgrading and public transport.
