Is it possible? Bicycling as primary means of transport in Dhaka

[flame_retardant]

The recent news on the thread from M.J.H has been fantastic . I'm super excited to hear that Pran is building a huge plant. That probably means more people in Dhaka are thinking about cycling, which is excellent news. Hopefully, people will see the huge time saving advantages of bicycle transport and it'll be daily transport instead of just for fun

 

[jaibi]

Serious Commuter by bicycle: Why cycle to work and options about purchasing your first cycle for serious commute in Dhaka - YouTube
He took 1hr 20 min by car. 45min by motorcycle. 25 min by bicycle.

I know it sounds crazy but if China can pull it off with their busy traffic system, people in Dhaka should be able to do it too.

Govt should really encourage it:
1. It's cheap.
2. It's environmentally friendly, particularly important to Bangladesh which is 5th most vulnerable nation to national disasters.
3. The distances aren't ridiculous because rickshawallahs are doing the same thing everyday.
4. There's a concern about rising obesity in the middle-class so bicycling would keep things like diabetes under control.

Ofcourse, people will have to get over third-world mentality that bicycling is only for the poor. But the govt managed to convince people to go down from 6 children per woman to 2.3 children per woman in less than 30yrs.

I think it's a great idea it'd be great if urban populations cycled for tansit we would take care of pollution and fitness.

 

[livingdead]

I think it's a great idea it'd be great if urban populations cycled for tansit we would take care of pollution and fitness.

only small towns and villages not in mega cities where you need efficient public transport before thinking about bicycles.

 

[flame_retardant]

only small towns and villages not in mega cities where you need efficient public transport before thinking about bicycles.

Actually, I was pretty excited to see that bicycling is growing in popularity in Dhaka. In 2 years, 18,000 people started bicycling as primary transport in Dhaka, which couldn't be better. The guy who got the ball rolling plans to have 5% of commuters out of cars and onto bicycles by 2014.

To beat epic traffic, many Dhaka residents take to cycling - khabarsouthasia.com