Every few months, Dhaka returns to the same debate. Auto-rickshaws are blamed for congestion. Motorbikes are blamed for accidents. CNGs are blamed for the disorder. Buses are blamed for chaos. Yet after decades of blaming one vehicle after another, traffic continues to worsen. Perhaps the problem is not the vehicles at all. Perhaps the problem is how we manage them. Dhaka's transportation system has evolved without a single philosophy. Every mode of transport operates largely on its own, often competing instead of complementing one another. The result is predictable: congestion, unsafe roads, poor public transport, pollution, wasted fuel, lost productivity, and thousands of frustrated commuters every day.
Instead of asking which vehicle should disappear, we should ask a more important question: Which transport modes move the greatest number of people using the least amount of road space safely, efficiently, and affordably?
This simple change in thinking changes everything. Take electric auto-rickshaws, for example. They are often portrayed as a burden on the national power grid and a major cause of urban disorder. Yet the reality is more nuanced. Most charging naturally occurs during night-time when electricity demand is generally lower than daytime peaks and system utilization differs. With managed charging policies, time-based tariffs, and local distribution upgrades where necessary, electric mobility can expand without automatically creating a proportional increase in generation demand.
The real issue, therefore, is not electricity. It is management. Auto-rickshaws are also frequently criticized for inconveniencing private cars. But public policy cannot be designed around the convenience of a relatively small number of private vehicles while ignoring the mobility needs of millions who rely on affordable transport every day. A compact vehicle carrying two or three passengers often occupies far less road space than a large private car carrying only one person. Transport planning should prioritize moving people—not simply accommodating vehicles.
The same principle applies to motorbikes. They require little road space and provide efficient one-person mobility, but reckless riding, weak enforcement, and unregulated passenger services have created understandable public concern. Likewise, CNG auto-rickshaws continue to serve thousands of commuters but suffer from inconsistent fares, unsafe driving, and outdated operational practices.
These are not arguments for banning these vehicles. They are arguments for regulating them properly. Every passenger transport service whether buses, motorbikes, auto-rickshaws, or CNGs should gradually operate under a unified digital ecosystem with mandatory registration, GPS tracking, universal digital metering, electronic payments, insurance, periodic vehicle inspections, driver ratings, and automated enforcement. Transparency protects both passengers and honest operators.
The greatest reform, however, must begin with buses. No major city has solved congestion without a reliable public bus system. Buses should remain the backbone of Dhaka's urban mobility, operating under unified route planning, designated stops, strict schedules, and professional fleet management. Existing private operators should not be pushed aside but integrated through Public–Private Partnerships (PPP), allowing them to become shareholders in a modern, centrally managed system rather than competitors racing for passengers.
High-floor buses should gradually give way to modern low-floor city buses that are safer, faster to board, more accessible for elderly passengers and persons with disabilities, and better suited to dense urban traffic. Bangladesh should also explore manufacturing or assembling these buses domestically through the modernization of existing public industrial facilities, reducing long-term dependence on imports while creating skilled employment.
Technology can improve governance as much as transport. Digital maintenance records, predictive servicing, automated depots, electronic procurement, and performance monitoring can improve reliability while reducing opportunities for waste, inefficiency, and corruption in fleet operations. Road pricing also deserves fresh thinking. Instead of relying mainly on flat ownership taxes, policy should gradually move toward road-usage-based charging so that those who occupy public roads more frequently contribute proportionately. Such a system would discourage unnecessary vehicle movement while encouraging greater use of efficient public transport.
Yet roads alone do not make a city. Cities exist for people. Affordable food vendors, hawkers, and small street businesses are often portrayed as obstacles to development. In reality, they provide affordable meals, essential goods, and livelihoods for thousands of families. The solution is not to eliminate them but to organize them. Designated food courts, planned vending zones, walking streets, weekend markets, and properly managed public spaces can protect both mobility and livelihoods. Roads should carry vehicles. Footpaths should carry people. Commerce should take place in spaces designed for commerce. The same principle applies to public toilets. Clean, safe, and accessible sanitation facilities are not a luxury; they are an essential part of a modern transport system, particularly for women, children, elderly citizens, drivers, and workers who spend long hours away from home. Dhaka's transportation crisis cannot be solved by widening roads alone. Nor can it be solved by banning one vehicle after another.
It will be solved only when every mode of transport is assigned an appropriate role, every operator is held to the same standards of accountability, and every policy is designed around the movement of people rather than the movement of machines.
The myth is that one particular vehicle is responsible for Dhaka's congestion. The reality is that no vehicle is inherently the problem.Poor planning, weak regulation, fragmented governance, and inconsistent enforcement are. Dhaka does not need another debate over which vehicle should disappear. It needs a new philosophy of mobility, one that is intelligent, disciplined, technology-driven, environmentally responsible, and, above all, centered on the needs of its people.
The writer is a mechanical engineer