Motorcycle is all the rage as Dhakaites are desperate to beat traffic tailback, transport crunch

The exasperated people of Dhaka are increasingly turning to motorcycle as the preferred mode of transport because of the increasing traffic congestion and lack of proper transport.

The ride-sharing service has also added to the popularity of the motorcycle, as the bikers are providing the service. Even the women in the city are refusing to fall behind men in sharing rides.

At least 2,519,226 motorcycles are registered in the country with 631,340 of them in Dhaka, according to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

The growth in the number of motorcycles hitting the streets can be felt in the annual registration figures. Motorcycle registration throughout Bangladesh has gone up by 46 percent in last 26 months while the rate was 44 percent in Dhaka.

There were 75,251 motorcycles registered in Dhaka in 2017; the number soared to 100,464 in 2018 while 14,699 motorcycles were registered in the first two months of this year.

As many as 326,550 motorcycles were registered throughout the country in 2017; the number was 395,603 in 2018. As many as 72,704 motorcycles have been registered in the country during the first two months of the current year.

A big crowd was found in the BRTA office in Mirpur who came to register their motorcycle when the bdnews24.com reporter visited the office last week.

The scarcity of public transport and traffic logjams in Dhaka streets does not allow one to keep schedule, Samiul Alam from Badda told bdnews24.com. He bought about a motorcycle to travel faster for the purpose of his business. He came to the BRTA office to get his ride registered.

“I have to run everywhere for my business; it takes time to travel by bus. Autorickshaw or private car is both expensive and time-consuming. That’s why I bought the motorcycle.”

Tanmoy Imran, a software engineer at Dhanmondi, commutes every day from his Khilgaon residence. He has also bought a motorcycle and came to the BRTA office to register it.

“There are not enough local buses in the capital; the autorickshaws are not available in time. And, I suffer a lot commuting. Therefore, I bought the bike to save time. Also, it affords me easy mobility,” he said.

Commute got easier once he bought a motorbike, said Tamim Ahmed, a student of Daffodil University who lives in Kalyanpur.

“You can easily go anywhere if you have a personal bike. Now it saves me both time and money.”

Md Sumon, a resident of Hazaribagh, runs a workshop in Kamrangirchar. He used to pay at least Tk 100 in rickshaw fare to commute to and from his workshop. It would also hurt his business.

“I used to have trouble goong to Dholaikhal to buy spare parts. It used to take three hours to go there and return. Also the rickshaw fare used to be high.  Now I can travel to and from Dholaikhal in 40 minutes and it costs me less. I can manage two days of travel with the fuel worth Tk 100.”

Sakif Shanto, a student residing in Mirpur, bought a motorcycle after his friends had done the same.

“I need to go to Basundhara Residential Area quite often. It takes me almost a day to travel there if I use bus or other transports. I can travel faster in motorcycle. Also, having a bike is now ain vogue,” he said.

“Biking is a passion for many people. Mostly men take great interest in bikes. There was a time when people were interested in horses; now there are no more horses but it is the motorbike where people take their interest in,” said blogger Naveed Ishtiyak Toru, founder of Throttler, a group of amateur bikers.

“Motorcycle is the most independent transport. It gives you access to any place at any time. You can even have a stopover and check out something you like as you ride a motorcycle. There is no alternative to motorcycle to travel in the quickest time in this city of traffic congestion,” he said.

There has been a rise in the number of motorcycle accidents, as well as it became a popular transport. The number of accidents will come down if the bikers ride their bikes carefully, said Toru.

“You can't fully control accidents, (but) the safety gears should be used properly to avoid big risks in case of accident.”