Factors Demotivating People from Using Foot over Bridge

Introduction

Bangladesh is a third world country and road accidents are very common in developing countries. Every year many people die in road accidents, but in Bangladesh the number of road accidents has gone up very high. Last year more than 6500 people were killed in road accidents and over 10,500 were injured (The Financial Express, 2014). Government is trying hard to control this rate by setting up foot over bridges, and passing new laws to make streets safer. Currently 70 foot over bridges are present in Dhaka and more 15 are being proposed (DCC 2014). The number of foot over bridges seems to be satisfactory, but it is very unfortunate that all the over bridges are not usable. Some are in very bad condition, some are being occupied by hawkers and some are not in the right place.

Above all these issues there is one issue that is very striking and alarming, that is people do not want to use the foot over bridge even that is usable. So far the government has failed to convince people on the fact that, it is risky to cross without using the foot over bridge. Every day we see hundreds of people running along the roads to cross the road, knowing that is very dangerous. This made me very interested on the subject. Why would a person take such a life risk, knowing that it is very dangerous? Every week we see more than 2-3 reports on road accidents but people are still not aware of the fact. This made to do research on this fact. I want to find out what are the factors that are forcing people to run away from using foot over bridges and take such life risk. This guided me to my research question; ‘what are the factors that demotivate people from using foot over bridge’.

 In my paper I will bring up the factors that are demotivating people from using foot over bridge and convince that, the factors which are demotivating people are important and should be taken under consideration by the government. This is a very important and national issue. The numbers of road accidents are rising every day and it must be controlled. We cannot afford people to die in thousands every year only because of road accidents. I believe that my research paper will bring up the major factors that are causing the issue and help to solve the problem.

Literature Review

Previously many articles and research paper were written on why people are not using foot over bridge and the possible reasons behind it. Previous researches are reviewed in this paper and it concentrates on the new factors that are missed. Here, previous articles and research papers will be reviewed to establish a better understanding on the issue.

A report titled, ‘when road accidents become epidemic’ by Shahiduzzaman khan, an analysis, The Financial Express. In the article he informed about the number of people being killed by road accidents and also the places where accidents take place most. In the article he mentioned many reasons including; the drivers do not go through any test in order to get a license but that is not only the cause of accidents. People are also to blame, in Dhaka every day we see people running along the road even though there is heavy traffic. He also mentioned, the overpopulation in Dhaka and foot over bridges are occupied by hawkers, hence people are not interested to use foot over bridge as they feel uncomfortable. The accountability has become an issue as well, drivers think they can get away easily if they get into an accident by giving bribe, and there is no specific sign that will direct passersby to use the foot over bridge.