A clean, green, healthy Dhaka will happen with regulation of the internal combustion engine, not by condemning pedal-power. Let us get one thing straight. Rick shaws came first. Cars later. Cars kill. The rickshaw cannot. Rickshaws do not cause pollution. Cars do. Rickshaws take up less space. Cars more.
Unfortunately, where one stands depends on where one sits. The fact is that all the people in Dhaka who complain about the problem of rickshaws—the municipal authorities, the educated members of the public and typically, the foreigners— are invariably the ones who are seated behind tinted car windscreens, relaxing in air-conditioned comfort and, usually, hurrying to their self-important meetings. Thus, when stuck in a traffic jam caused by their own oversized vehicles, instead of seeing themselves as the cause of the problem, they blame the lowly rickshaw operators. Perhaps these self-centred folks should take a trip to Bangkok or Manila to experience the joys of cities where the car is king, but they might not be able to get back. Now, if one were to pull out a gun and fired it straight down Mirpur Road in Dhaka, would it be possible to blame the imminent death of an innocent passerby on his or her stupidity and lack of education? Yet, analogously, that is the argument made by many drivers who hurl curses at the unfortunate rickshaw-wallah who gels in the way of their speed fix.
Rickshaws have been plying the roads of Bangladesh since the mid-1930s. Today, there are easily over a million of them, serving the needs of the non-motorised urban population. Yet, because a select powerful few have the means to construct killing machines and charge them along small roads and highways, the rest of the population, the vast majority, are expected to make way.
The educated and privileged prefer the exhilaration of cruising down Manik Mia Avenue at double-digit miles per hour. Their exasperation knows no bounds when their acceleration is abruptly interrupted by a slow-moving rickshaw van plodding along with an overweight load of furniture. "Well, excuse me, madam, sorry if I´m moving too slowly for you, but I´ve been malnourished since birth and had only one meal yesterday and also not having received any education, I´m afraid 1 do not know the traffic rules here. So sorry, madam. Here, let me lose my hard-won momentum, pull over into the rough here, despite the additional physical exertion required to regain my pace, to let you pass by in your beautiful white Toyota. Have a good day, madam. Me and my fellow lumpen proletarians must respect your road and your vehicle."