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Copenhagen Consensus Center

The smartest ways to deal with traffic congestion in Dhaka

Unprecedented urban growth has resulted in a city more densely inhabited than Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, or any other major city.

Dhaka’s Future Urban Transport: Costs and Benefits of Investment in Public and Private Transport

Benefits and Costs of Solving Dhaka’s Traffic Congestion

    Dhaka Transport

    Dhaka is one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world. A population of just 3 million in 1971 has ballooned to 18 million today. This unprecedented urban growth has resulted in a city more densely inhabited than Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, or any other major city.

    The capital’s growth partially represents the progress of the Bangladesh economy, which has grown at over 6 percent annually. The city’s transport system, however, hasn’t kept up, and Dhaka now has some of the worst traffic congestion in the world.

    Proposed Strategies

    Strategy Takas of benefits per taka spent
    Transport infrastructure for Dhaka 3
    Bus Priority for Dhaka 6

    Dhaka’s Future Urban Transport: Costs and Benefits of Investment in Public and Private Transport

    Research by Robert Gallagher, a transport planner and South Asia specialist, explores alternative options for Dhaka’s future urban transport.

    Transport and movement in the city has become a major problem. There are simply too many vehicles trying to move on the existing roads, and traffic jams lasting hours are not uncommon."

    - Rob Gallagher

    The smartest ways to deal with traffic congestion in Dhaka

    In a series of op-eds published in The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, Bjorn Lomborg outlined the key findings of the path-breaking research produced by the Bangladesh Priorities project.

    Two major factors contribute to Dhaka's current traffic congestion: lack of planning and preparation over previous decades, and an over-reliance on cars due to a deficient public bus system."

    - Bjorn Lomborg

    What's the smartest solution for Bangladesh?

    After reviewing 1,000s of pages of peer-reviewed research an Eminent Panel ranked 72 solutions from the best to the worst in terms of delivering the most social, economic and environmental value for money. Find out what they ranked the highest here.