Despite thousands of traffic cases every week, routine police drives and higher fines, discipline remains elusive on Dhaka’s roads. Outside areas monitored by artificial intelligence (AI) cameras, traffic violations quickly return, exposing the limits of enforcement in a city where rule-breaking has become routine.
In the past week alone, the Traffic Division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) filed around 15,000 cases – more than 2,000 every day. Yet commuters say little has changed.
For Anik Roy, who has travelled daily from Shankharibazar to Motijheel for work over the past nine years, the chaos has become exhausting.
“Every day I see buses stopping in the middle of the road, motorcycles coming from the wrong direction and traffic signals being ignored,” he told TIMES of Bangladesh. “There are occasional drives, but do they really make a difference?”
Housewife Rokshana Akhter says crossing the road with her child is her biggest concern. “Footpaths are occupied, vehicles are parked wherever they want, and rickshaws and motorcycles suddenly appear from nowhere,” she said.
Retired government official Abdul Mannan believes the problem goes beyond enforcement. “The government has changed and fines have increased, but people’s behaviour has not changed much. It seems the entire system has weaknesses,” he said.
Low risk, high violations
Dhaka’s vast number of vehicles, limited traffic personnel and complex road network make it virtually impossible to detect every violation. That creates a perception among drivers that the likelihood of being caught is low.
University student Abdullah Al Noman said traffic laws are often treated as optional. “When everyone sees others breaking the rules without consequences, they do the same. Even if some people are fined, most think they won’t get caught,” he said.
Schoolteacher Sanjay Kumar Das said this weakens efforts to educate younger generations. “We teach students traffic rules, but when they see adults ignoring those rules every day, the lessons lose their value,” he said.
Research supports these observations. Criminologist Daniel S Nagin argues in “Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century” that the certainty of punishment is a far stronger deterrent than the severity of punishment. People are more likely to obey the law when they believe violations will consistently be detected.
Another review, “Criminal Deterrence: A Review of the Literature”, similarly concludes that violations increase when the perceived likelihood of punishment is low.
Dhaka’s roads appear to reflect that reality. Ride-sharing driver Saiful Islam said passengers often encourage risky driving. “Passengers often pressure us to drive faster. So many drivers take risks, because they know the police won’t catch them every time,” he said.
Economic pressure fuels violations
For many public transport workers, commercial pressure frequently outweighs compliance with traffic rules. Bus driver Sohel Mia, who operates on the Sadarghat-Savar route, said competition leaves little room for following regulations.
“We have to stop wherever passengers are waiting. If I don’t, the bus behind me will pick them up,” he said.
Iqbal Hossain, a bus employee, echoed the sentiment.
“At the end of the day, we’re judged by how many trips we complete and how much money we collect. That’s why buses often stop outside designated bays.”
Bus driver Md Kamal, who drives on the Sadarghat-Jurain route, said passengers themselves often demand illegal stops. “If we refuse to stop where they want, arguments begin,” he said.
Rickshaw pullers face different incentives. “If we follow every rule, we have to take long detours,” said rickshaw driver Samad Ali. “Passengers want the shortest route, so we often end up going the wrong way.”
No single solution
Traffic experts say enforcement alone cannot solve Dhaka’s chronic road disorder. Professor Moazzem Hossain of the Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said effective traffic management depends on an integrated approach involving policy, planning, road design, construction, maintenance, operations, enforcement and monitoring.
“Fines alone will not solve the problem,” he said.
Transport expert Shamsul Hoque said the challenge is rooted in governance rather than policing alone. “When illegality becomes normal practice over many years, occasional drives or fines cannot change behaviour overnight,” he said.
He added that enforcement by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and police is often confined to specific locations and time periods, preventing the continuous monitoring needed to create lasting behavioural change.
Without sustained enforcement, stronger institutions and structural reforms, experts warn that Dhaka’s roads are likely to remain trapped in the same cycle where thousands of cases are filed every week, but disorder continues to define the city’s streets.
