Modelling the Behavioural Response to Congestion Pricing in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh and the home of more than 15 million people, is subjected to severe traffic congestion on a regular basis resulting in lost productivity, fuel wastage, commuter frustration and environmental degradation. The problem is getting more acute day by day due to alarming increase in car usage. According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, the number of newly registered private cars per year in the city has more than quadrupled between 2004 and 2015.Congestion pricing schemes, which have been successful in many parts of the world, have a good potential to minimize the number of cars on the roads and reduce traffic congestion in Dhaka. This paper investigates the potential response to congestion pricing in Dhaka using Stated Preference (SP) surveys where users are presented with hypothetical choice scenarios involving varying amounts of congestion charges and travel time savings alongside improved public transport options. Two case studies have been conducted in this regard focusing on shopping and work trips respectively. Discrete choice models have been developed to model the sensitivity towards congestion pricing and to quantify the potential effectiveness of this measure in different trip contexts. Results indicate that car users, especially those having lower incomes (less than 50,000 BDT/month), have significant sensitivity towards congestion charge and have a substantial chance of shifting to improved public transport and/or park-and-ride facilities. The findings of the study can help in formulating effective congestion reduction policies in Dhaka

Essays on development issues : India and the Indian Ocean region

India, Australia and South Africa are the three major regional powers in the Indian Ocean region. While Australia is a developed country with a very high level of economic affluence, the South African society’s problems are mainly drawn along racial lines. Blacks in South Africa have an overwhelming majority in numbers, and yet most of the black people in South Africa face serious problems of unemployment and poverty. The whites in South Africa have, on the other hand, always enjoyed comfortable standards of living. India provides the classic example of a developing country that is burdened with overpopulation, communal divisions, gender inequalities, rural poverty, illiteracy and yet it is a country that has the potential to emerge as a great global power in the course of the 21st century. The essays included in this Volume examine the case of India from various perspectives to demonstrate how the process of economic change in India might have a bearing on the Indian Ocean region as a whole