NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL
SCIENCE AND SOCIOLOGY

ROAD TRANSPORT ACT 2018

Introduction to Political Science(POL101.18)

1. Md. Toabur Rahman

ID: - 1811887030

2. Antor Podder

ID: - 1721325030

3. Arjita Barua

ID: - 1821208630

4. Sadia Somya Aka

ID: -1921470011

SUBMITTED TO
MD. SAIDUR RAHMAN
Lecturer at the Department of Political Science & Sociology
 Members Contribution

1. Md. Toabur Rahman……………. (Part of Introduction, Part

of Background, first 2 Open-Ended Questions and 1 Close-
ended Question, Overall Coordination and Referencing,
Hypothesis)

2. Antor Podder……….... (Part of Introduction, Part of

Background, Summary of the Research Findings, 1 Close-
ended question and 1 Open-Ended question)

3. Arjita Barua……………... (Recommendation, Conclusion, 1

Close-ended question, 1 Open-ended question)

4. Sadia Somya Aka…………………… (Research Question,

Research Methodology, 2 Close-Ended question)
 Abstract

The main purpose of the research was to investigate the views of the new Road Transport
Act 2018 and the effectiveness of this new amendment among four categories of people living in
Dhaka city. Among many other issues that our country in facing right now, road safety becomes
so much important and highlighted after the death of two students and twelve injuries of other
passengers last year. The accident shaped into movement and force the government to modify
the traffic rules for greater good. The study viewed the fairness of the Road Transport Act 2018.
This study also focused on the causes and solutions of unawareness of people towards road
safety and traffic rules. The outcome of the research revealed that people are still unaware after
the movement and the enactment of the new law. Which does not match with our research
hypothesis.
 Table of Contents

Introduction ..............................................................................................................1

Background...............................................................................................................2

Research Question....................................................................................................4

Hypothesis .................................................................................................................4

Research Methodology ............................................................................................4

Data Presentation and Analysis ..............................................................................5

Summary of the Research Findings .....................................................................12

Recommendation....................................................................................................12

Conclusion...............................................................................................................13

References ...............................................................................................................14
 Introduction
Bangladesh with its huge number of populations has been ranked 41st as a world’s largest
economy (Centre for Economics and Business Research, 2018). It has been listed in the UN’s
Least Developed Countries (LDC) for the first time as a result of the accomplishment of “three
eligibility criteria”. As Bangladesh is a least developed country, it is facing a lot of problems and
challenges that should be take care of by the policymakers and practitioners of development to
recognize as a developed country (The World Bank, 2019). Among many other challenges, road
safety is the most challenging issue that has been identified as a priority national agenda. It is
hard to check that drivers are well trained and have genuine licenses. This road safety issues not
only causes loss in GDP by 2 percent per year but also causes us loss of life. Besides as a
consequences of road accidents, damaging vehicles, environmental pollution and social anarchy
are common phenomena of our country (Islam, 2018).

Ministry of Road Transport and Bridge which is previously known as Ministry of

Communication which is a Bangladeshi Government Ministry that is responsible and
accountable for the formulation and administration of the rules, regulations and laws that are
concerned to road transport, national highway and bridges (Bdnews24, 2014). To ensure road
safety this government ministry plays an important role. As far as Road Transport Act is a
concern, their work is to formulate based on different factors and present them in the parliament
(Hossain M. Z., 2019). On the other hand, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority that works
under the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridge to accomplished their mission and vision. All
types of road transport sector and road safety related fields are concern of this organization
(BRTA, 2017). They execute motor vehicle acts, issue route permits, fixes rates and fares of
buses and trucks and likewise they do many other staffs related to road transport sector (Mollah,
2015). Along with the government many investigators, academicians, journalists and
organizations from other country have step forward to negotiate with the road safety issue. Some
of the major organization that are helping to develop the road safety are includes, 1) Accident
Research Institute, BUET, 2) Bangladesh Police, 3) Safe Road and Transport Alliance, 4)
Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association (BPWA) and several others. They are continuously

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helping to build awareness, in providing statistical information, accident preventive
measurements etc (Islam, 2018).

Background
According to the WHO’s infographics on road safety facts, due to road accident
approximately 1.25 million of people dies every year and the number of injured or disabled
patients are 20-50 million (Road Safety Facts, n.d.). In Bangladesh, the number of road accident
occurred in 2019 is nearly 2,159 in which at least 2,329 people had died and 4,361 others injured
(Dhaka Tribune, 2019). This is just one year’s report but if we look at some other year then the
result will be more serious. People of our country were not serious about this issue until last year.
After the death of two students and 12 injures of other passenger in 2018, the nationwide
teenagers start a movement across the country demanding road safety. Following the nine days
movement of the student, government was forced in the shape of the drafting of Road Transport
Act 2018 in the parliament. The RTA 2018 was passed in mid-September of 2018. However, the
act of road transport supposed to come into effect on October 1, 2019 (Hasnat, 2018; Hossain M.
Z., 2019). Recently, the transport owners-workers' organizations have demanded that the
penalties to be reduced, and even those sections of the law that have been made unsuitable for
bail. The government is also working on changing the law. The government has taken into
consideration the strict rules that the owners and workers were demanding to amend. It has been
decided to postpone the application of those categories which could result in large financial
penalties for the drivers. Lastly, the government has decided not to implement the Road
Transport Act-2018 until June next year (Staff Correspondent, 2019; Hossain A. , 2019).

Under the new road transport law, there are provisions in section 98 and 105 for the
fatalities of road accidents. Under section 105 the maximum sentence for that driver is five years,
which will be judged according to the penal code. This section also provides for a maximum fine
of Tk 5 lakh or fine for both. Under section 98, the maximum sentence in that section is three
years imprisonment. This will be judged in the Motor Vehicles Act. It has a maximum fine of Tk
3 lakh or a penalty of both. The court may award a portion of the fine or the entire accident to the
victim (Staff Correspondent, 2019; Hossain A. , 2019).

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 Actually, Road Transport Act 2018 is an upgrade version of Motor Vehicle Ordinance
1983 that is aim to warn people and drivers by increasing the fine than before so that less people
should break the rules. Although it affects many of our country’s interest group and raised
several questions. In spite of that many people are hoping for the good outcome from this
amendment (Akil, 2019).

Source:(The Daily Star, 2019)

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 Research Question
In our research we are interested to know the view of the Road Transport Act 2018. Our research
will address the following research questions:

 What is Road Transport Act 2018?

 How did the act emerge?
 What people think about the new Road Transport Act 2018?
 What are the reasons of violating traffic rules?
 What corrective measurements can be taken to fix the problems?

Hypothesis
With an intention to reduce the road accidents and increase the road safety legislature had
passed the Road Transport Act 2018. From our research we expect to find that, the proposed new
Road Transport Act 2019 has increased awareness among people to abide by the traffic rules.

Research Methodology
For our empirical research, we will take interview of a representative sampling of people
from different background who are frequently interacting with road of Dhaka city. As we have to
take 20 interviews, we will take interview of bus drivers, bike riders, students and civilians with
equal proportion. We will design a questionnaire with various types of questions that will help us
to extract useful information which will assist us to explain our research questions.

For our desk research, we intended to use the resources of the library and will also use the
information from different newspaper such as Prothom Alo, Daily Star, Daily Sun etc. We will
also take help from internet and use standard search engine such as Google.

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 Data Presentation and Analysis
A survey interview was directed, in which questions that are involved to Road Transport
Act 2018 were asked. Randomly chosen 20 people from Dhaka city of different background of
same ratio were participate in our survey. We asked four open ended questions and five close
ended questions to our sample population. The illustration of all questions and analysis of all
answers is explain in the following.

25% Student 25% Bus Driver 25% Bike Rider 25% Civilian

Figure 1: Ratio of participates

For our first question, we asked “What do you think about the Road Transport Act 2018?”

35%

65%

Fair Not Fair

Figure 2: Fairness of the Law

In this question we specifically asked about the fairness of the new amendment. The
opinion about the amendment varies among the different category of participates. Major 65% of
our sample population said about the fairness as if they think this new law will bound people to
follow the rules by creating a healthy traffic system and will decrease the unfit vehicles as well
as the rate of accidents. Some of them also think that it will reduce environmental pollution.
However, 35% of the sample population disagreed with the act. Some of them believe that the
new rules are just a ploy for traffic policemen to make some quick money in illegal ways. Again,
some bus drivers boast that they are not worried about it as their bus owner have a special
contact with the higher authority.

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Secondly, we asked “What do you feel when you see someone is skipping the traffic rules?”

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15% 35%
10% 20% 20%
5% 10% 15%
0%
Take their
picture/vide Alert the
Want to Shout at
Stay Neutral o and post it nearest law
warn him/her
on Social enforcer
Media
Percentage 35% 10% 20% 15% 20%

Percentage

Figure 3: Graph on people’s reaction toward rule breakers.

The bar graph depicts the percentage of responses ( vertical axis) of sample population
about their opinion about irresponsible people who violate the law of traffic within five different
criteria ( horizontal axis) that are respectively “want to warn”, “ Shout at him/her”, “Stay
Neutral”, “Take their picture/video and post it on social media”, “Alert the nearest law enforcer”.

It is clearly evident that, Major 35% of the population want to warn when they see
someone breaking the rules. Minor 10% of the population want to shout at the individual. On the
other hand, 20% of the sample population opted for “alert the nearest law enforcement” and
“stay neutral”.

Overall, most of the people believe that by warning individual who violate the traffic
rules can be a better solution for not to repeat that action again. Although this shows some sort of
awareness but the better solution is to alert nearest law enforcer because it’s not our duty to deal
with those persons. Since every small crime is the beginning of a big crime. So, it better to let the
law enforcer to take care of the incident. In this way we can make both law enforcer and
individual person responsible and aware towards road safety.

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Thirdly, we asked “Have you recently seen anyone walking on the road instead of footpath?”

Majority of the sample population have experienced this situation frequently. Here, people have
blamed many reasons notable among which are the footpaths poor state, low space which is due
to improper planning, illegal takeover by businesses and some unique reasons relating to barriers
between road and footpath which practically forces people to walk on the street. The huge
population in the road is also brought up many times.

To get rid of these problems they also suggested some possible solutions such as widen
the footpath area, proper maintenance, removal of illegal business such as van-market from
footpath and adequate exit point of the barrier.

Then we asked “Have you recently seen anyone not using over-bridge?”

All of the sample population excluding one had faced this situation one the regular basis.
Here the general consensus is pointing out the fact about saving time. With one pointing out that
the bridge too is covered by illegal sellers and beggars which make using them troublesome
along with the recurring mention of huge population. Some have also argued that sometimes its
hard for senior citizen to take the stairs of the over-bridge. Lack of proper over-bridge
establishment is another reason for people not using over-bridge properly.

Our participate had come up with some wonderful solution. Raising awareness among
general people, developing escalation system as like airport area over-bridge, maintaining over-
bridge properly and overall building over-bridge on a regular interval of distance can be the best
solution to get rid of these problems.

After that we asked, “Did you ever saw peoples are parking their car in the non-parking zone?”

This is also a common phenomenon for our sample population. Here, there is also a united
opinion about businesses and other buildings not offering proper parking space along with
mentions about not being proper and designated parking space for specific areas which usually
forces them to park in a non-parking area. Some also blamed the people's lack of awareness and
ignorance in general and claimed it to be a “bad habit/ nature”. The visibility of non-parking
signs is also caused people doing these kinds of activity.

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 According to the sample population, not only from the government side but also from the
private sector needed to step forward to deal with this problem. If commercial and other
buildings that are situated along side the road can allow their free parking space for the
betterment of normal public. Then we can reduce this problem by a greater percentage. Besides
government sector should take proper steps to make sure that the non-parking signs are visible in
the eye of any public from a greater distance.

“Which of the following is responsible for breaking traffic rules?” was asked next.

Casuse of breaking traffic rules

80%
60%
40%
60%
20% 15% 20% 5%
0%
Lack of
Narrow Lack of Other
skilled
Road awareness Answer
drivers
Percentage 15% 20% 60% 5%

Percentage

Figure 4: Graph on causes of breaking traffic rules.

This graph represents the percentage (vertical axis) of responses from the sample population
regarding the causes of breaking traffic rules among four different options respectively “Narrow Road”,
“Lack of skilled drivers”, “Lack of awareness” and an open-ended option asking for some other reasons
behind breaking traffic rules.

From the graph, the highest 60% of the sample population agreed that lack of awareness among
people is the main reason of breaking traffic rules. 20% had stated that lack of skilled drivers and 15%
opted for narrow road infrastructure. Only a small percentage of 5% said illegal license that is provided
by BRTA is responsible for breaking traffic rules.

In general, it is clearly evident that people are mostly unaware about the rules and regulation
regarding traffic rules that results in breaking them both consciously and unconsciously.

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After that we asked “Did you ever experience vehicle race in recent few months?”

80% 75%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20% 15%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Yes, I have seen No, I have not I don't usually
Yes, very often
once or twice seen notice
Percentage 15% 75% 10% 0%

Percentage

Figure 5: Graph on individual’s responses regarding a specific scenario of unawareness.

The graph illustrates the percentage of responses (vertical axis) of the sample population
which is related to a common scenario of racing vehicle in four criteria (horizontal axis) of “Yes,
I have seen once or twice”, “Yes, very often”, “No, I have not seen” and “ I don’t usually
notice”.

We can see from the graph that 75% of the sample population face this scenario very
often. Only 10% of the population have not seen this kind of activities by vehicle drivers.
Another 15% face this situation only once or twice in recent times. It shows a clustered result in
which it can be said that 90% of the population have interact with this situation once or twice in
recent few months.

Finally, we can conclude form the graph that vehicle racing is a common phenomenon
which is occurring very frequently. It suggests driver’s irresponsibility and not aware of road
safety measurements.

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Then we asked “Have you face rush overtaking by local transport in recent few months?”

70%
60%
60%

50%

40% 35%

30%

20%

10% 5%
0%
0%
Yes, Every time I Yes, Daily on No, I do not see
No, Rarely
go outside certain roads it
Percentage 60% 35% 5% 0%

Percentage

Figure 6: Graph on individual’s responses regarding a specific scenario of unawareness.

The graph represents the percentage of responses (vertical axis) of the sample population
regarding to a scenario of rush overtaking in four criteria (horizontal axis) of “Yes, Every time I
go outside”, “Yes, Daily on certain roads”, “No, Rarely” and “ No, I do not see it”.

We can observe from the graph, 60% of the participate face rush overtaking on a daily
basis and only a small percentage of 5% face rush overtaking rarely. Some of the participate
anticipated that they face this situation daily on a certain road like Airport road.

Overall, the graph shows a clustered result that is evident rush overtaking is a common
situation in our daily life. It clearly shows people’s carelessness and hastiness.

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Lastly, we asked “Have you seen anyone using headphones while crossing road?”

45%
40%
40%
35%
35%
30%
25%
20%
20%
15%
10%
5%
5%
0%
Yes, I have
No, I have not I don't usually
seen once or Yes, Very often
seen notice it
twice
Percentage 35% 40% 5% 20%

Percentage

Figure 7: Graph on individual’s responses regarding a specific scenario of unawareness.

The bar graph shows the percentage of responses (vertical axis) of the participates
regarding to a scenario of carelessness while crossing the road in four criteria (horizontal axis) of
“Yes, I have seen once or twice”, “Yes, Very often”, “No, I have not seen ” and “ I don’t usually
notice”.

From the graph, major 40% of the participates opted for “Yes, very often”, 35% of them
choose “Yes, I have seen once or twice” and rest of the participates did seen or noticed at all.
The graph actually shows a clustered result.

In general, it is clear that most of the people also shows carelessness while crossing the
road. Instead of concentrating on the road they use headphones which leads to increase in the
rate of road accidents.

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 Summary of the Research Findings
After analyzing the data, it has been revealed that each and every participates are familiar
with the Road Transport Act 2018. Majority of the people support this amendment as if they
have a positive thinking and some good expectations from upcoming legislation. However, based
on some negative view such as corrupted police officer, a smaller percentage of the participates
thinks it’s unfair for them.

Majority of our participates are witnessed of breaking traffic rules by individuals.

Walking on the road instead of footpath, crossing the road while using headphone in the ear and
by not using the over-bridge, parking cars in non-parking zone are some of the incidents that
shows peoples unawareness towards road safety. Added to that rush overtalking and illegal
racing of public transports did not seem like to change from the past. Still people are evident of
these types of occurrence on a regular basis.

Different category of participates have different types of thinking. But overall

intentionally or unintentionally they are still violating the many rules and sadly they are not well
aware about the road safety. All of which did not match with our hypothesis.

Recommendation
There is good cause of undertaking the new Road Transport Act 2018. If the government
could successfully ensure the law among people then it could bring a remarkable change in our
traffic system. However, certain thing needs to check before enacting the law properly. With the
condition of our road infrastructure people are not ready to cope up with such kinds of act.
Following corrective measurements can be taken to ensure the Road Transport Act 2018
properly.

 Arrangement of proper speed limit sign and dividing the road lane properly white line can
reduce rush overtaking and vehicle racing tendency.
 Building good infrastructure with proper maintenance system in footpath and over-bride.
 Adequate exit point in the barrier between road and footpath.

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  Arrangement of proper parking lots can reduce illegal parking of vehicles.
 Arrangement of proper and clear sign for non-parking zone.
 Conducting different road safety related events to raise awareness among people.

Conclusion
The amendment of the Road Transport Act 2018 is a good initiative to build a quality
traffic system in our country. Although our research shows some of the negative facts that are
holding this law backward. However, no matter how well the research is conducted and
developed there will always some limitations in it. We take response from a limited number of
participate that are limited with only five categories of people. The result can be differed if we
could have conducted more interview on varies types of people. Thus, the sample cannot be the
representative of the rest of the population. Hence, the information we have gathered so far can
be useful to solve many problems related to road safety.

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 References
Akil, N. Z. (2019, November 12). Are we ready for the Road Transport Act? Retrieved from
Dhaka Tribune: https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2019/11/12/are-we-ready-
for-the-road-transport-act

Bdnews24. (2014, September 3). Ministry of Communication is now Ministry of Road Transport
and Bridges. Retrieved from BDnews24:
https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2014/09/03/ministry-of-communication-is-now-
ministry-of-road-transport-and-bridges

BRTA. (2017, November 29). Retrieved from About BRTA:

http://www.brta.gov.bd/site/page/e9eae2b1-6587-4d1a-ba24-aac3d61e719e/-

Centre for Economics and Business Research. (2018, December 26). WELT 2019. Retrieved
from Centre for Economics and Business Research: https://cebr.com/welt-2019/

Dhaka Tribune. (2019, July 5). Road Accident. Retrieved from Dhaka Tribune:
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2019/07/05/report-2-329-killed-in-2-159-
road-accidents-from-jan-june-2019

Hasnat, M. A. (2018, October 19). Road Safety in Bangladesh: Causes and Remedies. Retrieved
from Dhaka Tribune: https://www.dhakatribune.com/special-
supplement/2018/10/19/road-safety-in-bangladesh-causes-and-remedies

Hossain, A. (2019, December 25). Road transport laws are loosening in the interest of the
owners and workers. Retrieved from Prothom Alo: http://bit.do/fmYDq

Hossain, M. Z. (2019, November 20). Legal Implication of Road Transport Act 2018. Retrieved
from Daily Sun: https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/440058/Legal-
Implication-of-Road-Transport-Act-2018

Islam, M. Z. (2018, July 11). The challenges for safe roads in Bangladesh. Retrieved from The
Independent: http://www.theindependentbd.com/arcprint/details/157331/2018-07-11

Mollah, M. L. (2015, February 22). Bangladesh Road Transport Authority. Retrieved from
Banglapedia:
http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Bangladesh_Road_Transport_Authority

Road Safety Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved from Association for Safe International Road Travel:
https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/

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Staff Correspondent. (2019, November 24). Road Transport Act-2018: Govt goes even softer on
enforcement. Retrieved from The Daily Star:
https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/road-transport-act-2018-govt-goes-even-
softer-enforcement-1831273

The Daily Star. (2019, November 1). Road Transport Act: Law goes into effect, workers still
upset. Retrieved from The Daily Star:
https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/transport-workers-want-rta-amendment-
1821406

The World Bank. (2019, October 15). The World Bank In Bangladesh. Retrieved from The
World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/bangladesh/overview

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