In Dhaka, racing public buses endanger pedestrians, clog streets and foul air, exposing lethal road safety failures and the mounting human and economic costs of a broken urban transport system.
Every day, buses in Bangladesh’s capital race for passengers in a deadly contest that kills pedestrians and poisons the air, exposing the human and environmental cost of a chaotic transport system in a city of more than 20 million people.
Public buses do not simply stop to pick up passengers. They compete. Drivers speed to outpace rivals, helpers haul commuters aboard moving vehicles and buses run side by side, inches apart, turning Dhaka’s streets into a constant hazard for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
The toll is stark. More than 80 percent of traffic deaths involve vulnerable road users, according to road safety data, while Dhaka alone accounts for around a third of all crashes nationwide. Nearly one in four of those crashes involves public buses.
Heavy vehicles dominate fatalities. Trucks cause about 35 percent of traffic deaths and buses nearly 29 percent, together responsible for roughly 80 percent of pedestrian deaths. Dhaka also sees more than 40 percent of all urban bus crashes in Bangladesh, with bus-pedestrian collisions overwhelmingly fatal.
Between 2015 and 2022, studies show that two-thirds to three-quarters of bus-pedestrian crashes each year ended in death. Overloaded buses proved especially lethal, while multi-vehicle collisions were more than twice as deadly as single-vehicle crashes. Pedestrians crossing roads accounted for nearly 60 percent of fatal incidents.
The danger extends beyond road trauma. Public buses contribute an estimated 11 to 15 percent of Dhaka’s air pollution, emitting fine particulate matter that cuts average life expectancy by nearly seven years. Air pollution costs Bangladesh up to $13 billion a year, about four percent of GDP.
Authorities estimate that hundreds of thousands of buses in the capital are old, unfit, or unregistered, with weak maintenance and lax enforcement compounding the risks. The government plans to phase out buses older than 20 years from May 2025 and make emissions testing mandatory.
Transport experts say modernising the fleet would cost a fraction of major infrastructure projects but could dramatically reduce deaths and pollution.
Without reform, campaigners warn, Dhaka’s daily bus race will continue to claim lives and the city’s air in a struggle no passenger ever chose to enter.
