Traffic tangle in Dhanmondi

The traffic scene of week day mornings and afternoons is a much painful sight and experience for each and every resident of this once quiet residential area. Often exit and access from and to one's own abode becomes a difficult exercise. Much can be written about the man-hour losses, burning of health, and costly fuel, stress factors and pollution, and loss of tempers and manners .

Having schools in residential areas are a necessity to cater to local toddlers and is common around the world, though, coming with its contributory traffic snarls. Neither can we stop schools nor can we stop working. The world must go on. Therefore, we must try and find an acceptable solution. Two common solutions practised universally come to my mind. Local schools are primarily set up to cater to local needs and as such some sort of a restriction should apply in admitting children/wards from other areas. Who can deny the fact that our city of Dhaka is mushrooming with good schools?

If we once again take the cue from general global practices by moving our school timings backwards to start from 7.00am, we could avoid the traffic war with the office traffic, and thus obviate the tangle. Moreover, this switch in school timings will clear the roads by 8:00 and make them free to take on the office rush.

Appreciating that the child has to get up early, the old adage comes to my mind. 'Early to bed and early to rise....' Can anybody deny this?