The capital city of Dhaka, which is already grappling with traffic gridlock, faces a new phenomenon: the unchecked proliferation of ridesharing motorcycles.

The bikes that are driven by riders on a contractual basis take over roads, sidewalks and public spaces, causing significant inconvenience for other vehicles and pedestrians.

A recent count by this correspondent revealed the dominance of bikes on the Dhaka streets as 86 motorcycles sped past Madhya Badda on a single carriageway of the Rampura-Kuril road in just five minutes against 106 vehicles of other types combined.

A similar picture was observed on the Gulshan-Badda Link Road at Gudaraghat.

Besides, motorcycles were seen parked haphazardly, hampering the movement of other vehicles and passersby.

It was found that bikers kept their motorcycles on the road at five points of the Link Road at a short span from Madhya Badda to Gulshan-1 in their pursuit for passengers, narrowing the road.

At the mouth of both sides of a road from the Rampura-Kuril road at Nadda, at least 35 ridesharing motorbikes were seen waiting for passengers on Thursday noon.

This is a common phenomenon at the spot. Private cars and other vehicles have to face difficulty exiting and entering the road. Pedestrians also go through similar pain, according to drivers of private cars, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and other vehicles as well as pedestrians.

Following the launch of the ridesharing service in the country in 2016, the government formulated the 'Ride Sharing Service Guideline 2017’ in 2018, allowing bikes to ferry passengers after being enlisted with any ridesharing company.

 However, the guideline is widely ignored as most of the bikes are ferrying passengers on a contractual basis instead of being enlisted with a company to make extra profits, according to the bikers.

The guideline says the ridesharing bikes have to be on the move always and cannot wait at a place for so a long time.

There is also a provision of the revocation of enlistment certificates of the vehicles and ridesharing activities apart from legal action for violations of the conditions.

The latest publication of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in 2023 showed that 16 ridesharing companies were given enlistment certificates.

Under the 16 companies, 2,799 motor vehicles were given enlistment certificates in the 2022-2023 fiscal year while certificates of 2,030 others were renewed.

In accordance with the updated BRTA data, there are 45,36,752 registered motorcycles across the country. Of those, 11,75,754 run in the capital alone.

Apart from the registered bikes, there are a huge number of unregistered motor vehicles in the city and elsewhere.

During the tenure of the ousted Awami League government, former BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Majumder told the media that they would introduce the provision of wearing helmets and uniforms for the ridesharing bikers.

It first wanted to introduce the system having a code to identify whether a biker is enlisted or not. However, the initiative has yet to see the light.

A BRTA director said they regularly conduct drives against motorcycles running on the contractual basis.

Some ridesharing bikers told the Daily Sun that there are several thousand contractual riders in the capital.

Many joined the existing ones after the fall of the Awami League government.

A student of Govt Murapara College in Narayanganj was seen waiting for passengers at Nadda on Saturday.

When asked, he told the Daily Sun that he started offering the ridesharing service about three months ago to bear his educational expenses.

Asked why so many people choose ridesharing service as a profession, a biker, who sought anonymity, told the Daily Sun that as they do not have much money to do business and cannot do other work due to the prestige issue, they provide ridesharing services with their own motorcycles to run their families.

About why bikers run motorcycles on a contractual basis instead of being enlisted with a ridesharing company, which is mandatory as per the guidelines, he said as a portion of their income is cut by the companies, they do not comply with the guidelines to ply their bikes under them.

Asked why they keep their bikes haphazardly on roads and cause disturbance for other vehicles, the biker said they have to wait at different points for passengers, denying the disturbance allegations.

He said only CNG-run auto-rickshaws make such allegations as motorbikes are taking their passengers. 

A private car driver told the Daily Sun that almost of the bikers run their bikes recklessly, creating problems for them on narrow roads.

A CNG-run auto driver said the bikers have got their income cut as passengers choose motorcycles most compared to their vehicles.

A helper of a 'Victor Classic Paribahan' bus told the Daily Sun that motorbikes run recklessly, which causes problems for buses while picking up and dropping passengers.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) fined different vehicles about Tk12 crore from 17 September to 6 November.

Of those, a big portion of the money was realised from motorbikes, including contractual ridesharing ones.

DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media and PR) Talebur Rahman told the Daily Sun that they forbade the ridesharing bikes from occupying different spots while waiting for passengers. "We regularly take action against those," he said.

The plying of a huge number of motorbikes also causes huge accidents every year.

According to the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, as many as 7,902 people died and 10,372 others were injured in 6,261 road accidents across the country in 2023.

Motorcycle accidents contributed the most to this toll, with 2,031 incidents resulting in 2,152 deaths and 1,339 injuries.