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Reward rather than punish those who walk

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It is no secret that walking in Dhaka, a city of over 12 million inhabitants, is not much fun. Nor is it safe, as pedestrians must continually step into the street to avoid obstacles, and thus repeatedly put themselves in the way of cars. Crossing a street involves weaving through a tangle of rickshaws, cars, and buses. Perhaps the most obvious response to the situation is to throw up one’s hands in despair, but that isn’t something the young staff at Work for a Better Bangladesh believe in doing. Instead, they worked with HealthBridge to conduct a study of the pedestrian environment so as to give specific recommendations to policymakers on what needs to be changed to make walking a pleasant mode of transport. A summary version of the study, which is part of the planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) development in Dhaka, is available on the Asia Development Bank website: http://www.adb.org/projects/documents/sustainable-urban-transport-dhaka-bus-rapid-transit-walkability-strategy (If this link doesn’t work, simply search for ADB Dhaka Walkability.)