Rickshaws

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Rickshaws

The Guinness Book record for the most rickshaws in a city is held by Dhaka, which – believe it or not – boasts over a million of them.

World champion

They‘re brightly colored, some of them wonderfully painted, and for some they’re perfect as an inexpensive, eco-friendly means of transport. The main reason for their popularity is that Dhaka is not a city you can walk around in. There are hardly any footpaths. Apart from that, there are practically no public transport options. But a lot of car drivers accuse the rickshaws of creating unnecessary traffic jams. Although some object that they’re not a modern transport concept, rickshaws are nowadays an important source of income for several million people directly or indirectly involved with them.

These days, if you drive your car from the Mohammadpur part of the city to Gulshan, it may well happen that you need almost two hours for those 8.5 km.

23 years ago I was doing my national community service with an NGO in Mohammadpur. Once I took a rickshaw to Gulshan. In those days there were hardly any cars on the road, and it took only 20 minutes. The ride cost 50 takas (equivalent to about 50 cents). As I only had a 100 taka bill on me, I remarked jokingly to the driver that he could bring the change to me at home. When I came home that evening, I found an envelope containing 50 takas pushed under the door ...