ABSTRACT
Anyone visiting a South Asian city may be amazed at the huge number of pedestrians attempting to make their way on streets congested with vehicles of every type and description including (to name only a few) carts drawn by animals, carts drawn and pushed by men, bicycles, motorcycles (two-wheelers), cars, taxis, buses, lorries, and construction vehicles. Apparently paying scant heed to traffic laws, contributing to a giant rush that in mornings and evenings often leads to gridlock, the drivers of these vehicles are participating in a vast expansion of automotive transport that began in earnest during the 1990s and that has extended average trip times for everyone while seriously degrading air quality. Weaving in and out of the traffic are masses of auto rikshas, or three-wheeled taxicabs with space for the driver in the front seat and for three adults in the back seat. These are the automotive successors of cycle rikshas, bicycles with an attached rear seat protected from the elements by a collapsible hood, that move through the physical exertion of sweating young men (and some wiry older men). In fast-moving cities like Mumbai or Bangalore the auto riksha has eliminated its pedal-driven competitors, except for work along back roads, but in towns, smaller cities and even in some major centers like Dhaka, the slow-moving but cheap cycle riksha remains a major component of the transport industry. There are more than 600,000 auto and cycle rikshas on the streets of Dhaka.
