Submitted by: Shafayat Rahgir

This audio recording was made on a typical night on a busy thoroughfare in downtown Dhaka, Bangladesh. We can hear vehicle horns, rickshaw bells, voices, and in the background the sound of street vendors promoting their products on loudspeakers.

The soundscape of streets like this in Bangladesh are quite interesting. Due to very high population density, there is a lot of traffic around the clock here. Streets are shared by large trucks, public busses, cars, three-wheeled pedal-powered rickshaws, small compressed natural gas-powered taxis, pedestrians, and animals, all moving in concert.

However, there’s one big difference here. Although there are plenty of traffic rules and regulations, they’re often ignored. Traffic lights are just a formality, and one that nobody pays much attention to. Instead, we rely on traffic police to keep things moving. Although things might look (and sound) chaotic, people have adapted and the whole system somehow works!