Why are rickshaw hoods in Dhaka getting narrower?

Sajal Mia, with his well-combed man bun, just got his rickshaw out of Monir Mistrir Garage in Sipahibagh before he picked me up. To protect myself from the scorching sun, I asked him to spread the hood, a bamboo frame used as a canopy, on the upper part of the rickshaw. Sajal Mia pulled the hood so hard that it struck my head. 

This is not supposed to happen. Generally, a typical Bangladeshi rickshaw is big enough for two people to sit, and sometimes even three people stack themselves on it. The hood, when unfolded, has enough space for two average-sized people to sit comfortably.

Struck with pain, I asked, "Why is your rickshaw so congested?" To which Sajal said, "Ma'am, my rickshaw is absolutely fine, you are too tall." This was new. For a 5'2'' average-height woman, this was something I had never heard before.

File Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS

That was not the only time I was accused of my height, weight, or body shape by the rickshaw pullers. Apparently, every other day, the rickshaw seems to get narrower.

Unable to adjust to the changing BMI (body mass index) of the medium of transport, I decided to investigate it.

"There are several types of rickshaw according to the size- the Cumilla rickshaw, the Narayanganj rickshaw, the Dhaka rickshaw, etc. The Cumilla style rickshaw has a comparatively wider seat than the size of the rickshaws in Dhaka," Md Moniruddin, the rickshaw maker and owner of a rickshaw garage, said.

When asked whether the rickshaws in Dhaka are getting narrower, he said, "The average rickshaw in Dhaka has a height of 5'10'' to 6' from the ground. And the rickshaw is also very heavy. So obviously, the rickshaw pullers want to drive a rickshaw that is light and requires less energy to handle. But that does not mean every rickshaw in Dhaka is narrow."

However, with the growth of engine or motor rickshaws, traditional cycle rickshaws are trying to catch up with speed. And narrower rickshaws help them move faster.

Photo: Mehedi Hasan

Rashid Ali, another rickshaw puller, says, "Engine rickshaws move fast in the local areas, and people want to hire them more. Also, sometimes three or four people want to ride on our cycle rickshaws and don't want to raise the fare. So I find it better to have a narrower cycle rickshaw."

From hand-pulled rickshaws of Tokyo to cycle rickshaws 

Hand-pulled rickshaws were first introduced in Japan in 1868. The earliest form of rickshaw is known as Jinrikisha (jin = human, riki = power or force, sha = vehicle), which means "human-powered vehicle." It was a two-wheeled cart pulled by a human known as 'Coolie'. Due to its huge popularity, rickshaws quickly spread to China (Shanghai), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam. Initially, it was a private transport. Later, by the end of the 19th century, it became an inexpensive mode of public transportation across Asian cities.

In the powerhouse museum in Sydney, there is a 120-year-old rickshaw made in 1880. The description of the rickshaw says, "A rickshaw, or Jinrikisha, is a light, two-wheeled cart consisting of a doorless, chairlike body, mounted on springs with a collapsible hood and two shafts. Finished in black lacquer –ware over timber, It was drawn by a single rickshaw runner."

Although Japan had been the home of the hand-pulled rickshaw, the cycle rickshaws were never widely used there. Tokyo had a good public transport system. According to statistics, Tokyo had 8.2 million bicycles in 1940. However, after the Second World War, when petrol and motor transport were scarce, Rintaku or pedicabs (cycle rickshaws)were used. But by 1959, they had left Tokyo.

Singapore was the first city to use cycle rickshaws on a large scale back in 1929. By 1950, cycle rickshaws had spread to every country in South and East Asia. In Lucknow (India), the number of rickshaws grew from 412 in 1944 to 22,000 in 1977.

Cycle Rickshaw in Hanoi. Photo: Collected

And it was in 1930 that the first cycle rickshaws came to Calcutta. They reached Bangladesh in the mid-1930s and Dhaka by 1938. According to Salim Rashid, professor of economics at the University of Illinois, Dhaka was the third city in Bangladesh to have rickshaws after Mymensingh and Narayanganj.

In the 1992 book The Rickshaws of Bangladesh, Salim Rashid was quoted as saying, "In 1938, a Bengali Zamindar of Sutrapur and a Marwari gentleman of Wari purchased six rickshaws each and attempted to introduce them to Dhaka city.

They were brought from Calcutta, and the design was different from today's models. It had black leather seats, which were wider and more comfortable. The hood was made of khaki canvas. In the 1950s, colourful decorations were added to it.

In his book The Rickshaws of Bangladesh, Robert Gallagher said, "It was a marriage between a hand-pulled rickshaw and a bicycle. Soon, blacksmiths and mechanics in Dhaka were copying it."

High profile and excessive weight make it hard for the pullers to drive rickshaw 

The traditional rickshaw designs do not vary much throughout Bangladesh. There are, primarily four to five types of rickshaws, based in Dhaka, Cumilla, Khulna, Sylhet, and Barishal. The differences among these types are small, and related to dimensions. For example, the Cumilla type has a square hood and a broader seat than the Dhaka type.

Apart from two local innovations, the Sylhet brakes and the Jessore wheels, "the rickshaw design is pretty much the same all over Bangladesh, and has hardly changed since the first cycle rickshaws were first introduced in the 1930s," Gallagher wrote in his book.

A rickshaw has several parts. There's the cap, which is like a sunshade, extending out of the hood. The hood is called 'Kamani' among the community. It is generally made with five bamboo strips attached to an iron hinge that facilitates folding or opening of the hood. 'Dhelna' comprises either sides of the seat, or the back, offering support for the passenger. The seat itself is commonly referred to as 'godi'. The seat and the foothold are detached parts.

Monir mechanic demonstrated the measurements of a 'narrow' rickshaw, and it showed that the circumference of the bamboo hood, or kamani, is 90 inches, and the height of the tip of the hood from the foothold is 30 inches.

When I sat on the rickshaw and pulled the hood over my head, there was a slight gap between my head and the ceiling of the hood. This means if the height of it were 32 inches, it would have been perfectly comfortable for me to sit upright.

The length of the seat is 29 inches, and the outer frame of the seat, or Dhelna, is 11 inches wide. I felt if the length was 30 inches, two people could sit side by side comfortably.

"Rickshaws are made in different garages and factories, and the sizes may vary by one or two inches, not more than that," Monir said.

Now, although sometimes we describe this transport as inhuman, pulled by a human, the real problem lies in the measurements and the design.

According to Monir and other rickshaw mechanics, the two major problems with a traditional rickshaw design are the height and the excessive weight. And to adjust to these issues, sometimes the mechanics reduce the sizes and measurements of the rickshaw.

Monir said that an average rickshaw in Bangladesh has a height of 6 feet or 173.8 centimetres off the ground, and this high profile and high centre of gravity cause several problems. High profile causes severe wind resistance and blocks the driver's rear view. And the high centre of gravity makes the rickshaw more liable to topple over. And this is because of the passenger seat and the wide hood.

Even when the hood is folded back, the rickshaw stands six feet from the ground. At slow speed, it doesn't matter. But when the rickshaw moves fast, and the wind is blowing, the puller's energy is spent overcoming the wind resistance. The hood works as a sail that catches the wind.

"The problem could be solved by lowering the passenger seat, and flattening the hood when folded back. This would increase the rickshaw's safety by improving the puller's rear view and also reducing the wind resistance," Robert Gallagher mentioned.

However, instead of working on the design of the mainframe of the vehicle, the mechanics are trying to cut down on the size without proper calculations.

Also, according to Robert, an ordinary rickshaw in Bangladesh weighs 90-92 kilograms. And 49% of this weight comes from the passenger seat and the hood. The hood itself weighs 18-19 kgs. These are made of solid wood, iron and bamboo.

With different materials and designs, this weight could have been reduced. But instead of experimenting with the overall designs, the rickshaw makers and mechanics are trying to adjust them by narrowing the size of the seat and the hood.

Some minor changes in measurements could solve the problem 

In 2007, a team of three developed a paper titled Design of the rickshaw to improve safety and comfort of passengers, in which they defined the measurements of a traditional Bangladeshi rickshaw and made some suggestions on the design.

According to the paper, the seating area should be widened by increasing the breadth of the godi. The hood can be redesigned to increase the area as well as to be aerodynamic to reduce friction of the air with the hood surface.

They have suggested an aero-dynamic hood design. Instead of five heavy bamboo strips for the frame, three aluminium flat bars can be used, over which light rexin will be used which will draw less air. The use of aluminium bars will reduce the weight by 7 or 8 kg. And if the centre of gravity of the rickshaw can be lowered, the top of the hood can also be lowered, without hitting the head of the passenger.

Lowering the height of the rickshaw will make it more stable, and it won't tumble. For this the height of the seat can be lowered with a more flat floorboard. In the current model of a traditional rickshaw, the height of the centre of gravity is 26 to 29 inches off the ground. But if the height can be reduced by only 10 inches, the rickshaw will be more stable.

For more comfort, the distance between the passenger's seat and the driver's seat should be increased. This will flatten the rickshaw more and increase the length of it. With calculations, the team suggested that it is possible by increasing the length of the rickshaw by only 10.16 cm (4 inches).

A considerable population of the country ride rickshaws, and it is more than just a mode of transport. According to 2021 reports, there are more than 6 lakh rickshaws in Dhaka city alone. And the present design of the rickshaw takes a great toll on the health and body of the puller.

"As mechanics, we can make, assemble, and mend the existing design. We do not understand the theories of physics or cannot measure the wind pressure. If an engineer does the math and proposes a better design, we will dearly accept it," Monir said.

Architect Saimum Kabir wrote an article on the design of traditional Bangladeshi rickshaws, in which he spoke of revisiting the designs. Saimum Kabir is the Founding Editor of contextbd.com, an online-based inclusive platform on design, architecture and planning.

In that article, he said, in the past, a number of scattered attempts were taken by both GO and NGO to improve the design of rickshaws. While one of those prototypes experimented with tubular frames and jute plastic seats, others implemented prototypes of rickshaw-vans with PV support (solar) and a torque sensor pedal.

"Most of these model rickshaws were focused on the improvement of mechanical efficiency- metal frames replacing the traditional wooden passenger seat structure to reduce the weight, lowering the foot-board height for better ergonomics, an improved suspension system for better comfort, and a braking system for smooth and safe operation," Saimum said.

In 1986, Fred Wilkie developed a 'new rickshaw' with the help of British volunteer engineers and Bangladeshi mechanics. It had stronger frames and was 10% lighter than the traditional rickshaws. But it was 15% more expensive to make, and the rickshaw pullers co-op and garage owners were not eager to buy this model due to the lack of proper marketing.

"We must not forget, traditional form of rickshaw is crafted for slow movement, short distance commuting by combining local material and knowledge and adorned with very special kinds of artwork. Therefore, low tech, low maintenance, zero carbon footprint, and artistic features should be the key considerations for any future vision of rickshaws," Saimum said.