A Bus Stop designed for people to sit.
Capacity: 4 Seats
Just a bunch of pillars left beside the roadside.
About 10 people sitting.
At first glance, the design of the bus stop seats may feel infuriating and ironic. Why would there be only four seats at a bus stop in a busy city like Dhaka? At the same place, coincidently, there were some of these pillars left by the road where many more people were sitting.
It turns out that this is not just a Dhaka phenomenon, but is practiced in many countries around the world. One of the reasons the seats are intentionally designed to be uncomfortable and limited is for people to not sit there for longer periods of time, especially for homeless people.
This is a prime example of defensive design. Defensive design is the practice of planning for contingencies in the design of a project. It may look wrong or unethical at first glance, but it regulates public behavior to avoid the spread of crime and misuse of technology. In this case, the seats are just there to rest your legs in case you're too tired waiting for a bus, or maybe for someone who may have fallen sick in the middle of the road and needs somewhere to sit and absolutely nothing more.
Have you ever seen a public bench that is super wide and has a lot of comfortable seating space? It's usually more filled with drug-dealers and animals than people actually waiting for buses. Let me know if you haven't experienced this. (I'll add images soon).
And what about the pillars that are supposedly providing seats for so many gentlemen in the picture above? Just don't. They're not supposed to be there in the first place. All those pillars left should be more vexing than the defensive design!
TL;DR: Don't get too comfortable on public benches!
Location: Dhanmondi 15, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
