28/03/2026
To talk about rickshaws today is to talk about how a city recognizes itself. The rickshaw emerged in Asia in the nineteenth century, but in only a few places did it remain deeply woven into everyday public life.
In Bangladesh, that continuity became extraordinary. The pedal-powered rickshaws have shaped urban movement since the 1960s, and recent 2023 reporting estimates roughly 3.4 million traditional pedal rickshaws in Dhaka alone. But that long survival is now under pressure. Bangladesh’s e-rickshaw fleet is estimated at 2 to 4 million nationally, and a 2026 Dhaka study found that 97.4% of battery rickshaws and 85.94% of pedal rickshaws operate outside formal registration. The same study reported accident involvement from 30% of passengers for battery rickshaws, compared with 18% for pedal ones.
For any citizen, artist or urban observer, this is not just a transport debate. The rickshaw is a moving landmark. It's part vehicle, part street furniture, part folk image, part labor history. It carries color, ornament, neighborhood rhythm, informal economies, and a distinctly local sense of scale.
When that form is replaced by faster, heavier, improvised electric variants, the city does not simply “upgrade.” It loses texture, memory, and one of its most legible public identities.
That is why it is more important to talk about rickshaws now, before they are reduced from living urban presence to cultural afterthought.
Have a story, image, drawing, or moving memory shaped by the rickshaw?
Submit it to Stories on Three Wheels through photography, illustration, or motion storytelling. Submission closes on April 05, 2026.
