A traffic revolution begins?

VietNamNet Bridge – Three weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked Hanoi and HCM City authorities to combine with related agencies, to immediately restrict or ban motorbikes in some streets during appropriate time on a trial basis.

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The experiment will be expanded if it is effective in curbing traffic gridlocks in the two biggest cities of Vietnam.

The information did not surprise the public since this policy was mentioned before as the authorities blame motorbikes for gridlocks.

However, many people said that banning motorbikes in cities to solve traffic jams shows the powerlessness of state agencies in dealing with traffic jams.

In a recent interview with VietNamNet, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said that Vietnam has around 1 million new motorbikes and several hundreds of thousands of new cars annually. The country currently has around 1.8 million cars and more than 35 million motorbikes, serving over 80 million people. On average, each two people have one vehicle (car or motorbike). That rate is too high so Vietnam must restrict personal vehicles.

Before implementing the ban of cars and motorbikes in the inlying areas of big cities, Thang emphasized that this measure would be effective if it is supported and strictly pursued by citizens.

How to call for the entire people raise their awareness of traffic rules? Is it a revolution and dealing with traffic jams is the responsibility of each citizen, not only the transport sector and local authorities?

Besides curbing personal vehicles, separating roads into lanes for cars and motorbikes have been implemented on a trial basis in major streets in Hanoi and HCM City, at the instruction of the government.

This measure is not new. It was applied at Kim Ma-Cau Giay and Tran Khat Chan streets in Hanoi several years ago and failed since many motorbike drivers break the rules. This time, the measure will be implemented seriously and violators will be fined.

In HCM City, the local Department of Transportation proposed to collect fees from cars that enter the city’s downtown area (Districts 1 and 3). The fees will be VND30,000 ($1.5)/ five-seat cars and VND50,000 ($2.5) for other cars. The department hopes that with the fees, less cars will get into the city’s hub while the city will have a new source of income for upgrading transport facilities.

This proposal has stirred up controversies. Some said that car drivers are ready to pay that low fees to get into the city’s center and traffic jams will not be solved. Taxi firms said that the fees will make taxi charges up and taxi drivers may not get out of the city’s center to not have to pay fees, resulted in more serious gridlocks.

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