Personal vehicles cannot be part of Vietnam’s long-term traffic strategy

There are value and time to consider in terms of commuting. Driving a automobile, for instance, can take you twice the standard time to achieve your vacation spot, and parking charges could possibly be 10 occasions larger than bus fares. And if I need to drive to downtown areas, I would wish to undergo toll gates, the place visitors density is often excessive.

All in all, commuting to work in Sydney by automobile will value you AUD100 (US$64.80) a day, or round 30% of a median Australian employee’s fundamental wage. That’s the reason I, and most different individuals in Sydney, go for public transport as an alternative.

However the scenario is completely different in Vietnam, the place most individuals nonetheless use private autos to go round. Folks accomplish that as a result of public transport will not be handy or dependable, or due to the low value of utilizing non-public autos, or maybe each causes.

A report on the visitors scenario in Asia by the Asian Improvement Financial institution in 2019 stated Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Metropolis had been among the many 10 cities with the worst visitors jams of 278 surveyed.

The inhabitants density in downtown Hanoi is both the identical or larger than in different comparable cities around the globe. For example, it’s 40,331 individuals per sq. kilometer in Dong Da District, 31,308 in Hai Ba Trung; 29,471 in Hoan Kiem, and 29,295 in Thanh Xuan.

In Japan’s Tokyo, it’s 6,168 and in South Korea’s Seoul, it’s 16,000.

Folks in giant cities typically use high-capacity public transport programs such because the metro for his or her each day commute.

However in Vietnam, because the inhabitants grows, so does the variety of non-public autos. There have been round 239,000 newly registered autos final 12 months in Hanoi, taking the whole variety of non-public autos to round 7.5 million. It means almost each citizen within the capital ought to personal a car.

The charges of inhabitants progress and urbanization are nonetheless excessive, and Hanoi’s inhabitants might attain 21-25 million within the subsequent few a long time and HCMC’s, 13-20 million individuals, to not point out migrants coming in to work day by day.

It means visitors jams in Hanoi and HCMC are more likely to worsen within the coming years if we can not provide you with breakthrough options backed by help from the general public.

If we deal with commuters like buyer teams, there can be these keen to pay extra to journey quicker in addition to these preferring non-public autos attributable to their comfort. There can be no common answer that can make everybody pleased.

The most effective answer is one that can reduce the losses to society and economic system attributable to visitors congestion whereas ensuring that there are other ways to maneuver round for everybody.

I need to counsel some options to this drawback.

First, we have to assess our present visitors programs for resilience. The explanation for visitors congestion is the overloaded infrastructure because of the sheer variety of autos on the street.

Authorities ought to determine a option to decide the utmost variety of autos our visitors system can deal with. That quantity can change yearly, relying on how our visitors programs develop over time.

When the necessity for autos exceeds the quantity the system can deal with, the federal government can both “public sale” off the rights to make use of non-public autos in downtown areas or impose charges for street use to handle the variety of autos on the street.

For example, if the general public transport system can deal with the touring calls for of everybody, the charge for utilizing private autos could possibly be as much as VND150,000 ($6.31) a day.

Non-public autos coming in from outdoors the town must pay charges, both by the day or by the hour and even by distance traveled.

Such an answer would additionally keep in mind the wants of weak teams, like disabled individuals, and autos used for important functions.

Secondly, we should always enhance the capability of our public transport system. Imposing charges is perhaps an economically viable answer, however it could influence these with low incomes. Subsequently, charges could possibly be used to enhance the standard and protection of public transport, prioritizing bus programs on important routes. In the long term the scenario will solely considerably enhance as soon as our metro programs are accomplished.

Thirdly, we should always rethink our city planning and inhabitants distribution. An ongoing debate is whether or not we should always construct extra flats in downtown areas or transfer them to the suburbs. Whereas the overall development is for places of work to be concentrated in downtown areas, shifting too many individuals to the suburbs might ultimately enhance the variety of individuals and autos on essential visitors roads.

In cities like Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Melbourne, there’s a sure share of downtown buildings with flats to offer lodging. Nonetheless, downtown flats should additionally include colleges, hospitals and public areas.

Fourthly, we should always construct a database to maintain monitor of city points. Such databases might assist authorities perceive the issues in cities and monitor how they alter over the long term. The problems could possibly be air air pollution, visitors congestion, inhabitants progress, variety of non-public autos, and so on…

Vietnam has been a bit late in growing public transport infrastructure in Hanoi and HCMC to maintain up with its financial progress and urbanization. However it’s by no means too late to vary.

*Hoang Van Phuong is the director of Housing Market Australia.