Traffic congestion is, quite possibly, Ho Chi Minh City’s most visible problem. It is easily the most time-consuming in the city. Foreigners preparing to move to the metropolis are warned about it, tourists gawk at it, and residents moan about it.
As anyone who has sat in a jam on Dien Bien Phu for 30 minutes; or navigated the absolutely insane roundabout where Vo Thi Sau, CMT8, and 3 Thang 2 converge; can attest, congestion is a serious issue. But what can be done to ease the monstrous flow of traffic through the city’s streets?
Recently, local and national government authorities have rolled out two plans aimed at congestion. The first of these initiatives would charge car drivers a fee for entering the inner city. Many other cities have put a system like this in place, and even more have considered it. The idea is to deter people from taking personal cars into the city by forcing them to pay money in order to do so.
Higher toll
According to the article in which this potential plan was reported, 110,000 to 150,000 cars enter the city everyday. A company called Innovative Technology Development Corporation (ITD) has offered to build 35 stations to collect tolls, mostly in District 1 and 3. The director of ITD claims that, once the toll system is implemented, car traffic would be reduced by 40 percent, while motorbike and bus traffic would increase by 10 percent.
There are some glaring problems with this plan, and if it were approved, I believe traffic would be even worse. Building structures, such as toll booths, in the middle of a street is just going to slow traffic down even more. Drivers will have to stop, rummage around for money, pay, and then potentially wait for change, all while other cars stack up behind them.
The proposed toll is also far too low: between 30,000 and 50,000 VND. Private cars are extremely expensive in Vietnam. Do you really think that a person who can afford a Mercedes is going to give pause to paying $1.50 to drive to the Vincom Center?
Finally, how would a 10 percent increase in motorbike traffic improve things, even if a significant number of cars are taken off the road? There are already millions of them in HCMC. We really don’t need any more.
The second plan comes from Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who on Saturday asked Hanoi and HCMC to make separate lanes for cars and motorbikes on all of their roads. This request doesn’t stand even the slightest chance of succeeding. Traffic on the roads in HCMC that have separate lanes: Pasteur, and the Binh Thanh stretch of Dien Bien Phu, for example, really isn’t any better than on the non-divided streets. People walk in the moto lanes, taxis block them, and people park in them.
Then there is the simple fact that dividing every street is impossible. Most streets in HCMC are quite narrow, and dividing them would necessitate widening them. Unless the government plans on demolishing thousands of buildings, the streets cannot be widened at all. And how much would all of that cost?
While it is heartening to see that the government is concerned about traffic congestion in HCMC, these initiatives are doomed to failure. So, I ask again, what can be done?
If authorities want to seriously reduce the number of cars on the road, they are going to need to slap an even higher tax on private vehicles. Unfortunately, this may not go down well with the World Trade Organization, not to mention domestic and foreign automakers. People are going to continue to buy motorbikes as long as they remain cheap and convenient, as well.
Therefore, what the government needs to focus on is improving public transportation. Usage rates for the city bus system are ridiculously low; that being said, it is chaotic and confusing. The bus fleet should be completely modernized, and clear route maps should be posted at every bus stop. Clean, air-conditioned buses are much more enticing than the fume-belching behemoths that roam the streets today. Construction of the underground needs to be sped up:
I keep hearing about the vaunted subway lines, but there are no obvious signs of progress anywhere. An affordable metro system would make it unnecessary to take a taxi or motorbike everywhere you go. Initiatives like the previously discussed toll system really only work in cities where multiple public transportation systems serve almost the entire area, like London. (Plus, these tolls are often paid over the phone, not at an actual booth.)
No more holes
On a side note, the government also needs to ensure that the giant holes that are often dug in the middle of intersections are repaired quickly. I assume these craters are created so that crews can work on the drainage system, but there has been one in the center of the busy Phan Dinh Phung – Hoang Van Thu intersection, in Phu Nuan District, for months, forcing buses, trucks, cars, and motorbikes into the dangerously narrow area of the road that hasn’t been dug up.
More education for drivers
Finally, there is something that could be done to ease traffic woes that I’ve never seen mentioned: improve driver’s education and compliance with the rules of the road. How often do you see a guy in a minivan following the car in front of him so closely that he ends up getting stuck in the middle of an intersection, completely blocking vehicles coming down the perpendicular road?
Or how about the moto drivers that go through red lights 3 seconds after they have changed from green, forcing people who now have the green to slow down and swerve to avoid them? And let’s not forget the taxi driver pulling a slow-motion U-turn in the middle of the street, disrupting traffic going in both directions. These small incidents are frustrating to the people directly affected by them, but when they are happening on nearly every street, they add up to create a huge problem.
In my 13 months here I’ve come to realize that most locals have no idea how to properly operate a car, and many people on motorbikes don’t care what color the traffic light is. These problems can be rectified through more rigorous driver’s education programs, which would cost an awful lot less than dividing the entire road network into separate lanes.
To be sure, these solutions won’t solve all of Ho Chi Minh City’s traffic headaches, but they could be a step in the right direction. Even the most advanced cities in the world are afflicted by rush-hour jams, but these remedies would make a huge difference on the chaotic streets of this bustling city.
Recently, local and national government authorities have rolled out two plans aimed at congestion. The first of these initiatives would charge car drivers a fee for entering the inner city. Many other cities have put a system like this in place, and even more have considered it. The idea is to deter people from taking personal cars into the city by forcing them to pay money in order to do so.
Higher toll
According to the article in which this potential plan was reported, 110,000 to 150,000 cars enter the city everyday. A company called Innovative Technology Development Corporation (ITD) has offered to build 35 stations to collect tolls, mostly in District 1 and 3. The director of ITD claims that, once the toll system is implemented, car traffic would be reduced by 40 percent, while motorbike and bus traffic would increase by 10 percent.
There are some glaring problems with this plan, and if it were approved, I believe traffic would be even worse. Building structures, such as toll booths, in the middle of a street is just going to slow traffic down even more. Drivers will have to stop, rummage around for money, pay, and then potentially wait for change, all while other cars stack up behind them.
The proposed toll is also far too low: between 30,000 and 50,000 VND. Private cars are extremely expensive in Vietnam. Do you really think that a person who can afford a Mercedes is going to give pause to paying $1.50 to drive to the Vincom Center?
Finally, how would a 10 percent increase in motorbike traffic improve things, even if a significant number of cars are taken off the road? There are already millions of them in HCMC. We really don’t need any more.
The second plan comes from Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who on Saturday asked Hanoi and HCMC to make separate lanes for cars and motorbikes on all of their roads. This request doesn’t stand even the slightest chance of succeeding. Traffic on the roads in HCMC that have separate lanes: Pasteur, and the Binh Thanh stretch of Dien Bien Phu, for example, really isn’t any better than on the non-divided streets. People walk in the moto lanes, taxis block them, and people park in them.
Then there is the simple fact that dividing every street is impossible. Most streets in HCMC are quite narrow, and dividing them would necessitate widening them. Unless the government plans on demolishing thousands of buildings, the streets cannot be widened at all. And how much would all of that cost?
While it is heartening to see that the government is concerned about traffic congestion in HCMC, these initiatives are doomed to failure. So, I ask again, what can be done?
If authorities want to seriously reduce the number of cars on the road, they are going to need to slap an even higher tax on private vehicles. Unfortunately, this may not go down well with the World Trade Organization, not to mention domestic and foreign automakers. People are going to continue to buy motorbikes as long as they remain cheap and convenient, as well.
Therefore, what the government needs to focus on is improving public transportation. Usage rates for the city bus system are ridiculously low; that being said, it is chaotic and confusing. The bus fleet should be completely modernized, and clear route maps should be posted at every bus stop. Clean, air-conditioned buses are much more enticing than the fume-belching behemoths that roam the streets today. Construction of the underground needs to be sped up:
I keep hearing about the vaunted subway lines, but there are no obvious signs of progress anywhere. An affordable metro system would make it unnecessary to take a taxi or motorbike everywhere you go. Initiatives like the previously discussed toll system really only work in cities where multiple public transportation systems serve almost the entire area, like London. (Plus, these tolls are often paid over the phone, not at an actual booth.)
No more holes
On a side note, the government also needs to ensure that the giant holes that are often dug in the middle of intersections are repaired quickly. I assume these craters are created so that crews can work on the drainage system, but there has been one in the center of the busy Phan Dinh Phung – Hoang Van Thu intersection, in Phu Nuan District, for months, forcing buses, trucks, cars, and motorbikes into the dangerously narrow area of the road that hasn’t been dug up.
More education for drivers
Finally, there is something that could be done to ease traffic woes that I’ve never seen mentioned: improve driver’s education and compliance with the rules of the road. How often do you see a guy in a minivan following the car in front of him so closely that he ends up getting stuck in the middle of an intersection, completely blocking vehicles coming down the perpendicular road?
Or how about the moto drivers that go through red lights 3 seconds after they have changed from green, forcing people who now have the green to slow down and swerve to avoid them? And let’s not forget the taxi driver pulling a slow-motion U-turn in the middle of the street, disrupting traffic going in both directions. These small incidents are frustrating to the people directly affected by them, but when they are happening on nearly every street, they add up to create a huge problem.
In my 13 months here I’ve come to realize that most locals have no idea how to properly operate a car, and many people on motorbikes don’t care what color the traffic light is. These problems can be rectified through more rigorous driver’s education programs, which would cost an awful lot less than dividing the entire road network into separate lanes.
To be sure, these solutions won’t solve all of Ho Chi Minh City’s traffic headaches, but they could be a step in the right direction. Even the most advanced cities in the world are afflicted by rush-hour jams, but these remedies would make a huge difference on the chaotic streets of this bustling city.
Michael Tatarski (American, teacher)
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Consulting, Investment and Management, focusing three main economic sectors: International PR; Healthcare & Wellness;and Tourism & Hospitality. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programs. Sign up with twitter to get news updates with @SaigonBusinessC. Thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment