Hanoi needs to develop public bicycles soon

The Hanoi People’s Committee has just assigned the Department of Transport to build a public bicycle development project for implementation in 5 central districts. Accordingly, bicycles are first used to serve people in 5 central districts, including traditional bicycles and 2-wheel electric vehicles.

The implementation of the public bicycle service project will be carried out in two phases. Phase 1 (expected 1 year), the city will invest 1,000 bicycles, including 500 traditional bicycles and 500 electric bicycles.

These vehicles will be located at from 70 to 80 locations in the districts of Ba Dinh, Tay Ho, Dong Da, Thanh Xuan and at points next to the entrance and exit of the Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway line. Expected implementation time is from 2022 to 2023.

Hanoi needs to soon create conditions for the development of public bicycles

Phase 2, from 2023 to 2024, is expected to expand the service area: focus on developing and expanding the service area to central districts and surrounding areas. Investment scale is about 3,000 bicycles, arranged at 350 locations, details of these locations will be surveyed and selected by the implementing unit and relevant agencies.

According to the Hanoi Department of Transport, the project is expected to be piloted within 18 months, the fee offered for people to use electric bicycles is about 20,000 VND/hour or 200,000 VND/day.

Hanoi’s deployment of public bicycles has received the attention of many people and experts.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan in Ba Dinh (Hanoi) said that Hanoi’s development of bicycles is an inevitable trend towards the development of the capital in the direction of civilization without congestion and reducing environmental pollution.

In Germany, the Netherlands, France… bicycles are widely used and bring maximum efficiency to help people limit the use of personal vehicles.

“Bicycles are a means of supporting people to use convenient public transport. The most important issue is how Hanoi must create favorable conditions for people to use bicycles in a convenient and safe way, “said Mr. Tuan.

Agreeing with Hanoi’s development of public bicycles, Mr. Nguyen Van Thach, former Director of Traffic Safety (Ministry of Transport) said that it would be more convenient for people to use public transport if they were at the stations. Passengers of the tram or bus transit station are provided with a public bicycle spot.

However, Mr. Thach also made it clear that Hanoi’s current development of public bicycles will not be fully effective because the city has only one urban railway line. However, if we do not start, we do not know when Hanoi will encourage people to ride bicycles.

“Bicycles can only really maximize their capacity when the city has 4-5 metro lines and people mainly use public transport. At this time, Hanoi should still do it early to both do it, learn from experience, and gradually create a habit for people to ride bicycles,” said Mr. Thach.

To make it easier for people to use bicycles, Mr. Thach said that the city still has a lot of work to do. Along with the continued development of the public transport system (buses, urban railways), a plan for the development of a bicycle-only road should be included in the master plan.

“Developing public bicycles means that the city must arrange a priority path for bicycles. Only when pedestrians and cyclists feel safe will they be ready to access public transport,” Thach said.

Vu Diep