‘Ho Chi Minh City needs many strong measures to limit motorbikes’

This point of view was mentioned by Dr. Vu Anh Tuan, Director of the Center for Research and Development of Transport, Viet Duc University, at the seminar “Motorcycles and metro – challenges in traffic” organized by the French Institute office, the evening of April 27. This is a program in the chain of activities of this institute in Vietnam.

By the end of 2021, Ho Chi Minh City manages more than 8.4 million vehicles, of which 819,000 cars and more than 7.6 million motorbikes, on average, 79 cars and 309 motorbikes are registered every day. Compared to the same period in 2020, cars increased by 3.5%, motorbikes by 2%.

According to Mr. Tuan, the demand use a motorbike of large population due to its compactness, ease of movement on narrow roads and no fixed time like other types of public transport.

Research conducted by Vietnam-Germany University in 2018 based on a survey of 2,000 people in 6 major cities of Vietnam, hypothesized results that by 2030, Ho Chi Minh City can develop a bus network by 2-3 times. , there are 6-7 metro lines, parking fees increased 3 times, but 70% of respondents still want to use motorbikes.

“It shows that if the public transport network is developed, most people still choose motorbikes,” said Mr. Tuan, adding that although incomes are increasing, households have a need to buy cars, but still don’t leave the motorbike. This is a huge challenge to develop public transport in Ho Chi Minh City.

Regarding the solution, Dr. Vu Anh Tuan said that the city needs to plan methodically and develop urban areas in the direction of prioritizing public transport. At the same time, the city needs to have major policies that impact, making motorbike riding become “disadvantageous” such as increasing registration fees, controlling parking, collecting emissions fees…

In the next 5 years, the city needs to regulate safe conditions for motorbikes, develop ways to regulate traffic for motorbikes as well as solve the problem of parking encroaching on sidewalks.

After 10 years, the city continues to promote public transport, including expanding the bus network, rapid bus network, developing many metro lines… The next 15 years when the public transport system was invested billions of dollars of investment, along with policies to restrict personal cars will gradually “eliminate” the advantage of motorbikes.

In the immediate future, Mr. Tuan said that Ho Chi Minh City should soon build a multi-modal connection system to increase accessibility for people such as arranging many types of electric vehicles, gom bus… These will be “extended legs” for the future metro system.

Citing the Metro line No. 1 (Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien) is expected to be commercially operated in 2024, according to Mr. Tuan, in the first year of operation, if the city builds a cluster bus system, passengers on the route will reach about 110,000. 62% increase compared to no network on. “This solution has a small budget but is very effective,” said Mr. Tuan.

Meanwhile, Mr. François Carcel, an urban expert at the French Development Agency, said that it is important that transport development policies must incorporate urban planning. In the immediate future, the city needs to build many modes of transportation to give people more choices, easily switch between types and gradually limit personal cars.

According to this expert, Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in the country, with a high growth rate, so with the current overloaded traffic infrastructure, it is inevitable. However, without enough investment, the city needs solutions to optimize the exploitation of existing infrastructure, such as developing more types of traffic, organizing routes to avoid congestion in the inner city.

On April 5, the Government has Resolution strengthening order, safety and combating traffic congestion in the period 2022-2025. Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho need to limit or stop motorbikes in some districts after 2030; develop a scheme to collect motor vehicle fees in some congested areas.

Gia minh