Experts and car owners have objected to a long-planned yet highly controversial scheme to impose a fee on cars entering HCMC’s central business district. 

Traffic gridlock on a road near downtown HCMC. Experts and car owners have objected to a long-planned yet highly controversial scheme to impose a fee on cars entering the center of HCMC

The HCMC government suspended the scheme five years ago to conduct a review due to strong opposition.

Director of the HCMC Department of Transport Bui Quoc Cuong said the city has refloated the scheme in a bid to restrict cars from traveling to the city center to reduce worsening traffic congestion.

The scheme has been passed to relevant agencies for comment, but what an alternative means of transport is and how effective the plan is remain unanswered.

Under the current circumstances, motorbikes and commuter buses can be used to enter the city center. However, a sudden spike in motorcycle traffic in the downtown area would not help solve the traffic congestion issue. Meanwhile, public bus transit remains inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Worse still, the city has no metro line. The city’s first mass rapid transit line, Metro Line No.1 connecting Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and Suoi Tien Park in District 9, is still under construction and will not be up and running until 2020.

The only metro line would serve people travelling from districts 2, 9 and Thu Duc to the city center only.

People travelling from districts 7 and 8 to Tan Son Nhat International Airport or from Binh Thanh and Thu Duc districts to districts 5 and 10 will have to go through the downtown area. It would take a longer time if they use ring roads, so car owners would have no other choice but to go through the downtown and willingly pay a fee.

Instead of imposing a fee on cars entering the central business district, the city government should weigh relocating schools and hospitals out of the downtown area, develop a public transit system and suspend the licensing of new high-rise residential blocks in the central districts.

SGT