A recent regulation by Hanoi authorities that would ban motorbikes from other provinces entering the city to solve the traffic crisis has received opposition.

Congestion in Hanoi

Hanoi Department of Transport has attempted to ease congestion and gathered opinions to limit the number of motorbikes in the capital.

The department said Hanoi has over five million registered motorbikes, 500,000 cars and over one million bicycles and electric bicycles. Not to mention vehicles from other provinces. Without measures to control the situation, by 2025, Hanoi will have 7.3 million motorbikes and 1.3 million cars. The infrastructure can't catch up with the growth and traffic demand will exceed the capacity of the road system by 12 times and no vehicles would be able to move.

According to the plan, from 2020, they will limit the number of motorbikes in the Old Quarter during the weekend and from 2021, they will entirely ban motorbikes from other provinces going to the inner city from 7am to 7pm. They also proposed to limit the number of cars on several routes and will collect congestion charges on vehicles entering to the city centre during rush hours.

However, the plan has been met with much opposition, as the motorbike is the main form of transport.

Hanoi Transport Association agreed that they need measures to ease congestion, prevent air pollution and limit motorbikes, however, the plan needed to be more detailed.

"You can't just ban it unceremoniously. How can the people travel then? Cars also cause congestion so to be fair, cars should be banned too?" Bui Danh Lien, the association's chairman said.

He went on to say that they can only ban motorbike when the people adopt public transport and give up on personal vehicles. In order to achieve this goal, affordable, high-quality public transport is required.

Taxis from other provinces to be banned

Hanoi has also issued a ban on over 3,000 taxis registered from other provinces but operating in the capital. Since 2011, the Department of Transport stopped issuing licences to establish new taxi firms. However, many firms tried to evade the regulations by going to other provinces to register then bring the taxis to Hanoi.

"The high number of vehicles is putting pressure on the city's roads. The traffic police are struggling to regulate the flows during rush hours," said Major Nguyen Anh Tuan of Hanoi traffic police department.

Hanoi Vice Chairman Nguyen The Hung said they would definitely deal with the problem.

About 870 taxi cars were registered in Bac Ninh Province and 469 taxis returned to Bac Ninh to register when their licence in Hanoi expired.

Many taxis registered in Bac Ninh operate in Hanoi

Le Ngoc Tuyen, director of Bac Ninh Transport Department said, "Vietnam's law doesn't really impose any limit on taxi's operating range so it's hard for us. But we'll consider the issue based on other regulations and will carry out inspections at taxi firms registered in our province."

He suggested that Hanoi Department of Transport should hold meetings with other provincial departments of transport to find the best solution.

Bus services

According to Hanoi's project to limit the use of private vehicles, public transport will be able to meet 25% of demand, or 5.78 million trips a day by 2020. The city will open 15 to 20 new bus routes a year and invest in over 500 new buses, including mini buses.

Three bus rapid transit routes will be set up including Kim Ma, Le Van Luong and Yen Nghia route, The Mai Dich - Duong Xa route and Ring Road 2.5 to Highway 5.

Hanoi Department of Transport has also set the goal to complete five metro lines during this time.

Dtinews