VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City’s plan to levy an entry fee on all private vehicles going to the downtown area is criticized for its feasibility and the possible increase of prices of other goods.
At the proposal of the Innovative Technology Development Corporation (ITD), 36 toll booths will be built in Districts 1 and 3 and parts of Districts 5 and 10 to collect fees from cars in this area.

Cars with up to seven seats will have to pay VND30,000 ($1.4) to enter between 6AM to 8PM, and trucks, taxis, and other passenger vans except buses, VND50,000 ($2.4).

Cars will be equipped with equipment called OBU (On Board Unit) to pay the fee automatically. The price for an OBU is $40. Car owners can purchase it or rent it.

IDT calculated that the new fees can help reduce around 40 percent of cars in the downtown area and thus curb congestion in the area.

It reported that the cost would be around VND1.2 trillion (US$57.6 million). The HCM City Department of Transport wants to implement the plan later this year or early 2012.

Dr. Tran Xuan Dung, director of the Institute for Transport Development Strategy Research, said that this plan is good at this moment because car owners are well-off people who afford to pay the fees. This will be a new source of funding to upgrade HCM City’s transport facilities. Cars are also among reasons causing congestion in HCM City.

But Dung said that this plan is only a temporary measure to curb traffic jams. The most important measure is improving the city’s transport facilities and develop a good urban development planning. “That’s the strategic measure to cope with congestion,” Dung stressed.

Nguyen Trong Hoa, head of the HCM City Research and Development Institute said that the city could not imitate foreign countries since their public transport systems were well developed.

In foreign countries, underground car parks were built in suburbs and good public transport allowed them to travel to the city, he said. The city's first underground route is expected to begin operation in 2015 at the earliest

Thai Van Chung, secretary of the HCM City Transportation Association, said that besides collecting tolls, the city must improve the quality of bus services because Districts 1 and 3 are the city’s heart, where have administrative agencies, big firms and shopping malls.

Chung said that people use cars to serve their need of traveling and their business. If they have to park their cars far from the center, they must take buses to their offices while the bus service is very poor now.

Moreover, the plan would cause traffic jams in streets near the toll stations, he said.

Dr Pham Xuan Mai of the HCM City University of Technology, said that this plan is unfeasible. HCM City has around 5 million motorbikes and 500,000 cars only so it is unable to say that cars make congestion. The above plan to limit cars is not appropriate to the fact.

He said the city does not have enough parking lots while the bus system is not good, so if it collects tolls, people will still travel to the city’s downtown area. Thus, collecting tolls will not help curb traffic jams. Mai suggested collecting the toll once the city implements synchronous measures.

He wondered: “The HCM City Transportation Department’s report on the traffic situation in the first half of 2011 shows that traffic jams tended to move from the inner area to the outward roads. Whether collecting toll in the downtown area can help reduce congestion in the city?”
Ta Long Hy, Chairman of the HCM City Taxi Association, said that this toll would raise difficulty for taxi firms because taxi is also a mean of public transport. Passengers will have to pay not only the taxi charges but also the toll.

If taxi drivers have to pay the toll, they may not drive to the suburbs but only stay in the downtown area to not have to pay toll, thus, congestion may be more serious, Hy analyzed.

“The city should seek other measures to curb congestion. If it only collects toll, it will be unfeasible and may course other consequences,” Hy said.

Lawyer Le Hieu Dang, former Vice Chair of the HCM City Fatherland Front, said that the toll is not a good measure because congestion is caused by many reasons, such as narrow roads, poor sense of travelers, etc. If the city collects tolls, many people will be willing to pay the toll to get into the downtown area. Moreover, the prices of other goods may rise because of the rice of transport expenses.

TV