Le Thi Linh in the Van Khe urban area in Ha Dong district in Hanoi sometimes takes the BRT to travel from her home to Giang Vo street. 

However, it often takes her more time to get there than a normal bus because in rush hours the lane for BRT is often congested as private vehicles encroach on it.

“If private vehicles on the priority lane reserved for BRT, BRT, they can't move, just like normal buses. This is why BRT still cannot attract passengers,” Linh said.

Hoang Van Minh, a resident in Ba La urban area in Ha Dong, said that it is clear that the development of BRT has failed because of the wrong vision and unreasonable urban transport planning.

He said this was caused by the arrangement of BRT on routes with heavy traffic, many multi-storey buildings, narrow areas for traffic and too many intersections.

“BRT occupies one-third of road width and goes through many intersections, so all the roads where BRT goes through have become points of traffic congestion,” Minh said. “At some BRT stations, there is no pedestrian bridge and passengers have to cross roads, which is a threat to traffic safety."

Inadequacies

According to the Hanoi Public Transport Operation Center, after five years of use, BRT has been accepted by people who praise its service quality.

The number of BRT passengers has been increasing, but not sharply. There were 5.3 million BRT passengers in 2018, up 6.3 percent over 2017. 

In 2019, BRT served 5.5 million passengers, up by 3.7 percent over 2018. Meanwhile, the number of passengers reached 5.356 million in 2020, down 2.6 percent.

BRT has advantages that create differences between it and normal buses. As a specific lane is reserved for BRT, it can run smoothly at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour on average. The time duration is stable and the punctuality rate is high.

When setting up the BRT No 01 route, Hanoi hoped that it would replace private vehicles and help ease traffic jams.

However, problems arose during the trial operation of BRT. Private vehicles encroach on the lane reserved for BRT, which reduces BRT traffic speed.

The cameras placed on Quang Trung street show that in one hour, about 308 vehicles run on BRT lanes. The figure is 707 on To Huu street. 

Hanoi has tried to solve the problems, including allowing normal buses to run on the lane reserved for BRT. 

However, another problem has arisen. Bus shelters are located on the right part of roads. If normal buses run on the lane reserved for BRT, passengers have to cross the road to take buses, which worsens traffic.

Failures in planning

Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy director general of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, said it is clear that the first BRT route of the country has not been successful.

According to Thanh, Hanoi programmed BRT in a hurry and did not consider the plan carefully. BRT routes are on narrow roads such as Le Van Luong and To Huu, but Hanoi still allows the building of multi-story buildings which reduces the space for BRT.

“There should be a system with many routes connected with each other. Hanoi plans to set up eight BRT routes. If the routes can be arranged reasonably, passengers will take BRT instead of using private vehicles,” Thanh said.

He said that before arranging the next BRT routes, Hanoi needs to create favorable conditions for BRT to operate effectively.

Priority lanes for BRT should be reserved and vehicles encroaching on the lane should be strictly punished. Normal buses must also stop running on BRT lanes.

“In South Korea and Indonesia, BRT works very effectively, especially in Indonesia which has similar transport conditions like Vietnam. This is because they set BRT routes on suitable roads and give absolute priority to BRT,” Thanh said.

He believes that it would be better to use a hard median strip to separate the lane for normal vehicles and the lane for BRT.

Vu Diep