Vietnam: Hanoi officials want to ban motorcycles in city by 2030

IN a bid to ease congestion and pollution, officials in Vietnam have vowed to ban motorbikes in the heavily-congested capital by 2030 as the government looks to limit the use of personal vehicles on its streets, local reports say.

کد خبر: ۷۰۹۳۹۳

تاریخ: ۱۴ تير ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۱:۱۳

According to national daily Viet Nam News, the Hanoi’s People’s Council voted overwhelmingly to limit the use of personal vehicles in the inner city by 2030 to ease traffic jams.

"Some 70 per cent of traffic accidents are related to motorbikes, which proves that motorbike drivers are those at the highest risk of road accidents,” the council’s deputy Nguyen Tien Minh was quoted as saying.

Hanoi’s Department of Transport director Vu Van Vien said the department would take into account the opinions aired by the People’s Council to enhance the proposal.

The three phases mentioned in the proposal comprised the review stage in which all personal vehicles will be put under a coordinated management plan in 2017 and 2018.

Between 2017 and 2020, the second phase will place focus on developing a public transportation system to cater to over 50 percent of the city’s inhabitants by 2030.

In the third phase of the plan, motorbikes would be gradually limited and banned in the inner districts by the end of 2030, according to Viet Nam News.

While some people have welcomed the idea to limit traffic, there is concern over the feasibility of the plan.

Motorcycle riders say it would be impossible to ban people from a mode of transport they have grown up with, especially given the city’s poor public transport.

Office worker Hoang Thuy Duong, who rides a motorbike to work daily, told the Agence France-Presse (via Straits Times) that the idea is "totally insane.”

"Motorbikes are the best means of transportation in Hanoi. I doubt the authorities can replace them with public vehicles,” she was quoted as saying

Vietnam’s rapid economic growth has seen household incomes quadruple since the turn of the century. One in every two of its 90 million people own a motorcycle, and car sales rose 30 percent in 2016.

Hanoi is forecast to have six million motorcycles on its roads in the next three years, according to the city government.