| Monday, May 30,2011,20:35 (GMT+7) |
By Anh Quan - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – The HCMC government has released a traffic jam reduction program for the 2011-2015 period with drastic measures to increase public transport services and reduce the use of personal vehicles. The program will be effective from Tuesday.
Under the program, the local government will assign the Transport Department to pilot prohibition of vehicles on some streets in the city center during a certain time daily.
Automobiles coming into the center will be subject to toll fees with parking fees increasing from the outlying to the central areas. Besides, the city will also raise some charges on newly-registered personal vehicles.
The department in the past has received suggestions from drivers who say the accepted low speed of all vehicles is one of the main reasons for prolonged traffic congestion.
Le Toan, deputy director of Transport Department, said the department is studying plans to raise speed limits on some streets, but only for those with separated lanes for motorbikes and automobiles. Otherwise, high speeds are too dangerous on normal streets.
In addition, HCMC will prioritize the development of a bus system, setting aside streets for buses, especially mass rapid transit buses. The city will build bus stations and bus transit places in several districts from now until 2015.
The city also has plans to push infrastructure development, putting 210 kilometers of new roads into operation and building 50 more bridges.
Department statistics shows that the city has 4.9 million motorbikes and 500,000 automobiles. There are an additional 100 cars and 1,000 motorbikes registered daily.
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