HCM City to open separate lanes for buses

HCM City (VNA) - HCM City plans to open private lanes for buses on two major streets to speed up operating time and attract bus riders, among other plans to ease traffic congestion, according to the city’s Department of Transport.

Tran Chi Trung, director of the city’s Management and Control Centre for Public Passenger Transportation, said the private lanes would be opened on Vo Thi Sau and Dien Bien Phu streets.

On Dien Bien Phu Street, the first bus-only lane will start from Ly Thai To Roundabout in District 10 and go to Sai Gon Bridge in District 2.

The second lane will begin at Vo Thi Sau Street and the Dan Chu Roundabout in District 3 and end at Dinh Tien Hoang Street in District 1.

If the pilot bus-lane project is successful, the city will open private bus lanes on the streets of Truong Chinh, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, Nguyen Van Troi, Pham Van Dong, and on a section of Hanoi Highway. Then it might expand it to other streets.  

The Management and Control Centre for Public Passenger Transportation submitted three bus-lane plans to the city’s People’s Committee.

In the first plan, the buses would share lanes with motorbikes rather than lanes for cars.

The second plan called for buses and cars to share lanes on several streets, such as Dien Bien Phu Street and Mai Chi Tho Boulevard.

In the third plan, the left side of one-way streets would be used for buses that pick up and drop off passengers instead of on the right side as usual.

Lawyer Thai Van Chung, deputy chairman of the HCM City Cargo Transportation Association, said opening private lanes for buses on wide streets such as Vo Van Kiet, Pham Van Dong, Dien Bien Phu and Hanoi Highway would be effective.

Streets in urban areas during peak hours face traffic congestion, making it difficult to open private lanes for buses, he said.

Last year, the number of bus passengers fell by 3.4 million compared to the number of bus passengers in 2015, while the city paid more than 1,000 billion VND (44 million USD) in subsidies to bus companies in both years, according to the centre.

The centre said that poor infrastructure and lack of private lanes had caused buses to run late, leading to a drop in the number of passengers.-VNA