A police officer directs the traffic flow on a street in Hanoi. The capital city is making efforts to curb worsening traffic and pollution (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – The capital city of Hanoi is eyeing fees onpersonal vehicles entering the city centre in an attempt to curb worseningtraffic and pollution.
The municipal People’s Committee submitted aplan to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier this month, asking forpermission to gradually cut the number of vehicles in the central districts ofthe capital.
The plan details three proposals, including anew fee on vehicles entering the districts in question, an extra fee forpollution and administrative tools to manage electric bicycles and cars.
These are the key strategies Hanoi authoritiesintend to use to enact the city’s master plan on congestion and pollutionmanagement, approved by the Hanoi People’s Council in 2017.
City officials called the proposed vehicle fee abehavioural economics initiative designed to restrict traffic in certain areas.
Several large cities around the world, includingLondon and Singapore, have effectively applied similar methods.
Exactly where drivers will need to pay the feesis still undetermined, but the Hanoi Department of Transport said the firstpriority is to apply the fee inside city Belt Road No 3.
Belt Road No 3 is a comprised of severalcontinuous roads that split the urban and suburban districts in southwest Hanoi.It runs through roads including Pham Van Dong and Pham Hung, and ends at ThanhTri Bridge.
The transport department hinted the fee couldeventually be expanded to other zones. It will conduct surveys to determinewhich streets and areas would benefit most from a reduction in traffic.
The department said it is designing an automaticfee collection system to “avoid disturbing drivers”.
As a result, each vehicle owner will need tohave a bank account with a special tool equipped to allow a tollbooth toautomatically collect the fee.
Vice President of the Hanoi Association ofTransport Bui Danh Lien supports the move, but suggested limiting feecollection to the busiest hours to avoid restricting movement too much.
“Congestion only happens in Hanoi during rushhour, so that is when the fee should be applied,” he told the TienPhong (Vanguard) newspaper.
Lien pointed out Singapore follows this model,only charging a high fee during rush hour. Drivers on the road before six inthe morning or after seven in the evening pay a minimal fee, if they arecharged at all.
“Hanoi should consider implementing theSingapore model,” he said.
Vietnam’s capital and the centre of life in theNorth, Hanoi attracts millions of migrants with many thousands of new arrivalseach year. They come to the city seeking a better life. Withthem, come cars and motorbikes.
Estimates say Hanoi will have over six millionmotorbikes and 800,000 cars clogging its roads by 2020.
Those numbers will continue to climb, and couldhit 7.5 million motorbikes and 1.9 million cars by 2030, threatening to worsenthe city’s already poor air quality.
The second proposal, an environmental fee onvehicles with four or more wheels, would be collected whenever a car isre-registered.
If this fee is approved, the transport departmentwould start preparing now to begin collection in 2019.
Lien, however, opposes the move. He called it “afee on top of another fee” because vehicle users already pay an environmentalfee each time they buy petrol. The current tax is at least 3,000 VND (13 UScents) per litre. “It would be inappropriate for Hanoi to add anotherenvironmental fee,” he said.
He also pointed out the city’s plan does notdistinguish between vehicles in the city centre and those that stay in suburbanareas.
“A driver in rural Ba Vi district can’t andshouldn’t pay the same fee as one in Hoan Kiem district,” he said.-VNS/VNA
VNA
