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HCM City: The home of the nine hour traffic jam
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VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s largest city has been accused of failing to curb both traffic jams and traffic accidents.


Traffic jams have become yet more serious while the number of traffic accidents and fatalities have only showed tiny reductions since 2009, the HCM City Traffic Safety Committee reported.

The number of traffic accidents in HCM City in 2009 was 1,152, only three less than 2008, with 940 deaths, 26 less than 2008 and 495 injured victims, up by 83.

“These figures show that the city didn’t achieve its goals in reducing traffic accidents and vicitims,” said Nguyen Ngoc Tuong, vice chief of the HCM City Traffic Safety Committee on January 7.

The city’s authorities asked related agencies to curb traffic jams in 2009. The city recorded 74 traffic jams of over 30 minute long in 2009, 26 more than 2008. “Among them, there were traffic jams of 4,6 or even 9 hours. Vehicles almost stood still,” Tuong said.

The HCM City Department of Transportation said that to deal with worsening traffic in the city, the local government should use long-term methods besides applying heavy fines.

“At a between the Ministry of Justice, Hanoi and HCM City, it was agreed that the two cities will impose higher fines on traffic violators compared to other locations,” said Duong Hong Thanh, deputy director of the HCM City Department Transportation.

Thanh cited an example: cars parked illegally sites may be fined up to 8 million dong compared to the common level of 400,000 dong.

He also said that it is very important to develop a bus system in HCM City. “The city doesn’t have any method to curb personal vehicles. Buses will still be the major method of public transport up until 2020. However, hopefully by 2016, the first subway route will start operations,” Thanh said.

Pham Quoc Tai, vice chief of the Saigon Transport Mechanical Engineering Company, said that the city’s current bus system is of poor quality. “We still lack bus stops and the city still owes 167 billion dong of subsidies to the bus service. In that situation, how can we improve bus service quality?” Tai said.

The HCM City Department of Transportation will experimentally use smart cards on buses running in the No.1 and 27 routes. Accordingly, passengers will no longer pay for bus tickets using cash.

PV