Some Saigoneers are in agreement with the city’s plan to ban personal vehicles in downtown Saigon, but most believe that there remains a lot to be done before the project is implemented.
On March 1, a debate on the plan to manage Saigon’s usage of personal vehicles and public transportation was held in Saigon by the Hanoi-based Transport Development and Strategy Institute (TDSI), reports Tuoi Tre.
At the conference, TDSI presented the results of their public perception survey done over the past few months amongst Saigon residents. To arrive at the final statistics, TDSI interviewed locals at nine traffic hot spots and distributed 35,000 questionnaires across the city’s 24 districts.
According to the results, 62.56% of Saigoneers surveyed support of the proposal to limit cars and motorbikes. Of the “yes” votes, 40.77% are in complete agreement, while 21.79% will support the plan only if other forms of public transport are adequate to handle their commuting needs.
The majority of respondents also approved of some suggested ways to curb traffic jams: imposing alternate business hours for offices and schools (80.25% approval); charging an entrance fee to the central business district (69.69% approval) and applying information technology in traffic control (85.53% approval).
TDSI also added that in its current condition, Saigon’s bus network is badly designed and lacks vehicle options, leading to plummeting ridership that only satisfies around 4.3% of the city’s transport demands.
The survey was based on a detailed proposal from municipal authorities to eventually turn downtown Saigon motorbike-free, as announced in August 2018. Specifically, it aims to prevent bikes from entering District 1, 3, 5 and 10 by 2030.
When considering the survey results, it’s important to keep in mind the discrepancies in language used: the August 2018 plan prominently states that the ban is imposed on motorbikes, but in Tuoi Tre’s announcement of the survey results, the blanket term “personal vehicle” was used, suggesting that respondents were queried on the prospect of banning both cars and motorbikes.
