In the capital's latest installment of unorthodox traffic management – previous chapters include suggesting local drivers learn to drive like the Saigonese – Hanoi officials are planning to take city buses off the streets during peak traffic hours.
According to Voice of Vietnam, the city's transport authority will reduce bus services during rush hour in an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion.
While this announcement seems counterintuitive, Nguyen Hoang Hai, director of Hanoi's Center for Urban Transport Management, believes it could work. The plan, he argues, will temporarily halt bus routes which pass by public construction projects, where safety barriers often create increased congestion.
A total of 11 infrastructure projects are currently underway in the capital, with 27 individual construction sites around the city. By limiting bus routes near these areas, officials believe, traffic will continue to move steadily, albeit slowly.
Transport authorities also took aim at some of Hanoi's slower-moving construction projects, whose inefficiency is exacerbating the capital's traffic problem. Recently, for instance, Korean company Daelim was fined VND75 million for delays on its Nhon-Hanoi elevated railway project.
Still, it's worth pointing out the sheer number of vehicles in Hanoi: perhaps all this traffic might have something to do with the nearly 15,000 new motorbikes and 4,000 new cars registered in the capital each month.
[Photo via VnExpress]
