To
curb traffic jams and air pollution, HCM City Department of Transport has
proposed to allow cars to go into downtown areas based on registration numbers.
Voice have been raised against this idea.

At a recent meeting on dealing with traffic jams, the HCM
City Department of Transport asked the city authorities to curb personal
vehicles in the hub based on their registration numbers.

Accordingly, vehicles with even numbers will be permitted to
go downtown on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while cars with uneven numbers will
be allowed on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. All vehicles are allowed to
access downtown on Sunday.

Subjects to the regulation will be individual vehicles only,
not buses or taxis.

Odd registration numbers are numbers that have a 1, 3, 5, 7,
9 as the last digit registration numbers that have 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 as their last
digit.

The department’s chief Tran Quang Phuong said HCM City’s
transport facilities are overloaded now. The city is in serious shortage of car
parking. He hoped that the new measure would help solve traffic jams in the
center.

Traffic expert Nguyen Minh Dong, a Vietnamese German, said
that the above proposal is ineffective to curb air pollution and traffic jams,
but it will make traffic situation more complicated.

Dong said it is wrong to say that the reduction of cars on
the road will help reduce pollution because more cars will discharge more
exhaust but it doesn’t mean that the entire exhaust is toxic.

According to research works by German experts on exhaust, a
motorbike of 50 cc which meets Euro 1 standards on exhaust will discharge a
volume of toxic gas that is 1,300 times more than a car of 1,800cc which meets
Euro 4 standards.

In HCM City and in Vietnam in general, most motorbikes
don’t have exhaust filters. Even latest models of motorbikes in Vietnam
don’t meet Euro standards from 2 level upwards. Exhaust control of cars is much
better because most cars meet at least Euro 3 standards. Even cars without
exhaust filters still reach Euro 2 standards.

Dong said that to control air pollution, it is not simple as
banning cars on street but controlling exhaust standards of vehicles.

He added that HCM
City should not mistakes
between restriction and banning. Developed countries don’t ban the use of cars.
They only have tools of control to help car users have most intelligent choices
in using cars, buses, motorbikes, bikes or walking for specific trips. It is
most important to have a good public transport system before restricting the
use of individual vehicles, Dong said.

Dr. Phung Manh Tien, from the Institute for Transport
Sciences’ HCM City
branch, had doubts about HCM
City’s ability to control
cars in circulation by registration numbers.

Tien said that the most important mission of transport
police officers is to control traffic, not to pay attention to registration
numbers. Vietnam
doesn’t have smart traffic systems to effectively control cars by registration
numbers like developed countries.

If cars are banned to go into the downtown area based on
registration numbers, traffic in adjacent districts like Districts 5, 10, Binh
Thanh, Phu Nhuan will be in chaos because car drivers will change their routes
to evade the center, Tien analyzed.

“If cars are banned to go into the downtown area, how about
cars that go from the downtown area to the suburbs? The border between the
downtown and the suburban areas is vague and it may cause corruption because
police officers have the right to impose fines,” Tien added.

If this proposal is applied, local residents will have
several options. Part of them may use motorbikes on the banned days and another
part may buy the second cars, with even and odd registration numbers. In the
cases, the goals to curb air pollution and traffic jams will fail. Moreover,
people will buy second-hand cars, which have already registration numbers, to
easily choose the numbers they want. It means that toxic exhaust volume will
increase.

Lawyer Bui Quang Nghiem, Vice Chair of the HCM City Bar
Association, said that this measure is a ban in nature while the law allows
people to use their personal assets, providing that they don’t violate the law.
If the measure is applied, the law and many by-law documents must be amended.

Lawyer Nghiem said that Vietnamese have to buy cars at very
high prices and they have to pay taxes and fees so it is unfair to restrict
their right of using cars.

Lawyer Le Hieu Dang, Vice Chair of the Advisory Council on
Democracy and Law, under the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, said
that previously Hanoi
planed to restrict motorbikes on street based on registration numbers and it
was severely protested. This is a lesson for HCM City.

“Dealing with traffic matters needs a long-term strategy. It
is possible to propose a measure and if it fails, other measures are proposed.
If we have a good transportation infrastructure and a good public
transportation system, people will voluntarily abandon personal means of
transportation. HCM
City needs to boost
approved measures rather than create unfeasible measures,” Dang said.

Nguyen Manh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Transportation
Association, said that cars are not the major culprits that cause traffic jams.
HCM City has around 500,000 cars only.

PV