According to the Ministry’s draft strategy on traffic safety
by 2020 and the vision for 2030, which was released on April 15. The number of
motorbikes in Vietnam
will reach 36 million by 2020. At that time, this vehicle will be still
popular, but the government will restrict the increase of motorbikes by
administrative, economic and technical measures.

Motorbikes will be strictly controlled through the
strengthening of quality control, exhaust control, improvement of technical
safety, revoking out-of-date vehicles,ect In the future, motorbikes will be
mainly used in the countryside, where public transport systems are absent.

The draft strategy also aims to reduce the number of deaths
by traffic accidents from the current rate of 13 victims per 100,000 people, to
8 by 2020, and 4-6 by 2030, through many solutions.

Accordingly, big cities will have belt roads to reduce
traffic flow inside cities. Parking lots will be re-designed and organized,
using automatic fee collecting systems. Trucks will be banned from getting into
downtown areas in certain time. Road networks will be developed and separated
to serve cars, motorbikes, bikes, pedestrians, etc. Intersections will be
reduced. Smart traffic signal systems will be used.

Dr. Ly Huy Tuan, Director of the Institute for Transport Development
and Strategy, the agency that compiled the draft strategy, explained that
“motorbikes will be restricted because most of road accidents in Vietnam are
related to motorbikes.” This kind of vehicle currently grows over 15 percent in
Vietnam.

Representatives of provincial Departments of Transport
backed the Ministry of Transport’s proposals. Le Toan, Deputy Director of HCM
City Department of Transport said that “HCM City’s
transport infrastructure is overloaded because personal vehicles grow over 10
percent annually, while the road system increases less than 1 percent a year.”

HCM
City will curb personal
vehicles, collect fees automatically and increase the parking fee, especially
in the downtown area, as well as registration fees of personal vehicles.

According to a representative of the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA), Vietnam
can achieve its goal of reducing 40 percent of traffic accident cases by 2020
if it can solve two matters: the lack of knowledge on traffic safety of the
people and implementing solutions comprehensively.

“Japan
spent five years to comprehensively invest in traffic safety. As a result, the
number of dead and injured victims of traffic accidents in 1980 dropped by a
half in comparison with 1970,” the JICA representative said.

The Ministry of Transport will collect opinions from related
agencies before submitting the draft strategy to the government for approval.

Gov’t earmarks $1.6b
for road traffic safety

According to Dr. Ly Huy Tuan, Director of the Institute for
Transport Development and Strategy, VND34 trillion (US$1.6 billion) would be
spent on infrastructure and technologies in the next five years to ensure
road-traffic safety.

The money would go into 45 priority programmes, including
VND32 trillion for infrastructure works and VND500 billion for Intelligent
Transportation Systems (ITS) for traffic control.

Dr. Tuan said the goals were to reduce accidents and
socio-economic losses, and also create a healthy living environment.

The strategies will focus on developing infrastructure,
improving traffic safety assessment systems, rebuilding accident-prone road
sections, and road maintenance.

In a report, the World Health Organisation blames the
relentless increase in accidents in Viet Nam on the boom in motorised
means of land transport, rapid urban development, and inadequate
infrastructure.

Minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung said poor infrastructure
and transport facilities and lack of awareness of road rules were the main
causes of the increasing occurrence of accidents. “Ensuring traffic safety
is an urgent task for society now,” he said.

The transportation strategies indicate the Government’s
determination to reduce accidents by 40 percent by 2020.

For 2016-20 the allocation for the programme will be VND6.5
trillion ($310 million), including VND4.2 trillion for infrastructure and
VND500 billion for ITS.

PV