As the former general director of Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No 5 (Cienco 5), you seem very interested in the experimental plan to divide traffic lanes in Ha Noi. Can you tell us something about this?

Of course. I think that the Ha Noi City Transport Department authorities know and understand the limits of traffic lights [which often cause traffic jams on many roads in large cities].

These traffic lights should be replaced with roundabouts.

I wrote a plan entitled “Raising the capabilities of traffic, avoiding congestion and limiting traffic accidents in urban areas” in December 2007, with help from a group of scientists, including Associate Professor Tran Binh, Viet Nam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations’ Deputy Chairman Pham Sy Liem and Professor Nguyen Van Dat.

In my plan, I clearly analysed the reasons behind traffic jams in Ha Noi and other large cities, like HCM City.

I sent the plan to the Minister of Transport and to chairmen of the Ha Noi and HCM City People’s Committees.

What was their response?

The only thing I received was a piece of paper sent from the Ha Noi People’s Committee, informing me that they had received my proposal and had handed it to the Department of Public Works and Transport for consideration. Perhaps even now, the department is still “considering” it.

In my proposal, I said that it was necessary to build more roundabouts of different shapes (circular, oblong and other shapes, depending on the terrain).

Of all these roundabouts, the circular one is best, as we can easily build fly-overs above them in the future.

This is just for the short term, to save large cities from traffic jams for the next 5-10 years.

In the future, as society develops further, this solution will be out of date.

For the long term, we need to implement other measures. We must build fly-overs and underground tunnels for vehicles, reduce traffic density in the city’s central zones and re-plan the city to be chequered.

I think that traffic lights are an advantage of the modern traffic system. What do you think are their limits?

Traffic lights hinder continuous driving. Without red lights, we could be driving every minute we’re on the road. With red lights, we’re driving only 50 per cent of the time.

Red lights also cause traffic jams, and when this happens, we’re driving only about 20-30 per cent of the time we’re on the road. It’s like building a 30m road, but only being able to use 10m of it. It’s a waste.

What about the limits of this new model?

The new model allows vehicles to run in circles, and wipes out all red lights.

The main weakness of this model is that it gives no way for pedestrians to cross the road as before.

As for people travelling on bicycles, if they want to cross the street, they will have to cut across lanes of cars and motorbikes. Another limit is that longer city buses will find it hard to turn around.

All these limits raise the risk of traffic accidents.

Another limit is that this model can only be applied to roads with medians.

How can we overcome these limits?

In the plan I sent to the authorities, I mentioned how to solve these problems.

We should build fly-overs for pedestrians, and even fly-overs for bicycle riders. If we let them cross the way they do now, it will be very dangerous, especially on wider roads like Kim Ma, Nguyen Trai and Giai Phong.

You say this experiment has too many limits. But what points can be continually implemented?

Although it has some weak points, it’s still a good project and should be supported.

The best point of this experimental plan is that it raises driving percentages on roads. In a recent survey of the streets, traffic jams have been drastically reduced.

Do you think they will use your idea to implement this project?

I can’t really say.

It does not matter to me. As long as it brings benefits to all of society, I will feel happy about it.

I had the idea, but it didn’t cost me much to make it a reality. It was just a little money for typing and photocopying.

I’ve simply made some suggestions and offered them to the authorities for the benefit of everyone. I don’t want to be the sole benefactor from this act.

VNN/VNS