Major proposals of a project to restrict private vehicles in the centre of big cities would include a congestion charge. The restriction and applications of many fees would affect production and business activities of people, said Chairman of the Hanoi Transport Association Bui Danh Lien.

Overcrowded streets in Hanoi

According to the official, the requirement that only people who live in cities for at least five years are in cities are allowed to register their vehicles should be removed because this contradicts the Vietnam Civil Code. He also said that motorbikes should not be restricted in inner-city areas at the beginning of the project implementation to avoid possible impacts on production, study and social activities.

The project’s regulation on the expiry date of private vehicle use duration should be carefully studied, he said, noting that, “The regulation should be only revised when necessary. Authorities should learn experiences from other developing countries to suit local people’s incomes.” The life span of passenger transport stands at 20 years and motorbikes is at least 30 years.

In the future when infrastructure is developed more, private cars should be allowed to operate normally again.

Lien suggested that currently only motorbikes should be restricted in main streets and belt roads to give priority to buses. The method of license number bidding would be a good solution to control the number of auto registration to help avoid overcrowded streets.

From now to 2015, authorities should consider applying IT solutions to identify private vehicles in inner-city areas, deal with problems in vehicle ownership transfer and build parking lots along Belt Road 3 as well as instruction circulars to pave the way for carrying out selected elements of the project from 2016, including collecting some fees.