Nature & Environment Stories:
Hanoi steps up efforts to ban motorbikes by 2030
Hanoi is pressing on with its plan to prohibit the use of motorbikes on its streets by 2030 in a bid to reduce traffic congestion and pollution.
There are currently more than 6 million vehicles registered in the Vietnamese capital, of which over 5 million are motorbikes. Add another 2 million vehicles entering the city from other provinces and 1 million police and defence vehicles, and you have the dangerously packed roads that the city’s hotel concierges often warn tourists about.
At the Meracus Hotel in Hanoi tourists are handed sheets of paper with advice on how to cross the roads. “Be relaxed and self-confident. Look two ways or make eye contact with drivers. Walk slowly with purpose. Never step back,” the tip sheets say, according to a New York Times article.
With a population of about 7.9 million people squeezed into a land area of 3,358 square kilometers, and a population density of over 2,455 people per square kilometer, the rising number of gasoline-powered bikes poses a major air pollution problem.
Hanoi’s PM2.5 level— the concentration of smog particles in the air capable of causing throat and lung damage — is about 33 micrograms per cubic meter, surpassing the WHO threshold of 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
Public transportation comprising buses, taxis, motorcycle taxis and pedicabs are only able to meet 15 percent of the demand for such services, and construction of underground railway systems are yet to be completed. Motorbikes are the mainstay of personal mobility, meeting 80 percent of the city’s travel needs.
While the city’s authorities see banning bikes as the only way to solve the traffic problem, the public isn’t keen on the move.
Hanoi’s inhabitants use bikes to travel to work and to ferry everything from cooking gas cylinders to sacks of rice. It is common to see small families getting around on scooters. Banning motorbikes will affect their ability to get to work punctually, deliver goods on time, and connect with the many areas in Hanoi that aren’t serviced by public transportation networks.
“It’s impossible,” said Pham Van Chinh, a motor-taxi driver in Hanoi, when asked what he thought about the plan. “It will cause difficulties for bureaucrats, employers, students and traders,” he told Reuters.
Ho Huu Chat, a street vendor, wants the government to reconsider the plan because “Businesses will be affected.”
SIDEBAR INFORMATION
Yangon already bans bikes
Motorbikes have been banned in Yangon, Myanmar, for over a decade. The ban was imposed to reduce traffic congestion and accidents. Only certain government officials are allowed to ride bikes. Still, people in the outskirts of the city ride them illegally. Motorcycle taxi businesses thrive in the suburban areas of Yangon, such as Insein and Hlaing Tharyar in the north, and Dagon Seikkan in the east. These motorcycle taxi riders have ways of dodging the police. One rider told the Myanmar Times that the police usually make arrests on Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays, so he doesn’t work on those days. The police themselves admit that transport is poor in the outer townships, which cover a large area, and people don’t have much of a choice other than to use bikes.
