Essay: HCMC increasing gridlocks after one month against traffic snarls

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HCMC increasing gridlocks after one month against traffic snarls

Source: Kien Cuong – http://www.vnexpress.net

Translated by language123(Thanh Hiếu) and Phan Thị Mai Trang

Head of the city’s Department of Transport and Public Works Tran Quang Phuong admitted in the meeting in Octorber that accident cases had decreased 17 percents in comparrision to previous month, but the traffic order had been unalterable.

The 9 measures the city’s leaders is applying in fighting against traffic congestion are: re-dividing lanes for some certain streets, reducing some bus routes, installing more cameras, imposing stronger penalties, re-ordering streets and pavements, stacking school and office schedules…

However, representatives of related organizations all commented applications of projects are not quite effective. “Be more determined in launching the projects, find out confusing measures that can not be carried out, give the reasons and disentangle the problems,” presented Nguyen Huu Tin, vice chairman of the city People’s Committee.

HCMC in embarrassement due to traffic congestions. Photographed: KC

In presenting the project on stacking school and office schedules, the representative of the Department of Transportation and Public Works denoted “related organizations considered the project and have been investigating about referendum, though the result is that we have to wait”. The stacking project has not been applied in offices.

Representatives of the Department of Education and Training complained that they have let parents come into the schoolyard for picking up their children. Uncomfortably, that they smoke and wear shorts causes a bad school impression. Besides, other parents come earlier and therefore travel around. That makes traffic congestion even worse.

Recently, after one month of carrying out the plan of delaying a half of hour, some of kindergartens in district 1 had to suggest to the Bureau of Education that the school hours should be as it had been. The parents blaimed they had not enough time to get to work after dropping off their children; At the school gates appeared the spectacle of jostling, shouting parents and students waiting to send the children to the classes.

“If the office hours are not stacked, kindergartens themselves can not change the school time since it is not suitable with parents’ time and that causes problems”, said a director of a kindergarten to VnExpress.

Another solution of reducing some bus routes by the Transportation Department was brought about but not effective because buses still travel too many in rush-hours. In stead of using smaller buses, many big-sized ones still have been means of transportation traveling into streets being constructed, causing gridlocks. An idea states that the Department should become the leading organization forcing their employees to take buses to work. However, few people approve the solution.

HCMC was ashamed to accept the fact that the compaign against disordering pavements which was intended to be finished by Oct 10 was only a feasible solution on documents.

According to the report of Traffic Safety Department, an urgent requirement of re-organizing the order of streets and pavements is carefully considered by districts’ leaders; however, due to the too pressing deadtime (before Oct 15), they can not fulfill their duties. Most of them come to the same conclusion that if wanting to get the success, they have to spend much more time to overcome many real sophisticated troubles.

Up to now, just waiting for direct instructions, at local areas has no progresses, but some light warnings in reorganizing the order of streets and pavements.

Vice chairman of the city People’s Committee, Nguyen Huu Tin displeasingly said, one of the obligatory conditions of doing business -having a parking lot- hasnot been tightly examined. Therefore, he commanded the process and the limited time of road reorganization must be announced publicly to the city dwellers.

With more and more people migrating to the city, there must have enough room for used vehicles, he added. However, underground parking lots will not probably be built in one or two days as well as roads will be not immediately constructed. Having the awareness, the city’s leaders have to turn to other practical measures that are letting businessmen storing vehicles in their house, collecting higher fees, coordinating and constructing paking lots from barns and empty sites of enterprises aroud.”