In recent days, Tran Quoc, who commutes from his workplace to his home in the Hateco Xuan Phuong apartment complex, has begun checking online maps before leaving the office. At 4.30 pm, almost every route from Hang Chuoi Street to his home was marked in red, signalling gridlock, turning his 15km trip into what he described as a nightmare.
“On the afternoon of February 9, it took me more than three hours to get home,” he said. “Every turn was jammed. I ended up taking detours of two to three kilometres just to avoid the worst bottlenecks.”
Quoc said he usually leaves home at 6 am and reaches his office in just under an hour. But the return journey in the afternoon now regularly takes two to three hours, as commuters pour onto the streets after work to shop for Tet or pay seasonal visits.
“In the next few days, I probably won’t drive at all,” he said. “I’ll switch to a motorbike or use ride-hailing service.”
Ring Road 3 severely congested during rush hour (Photo: Nam Viet).
Late on February 10, Tran Nga, who lives in Hoang Liet Ward, struggled to get home after leaving her office near Thang Long Boulevard. She booked a ride-hailing motorbike, but the fare shown on the app was two to three times higher than usual and no driver accepted the trip.
“I went out onto the street and offered VND 100,000 for a journey that normally costs around VND 40,000, but still no motorbike taxi drivers wanted to go because they were afraid of being stuck for hours,” she said.
In the end, Nga walked 2km and called her husband to pick her up. She said Ring Road 3, a major route used by residents travelling back to their hometowns for Tet, had been close to gridlock for days.
Roadworks add to the chaos
As Tet approaches, some of Hanoi’s main routes remain under construction, making an already difficult commute even worse.
Huy Nam, who travels daily along the Trung Kinh-Nguyen Tuan-Nguyen Trai corridor, said his journey time had doubled in recent days.
He said an ongoing road widening and upgrade project on Nguyen Tuan Street had left pavements dug up on both sides, with trenches one to two metres deep and about two metres wide for drainage work. The construction has disrupted traffic flow between Nguyen Tuan and Nguyen Trai.
Excavated soil for drainage is piled up along Nguyen Tuan Road without proper covering, causing significant difficulties for commuters (Photo: Nguyen Hai).
Traffic specialists say congestion worsens every year towards the end of the lunar year, as the number of people and vehicles in Hanoi rises sharply. With shopping and social visits peaking, many residents take to the streets even outside rush hour, leading to long queues that spill from one street into the next.
Additional pressures include a rise in freight vehicles, last-minute repair and construction work, and drivers stopping to buy flowers and ornamental trees for Tet, often blocking key junctions.
Heavy traffic on Tran Duy Hung Road (Photo: Nam Viet).
Speaking to Dantri Newspaper, Nguyen Xuan Thuy, a transport specialist, said Tet traffic was “hot” every year for many reasons, but the most significant was the sudden surge in travel demand.
Vehicle flows in the days before Tet can increase by 60 to 70 per cent compared with normal periods, he said. In Hanoi alone, the number of daily trips, estimated at 15 to 20 million on an average day, can rise to 30 to 40 million.
The surge increases the risks of traffic jams, accidents and environmental pollution, he added.
Thuy said authorities should strengthen traffic management, improve route diversions, deal more firmly with violations, and expand the use of AI-enabled camera monitoring in urban areas and on major roads.
“Tet is the country’s most important traditional holiday, so the transport sector has a responsibility to ensure people can travel safely and smoothly,” he said.