Cities prepare to limit car numbers

The municipal administration of HCM City has requested the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to make several modifications to its proposal to limit the use of personal vehicles in the nation’s bigger cities.

The ministry’s proposal targets private vehicle limitation in cities of Hanoi, Haiphong, Danang, HCM City and Can Tho with several measures including a road-use tax, lower registration quotas and higher registration, ownership transfer and environmental fees.

If the proposal is approved by the Government, a compliance roadmap until 2020 will be put in place by the ministry.

HCM City is asking the MoT to reconsider the annual quota for registration of new vehicles each year.

The MoT’s proposal envisages an annual quota for new vehicles registration for each city. It also seeks to limit registration of new vehicles to those who have been residing in a city for more than five years.

HCM City officials feel such restrictions are not feasible. City residents can ask their relatives to register new vehicles in other provinces and use them in the city, they say.

The city is also arguing that measures to limit private vehicles should go in tandem with programmes to develop public transportation means.

The ministry should, therefore, include plans to build more bus stations and services for commuters’ convenience, including construction of exclusive lanes for buses.

The city is also asking for a clear definition of what constitutes means of public transportation. In its proposal, the MoT treats taxis as a type of private vehicle, but HCM City sees them as public transportation.

The ministry should also study and identify the reasons for the increase in use of private vehicles over the last 10 years so that it can come up with more realistic measures to tackle the problem, the city has suggested.