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The boom in the number of individual vehicles is holding back economic growth in HCM City, according to one expert.
Ho Chi Minh City traffic is getting worse
Including fuel prices, traffic accidents and losses to businesses because of traffic congestion, motorbikes alone are estimated to cost the city USD1.07 billion per year, said Dr. Pham Xuan Mai from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.
This figure is 11.2% of the city\'s entire GDP, which is higher than the municipal annual economic growth of 10%, he said.
According to Mai, the large increase in personal vehicle ownership has been a drag on economic development of the city. He suggests that fewer vehicles would improve the living standards of the city\'s residents.
According to the municipal Department of Transportation, at the end of June the city recorded nearly 5.2 million individual vehicles, including 467,258 cars.
Between December 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011, the city reported 196,449 new vehicles.
In 2002 the city government began a study on how to reduce the number of personal vehicles and encourage people to use public transportation. Still traffic congestion continues to increase, while public transportation is insufficient to handle the real demand, said Mai.
However, Dang Van Khoa, a member of the municipal People’s Council, said, “Personal vehicles should not be singled out as the main cause of traffic. It is the drivers\' neglect of traffic rules."
Municipal authorities deserve most of the blame because of the lack of adequate urban planning, the slow development of public transportation system and traffic infrastructure, he said.
Khoa also proposed that the municipal government work out a viable, long-term plan for the development of the transportation system in Ho Chi Minh City.
