Hanoi steps up efforts to ensure traffic safety
In 2025, the city will focus on dealing with 8 to 10 traffic congestion hotspots and addressing areas or routes prone to traffic jams.
| Hanoi from above. Photo: Pham Hung/The Hanoi Times |
The plan is ramping up efforts to tackle traffic issues and enhance safety with a comprehensive plan that emphasizes accountability and coordination across key sectors. The city's recently issued Document No. 18/KH-UBND outlines specific measures targeting road safety, accident reduction, and congestion alleviation, particularly during peak periods like holidays, the Tet festival, and major political, cultural, and sports events.
The plan calls for department directors, heads of relevant agencies, and district chairpersons to take responsibility for implementing effective solutions. Key actions include increasing patrols, enforcing strict penalties for violations across road, rail, and waterway traffic, and ensuring law enforcement maintains discipline to uphold traffic order.
To address traffic congestion, authorities will focus on synchronizing efforts to ease flow and meet public travel demands. The initiative also includes the use of technology, with plans to accelerate the development of an intelligent transportation system in Hanoi.
Among the city's specific goals are boosting public transport usage to account for 20% of total transport demand by 2025, reducing traffic accidents by 5% across all categories, eliminating 8 to 10 major congestion hotspots, and addressing accident-prone areas promptly.
Public awareness is a central component of the plan, with campaigns leveraging media outlets, social networks, and digital platforms to promote traffic laws. Schools, businesses, and public organizations are urged to integrate road safety education, with a particular emphasis on teaching students traffic laws and preventing underage driving.
To further reduce congestion, city officials aim to encourage greater use of public transport, discouraging dependence on personal vehicles by residents, officials, and students.
In parallel, the Department of Planning and Architecture, in collaboration with the Department of Transport, will review and adjust Hanoi's 2030 Transport Plan to align with national directives through 2045 and the vision for 2065. The authorities will also focus on monitoring and evaluating investment projects to accelerate progress.
The Department of Transport, working closely with municipal police and district authorities, will optimize traffic organization through both immediate and long-term strategies. The ongoing implementation of eight strategic solutions from previous directives will remain a priority.
Finally, municipal police will play a crucial role in enforcing traffic laws, particularly in preventing violations that lead to accidents and congestion, to ensure safer and more efficient urban traffic management.
