On a recent trip to Saigon, the best advice I received about getting around the city during the 6PM rush was, “Don’t make plans before 8PM.” This was advice well heeded. More often than not, during my stay in Saigon, I chose to stay in rather than face the gauntlet of motorbikes, cyclos, buses and cars that flood the streets every evening.
As the population grows, it is clear Saigon needs to take steps to alleviate the challenges of transporting over 7 million people around the city. Census reports show the city’s population to be 7.1 million and growing by 200,000 annually. If current trends continue, that would put Saigon’s population on par with New York City by the end of the decade.
A comparable city in size and growth to Saigon is Bangkok, which saw a similar rise in population during the 80s and 90s and is now in the midst of notorious traffic problems. As the Thai economy has grown in the past twenty years, so has the demand for private automobile ownership. The city saw motor vehicle registration rise 40% in the past decade with an estimated 3.2 million private automobiles and 2.2 motorbikes on the road as of 2007. And what is the economic cost of all these vehicles on the road? A reported $275 million per year, and that was only as of 1994; the problem has surely worsened since then.
The situation in Saigon could be headed for a similar fate. Studies have shown average vehicle speeds during rush hour have fallen nearly 40% in the past six years. As of 2009 there were around 4 million motorbikes in the city representing 90% of the traffic, while buses (currently the only mode of public transportation) only account for 6.3% of similar traffic.
The biggest project to ease traffic is the metro system currently in construction. In 2008, the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) announced plans for a six line metro system that would be a mix of light rail and underground rail lines. The proposed Line 1 will run underground from Ben Thanh Market to Ba Son Shipyard and then continue east through district 2 on an elevated track. The planned completion for the line is 2015. Line 2 will run in a northwest-southeast direction, primarily connecting Ben Thanh Market with a bus station near Tan Son Nhat Airport. The plan calls for a significant portion of the line to be built underground with operation to begin in 2016.
Four other lines have been proposed and are in various stages of planning. Major lines include Cholon and Binh Tan district to the west of Ben Thanh Market, as well as a line from Tan Binh district (near Tan Son Nhat Airport) to Binh Thanh district.
Plans are also in place to improve and invest in the existing transport infrastructure. The bus system will see increased reliability through specialized bus lanes, timed traffic flow systems, and GPS tracking. Roads will be improved and widened to handle the inevitable increase of motorbike, bus and other vehicular traffic. Strategies to section off traffic (right turns, one-way streets) will hopefully improve overall flow and ease congestion at bottlenecks across the city.
As Saigon continues to grow through the next decade, the city needs to heed the questions asked of cities such as Bangkok and Sao Paolo. With a burgeoning middle class will Saigon be able to handle an increase in private car ownership? Are ridership numbers for the metro and bus lines realistic? What are the health and environmental impacts of the population and traffic increases? These are serious questions Saigon needs to address with its population problem. The hope is that Saigon can address these issues so the growth of the city will be a true benefit to all its citizens.
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Additional References: Case Study of Bangkok | UN Habit: Bangkok’s strategy to tackle air polution
Image from Flickr
Are there any universities in Saigon that you would consider an institute for urban planning studies?