Vietnam Makes a Substantial Effort Against Air Pollution #Science #Environment #Health

There are five million motorbikes among a population of about seven million in Hanoi, compared to half a million cars on the road


Officials in Vietnam's traffic-choked capital Hanoi vowed on Tuesday to banish motorbikes by 2030 to ease environment and congestions woes, a decision that swiftly divided a city where two-wheelers are the main means of transportation.

Hanoi is famed for legions of motorbikes—sometimes stacked with entire families or overloaded with deliveries—that clog roads in a fast-growing city with limited public transportation.

Phys.org:  Vietnam's capital to ban motorbikes by 2030

When you have a population of seven million people and cut off the transportation for five million of them, we see some nervy politicians at work.


The decision to ban motorbikes by 2030 was approved by 95 out of 96 city councillors at a meeting on Tuesday.

Officials said the number of vehicles was growing at an "alarming" rate, according to a report on the city government's website.

- PO

In fact, the vote was nearly unanimous.


A scooter gives maximum independence to the individual and I loved mine but they're incredibly wasteful in terms of the resources needed to move that number of people and they're also dirty with two-stroke motors being the worst.

The city councillors have a valid case so the question is whether they can pull it off since simply banning the bikes won't do it since suddenly, relatively-speaking, five million people have no way to get to work or much of anywhere.


Hanoi does not have a metro system, only public buses which account for 12 percent of travel demand in the city. Officials said Tuesday they plan to boost that share to around 50 percent by 2030.

Construction of a sky train in the city has been repeatedly delayed but is slated to open next year.

- PO

Frankly, that looks kind of weak in terms of compensation for the departure of five million rides.


This looks, to the Rockhouse, like a prime business opportunity for manufacturers of robo buses.  They're all electric so they don't contribute to the air pollution plus they may convey large numbers of people with relative ease and there's no need to modify existing infrastructure to do it.