Traffic Jam

Phung Quoc Dung (Dzung)

Traffic Jam

When people talk about Vietnam, they all have to complain the traffic which is so horrible and funny. In fact, not only in Vietnam, traffic congestion is a popular problem of many developed and developing countries, and its effects are really worrying. Traffic jam takes people more time to transport, waste more petrol, more delivery expense or harm significantly to the environment. In Hanoi, the status of traffic jam is becoming more complicate for several reasons

First, the population of Hanoi is too high. Thus, the demand of transportation is also too high especially in the peak hours. This leads to the congestion in a certain street, then spreading out the nearby area. Second, the demand of using own vehicle is also too high. In Hanoi, people like driving their own motorbike for transport purpose, so the development of traffic infrastructure could not meet those demand. Besides, the quality of public transportation is low, so these vehicles just satisfy a low number of residents’ needs. Finally, there are some reasons which we should consider such as lacking of modern traffic equipment, lacking of instantaneous information to show out solutions immediately, or the consciousness of following the traffic rule is equal to zero.

Actually, the government had given out some basic effective solutions to reduce the traffic congestion. However, some new troubles was appeared. For examples, they mobilize the policeman to control the crow in the peak hours, but just one policeman for each crossroads. Thus, the result is he could not stand for a long time, meanwhile people could not be calm and the roads were like a mess. Moreover, the traffic lights are one of the most important things to control the crowd, but may be someone just set up a stupid light system. During the rush hours, the green light of opposite ways allow people could go straight or turn left at the same time, so there were two flows which are perpendicular to each other. In addition, the attitude of Vietnamese people is so bad, they just would like to move as quickly as possible and care to nothing. They climb on the sidewalks, go straight when the light is red or even try to go reverse the crowded flow in the peak hours.

In brief, the traffic in Vietnam has no rule. So, please do not talk to me like that when we live in Hanoi: “Hurry up, man”. It would be never work.