According to the figures provided by a staff of Hanoi Traffic Police Bureau (TPB) : everyday about 70 autos (most of them are passenger cars) are newly registered in Hanoi (between 9th and 23rd May 2005 the number of autos increased about 67-74 units per day) while the daily new registered motorcycles are about 200 units daily. In some cases, number of new autos were 100 units per day, approximately.

According to the Vehicle Management Bureau (VMB) under Hanoi Department of Transport and Urban Works and Services (TUPWS), number of autos in Hanoi increased from 52.536 units in 1994 to 149.333 in 2004 (the figure of TPB is 150.000 units). The total number of
autos in Vietnam is about 600.000 units (in 2004).

In the year 2004 only, Hanoi recruited about 17.000 new autos that took over the championship for the last decade. If the average price of an auto is VND 400 Million (USD 25.316) then Hanoians spent about half of billion US dollars for buying autos in 2004. According to Vietnam Auto Manufacturers Association (VAMA) the passenger cars are leading in numbers of auto’s sales while their prices were not cheap.

In the first four months of 2005, Vietnam TOYOTA sales 3059 units, including 1259 Zace, 500 Camry 2.4, 386 corrola Altis and 398 Vios that are all passenger cars. The sale of Ford Vietnam is lower, 1111 units that all are passenger cars. Car price continuously increase while the sale does not reduce.

According to a report of Hanoi People Council in the last meeting in 2004, if there is no effective passenger car reduction strategy, number of autos in Hanoi will increase for 246% within the next 5 years. Together with the current 149.333 units, any kilometer of road in Hanoi will carry 715 autos. The threat of traffic congestion is clear and serious.

A strategy was then adopted: Limiting the growth of auto fleet in balancing with road infrastructure. In fact, the measure "having a one year parking agreement before having a car registration" returned a low effective outcome.

The temporary prohibition of new car registration, as it is applying for motorcycle, seems to be an acceptable (in fact this measure is also ineffective).

Until today, TUPWS and TPU (the main consultants of Hanoi People Committee) have not a "magic sword".

However, some managers, officials and experts believe that Hanoi should not so worry about that hot booming of passenger cars. Their discussion is: With more than 3 millions people but Hanoi has only 150.000 autos. The rate is still extremely low. In addition, the growth of cars will bring many economic benefits by enhancing the car-supported-industries, for example: repair and maintenance services, spare parts manufacturing that will support to develop the domestic car industry…. Moreover, traveling by car is safer and better than traveling by motorcycle.

Mr. Hoang Duy Hung, Director of Hanoi Car Parking Company (CPC) emphasized: "although the number of cars is booming, we should not "prohibit" that development". "The pressure of car use to urban infrastructure is strength, he said, but this is a "planning error" and not "a vehicle mistake", for example total area for parking (car) is less than 1% of total urban area and the area for all road infrastructure is only 6% of total urban area while this rate in developed countries is 25%".

Currently, the capacity of 135 parking lots under CPC is serving for only 20% of total parking demand. In order to reduce demand pressure, CPC is preparing to build 6 new parking lots (Bac Yen Vien, Binh Quynh, Gia Thuy 2, Mai Lam, Linh Nam, Xuan Phuong) with total area more than 20 ha. The plan is also covering the upgrading of Ngoc Khanh parking lot that will be a multi-stories parking lot with the first trial automatic charging technology.

In assuring its business, CPC recommends to change the term of "parking fee" to the term "parking price". In detail, the monthly parking price for car will increase from VND 325.000 (USD 21) per month to VND 800.000-VND 1000.000 (USD 50 - USD63) per month. The single price will increase from VND 5000/2 hours to VND 5000/1 hour. In the city center, single parking price can be VND20.000/1hour. This will be an effective measure to manage the car booming. Some transport experts recommends for the increase of registration fee and to impose a car use fee in the
urban area. For example, an amount of USD 1000-USD2000 should be charged for any new registered car, thus, Hanoi will have daily more than one billion VND. With a VND 2 million monthly car use fee, Hanoi will have VND 250 billions per month. By these only two tools, Hanoi will collect about VND 3.000 billions (USD 190 millions) for its road infrastructure investment. For the non-Hanoi-cars, a single travel ticket should be applied for the same purpose.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hai, Deputy Director of VMB (Hanoi TUPWS) said:" Temporary prohibition of new car registration is not yet needed". " As the Singaporian’s experiences, deeper traveling of private car in to urban area higher cost will be charged, with the automatic pricing system ", he continued: " In addition, for new car registration the owner have to join a bid for getting registration quota of his new car. So, only the persons who have real car travel demand will register his car and accept to contribute for building infrastructure. Hanoi should learn from this lesson."

Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen, Deputy Director of Vietnam Road Administration (VRA) said: " this growth rate has not been reached to the point that needs to be limited". He emphasized: " according to the decree number 162/2002 of Primer Minister on the Auto Industry Plan
in Vietnam, at the end of the year 2010, our country will have about 1.3million autos. Therefore, the current growth rate (14-15% per year) will reach the figure of 1.3 million autos in 2010. This figure is in our projection and the limitation is not needed"

Source: http://vnexpress.net/Vietnam/Xa-hoi/2005/05/3B9DE820/