HÀ NỘI — The city’s transport department has submitted a proposal to the municipal People’s Committee on piloting a car parking plan according to odd and even days.

According to the proposal, instead of parking on both sides of the street, car owners will be required to park on the side of the street with odd-numbered houses on odd days and on the side of the street with even-numbered houses on even days.

Proposed streets for the trial project, examined by the department, must be two-way streets without a median strip, which meet transport infrastructure criteria. The width of the car parking area is 1.8m. Vehicles are allowed to park in only one row on one side.

The first street to go on trial from this month, if the plan is accepted, is Dã Tượng Street.

The second pilot period is scheduled for the first quarter of 2017 after the trial on Dã Tượng Street is reviewed. Car parking on odd and even days will be expanded to Nguyễn Gia Thiều, Cửa Đông, Trần Xuân Soạn and Lê Đại Hành streets, as well as streets in other districts that qualify.

Based on examination, the department proposed that car parking fee be collected depending on the used areas in a month.

Phạm Văn Đức, director of the Hà Nội Parking Company, said “Pilot parking on odd and even days is a necessary solution to ease traffic congestion, especially in inner city areas. Of course, it is only an urgent and short-term solution.”

Currently, on several streets in Hà Nội, car parking is fixed at specific places on the side of the street. Many residents complained that this caused inconvenience to local business owners because the cars blocked shops and restaurants, which resulted in fewer customers. Shops on the other side where no cars were parked benefited more.

Nguyễn Văn Mạnh, a resident on Dã Tượng Street, told The Voice of Việt Nam (VOV) that the new regulation on car parking on odd and even days creates equality for business owners on both sides. It also leaves space for pedestrians on the no-parking side.

However, talking about the pilot plan’s implementation on other streets, transport expert Hoàng Hải Nam said the parking regulation cannot be applied on all streets, especially those with high volume of traffic and those which are narrow.

He emphasised that to implement the project effectively, authorised agencies must monitor the streets regularly and impose penalties on violators.

For long term solutions, he suggested the city build car parking spots or encourage enterprises to invest on building car parking areas, he said.

Finding a place to park is a huge problem for drivers when they get into the inner city for their businesses. 

Illegal parking at unlicensed venues or on pavements and streets is widespread.

The reason can be blamed on the huge number of cars in the city (over 50,000, excluding cars from other provinces that come in and out of the city every day). Car parks in Hà Nội can presently meet only 10 per cent of the demand. — VNS