HÀ NỘI — An influx of residents has returned to big cities, particularly Hà Nội and HCM City, after enjoying a three-day holiday, causing some congestion but less serious than last year’s.

The improved situation has raised hopes of a brighter future for city traffic in 2017.

Travellers, especially office workers or children visiting their families in different provinces, tried to reach the city on time to begin their working day or school yesterday, and many were forced to scramble to find an available city-bound bus.

The bus stations of Mỹ Đình and Giáp Bát in Hà Nội, for example, were chaotic due to thousands of passengers arriving at the same time on Monday and early yesterday.

The National Highway 1 running from north to south, experienced the most serious traffic jams at its Pháp Vân-Cầu Giẽ crossroads heading towards Hà Nội, but there was only one hour-long holdup on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, some streets in central Hà Nội, including Nguyễn Trãi, Nguyễn Xiển and Khuất Duy Tiến, were jammed as crowds thronged the center of town for New Year’s eve street events, but a massive traffic police presence averted chaos, the Dân Trí online newspaper reported.

Yesterday was also the debut of Hà Nội’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). But despite an order issued by the Hà Nội Transport Department banning all vehicles from the special BRT lanes, many cars, motorbikes and even other kinds of buses violated the ban.

City traffic police said they would not impose fines during the first days of the BRT operation, but would be stricter in the future, according to 24h.com.vn.

In HCM City, earlier on Monday, Dân Trí reported that entrance roads, including the city’s southwestern Tân Túc in Bình Chánh District and the Nguyễn Văn Linh and Nguyễn Hữu Trí roundabouts, were more crowded than usual but no traffic jams were recorded.

However, at the western entrance to the southern hub, vehicles of all types were stuck in congestion as people dashed back to the city from the Mekong Delta region, while the eastern entrance to the city was also clogged by a large number of commuters who had just concluded their trips to the southern beach city of Vũng Tàu, the resort town of Đà Lạt in the Central Highlands, and the southcentral beach city of Nha Trang, according to the Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper.

The congestion was exacerbated by a road collision between two cars on the HCM City-Long Thành-Dầu Giây Expressway, which connects the city with neighboring Đồng Nai Province, the paper reported.

The volume of vehicles on the expressway rose by 1.5 times during the holiday.

According to the National Committee for Traffic Safety, traffic jams were less severe than those in the past thanks to thorough preparations.

However, there have been reports that buses overcharged passengers and carried more people than allowed, Tuổi trẻ reported.

Ninety-three accidents occured over the three-day weekend, killing 79 people and injuring 54, the committee said. Two of the accidents that resulted in two fatalities were related to train traffic. — VNS