HCM City plans to open private lanes for buses on two major streets to speed up operating time and attract bus riders, among other plans to ease traffic congestion, according to the city’s Department of Transport. — Photo thesaigontimes.vn

HCM CITY — HCM City plans to open private lanes for buses on two major streets to speed up operating time and attract bus riders, among other plans to ease traffic congestion, according to the city’s Department of Transport.

Trần Chí Trung, director of the city’s Management and Control Centre for Public Passenger Transportation, said the private lanes would be opened on Võ Thị Sáu and  Điện Biên Phủ streets.

On Điện Biên Phủ Street, the first bus-only lane will start from Lý Thái Tổ Roundabout in District 10 and go to Sài Gòn Bridge in District 2.

The second lane will begin at Võ Thị Sáu Street and the Daân Chuû Roundabout in District 3 and end at Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street in District 1.

If the pilot bus-lane project is successful, the city will open private bus lanes on the streets of Tröôøng Chinh, Nam Kì Khởi Nghĩa, Nguyễn Văn Trỗi, Phạm Văn Đồng, and on a section of Hà Nội Highway. Then it might expand it to other streets.  

The Management and Control Centre for Public Passenger Transportation submitted three bus-lane plans to the city’s People’s Committee.

In the first plan, the buses would share lanes with motorbikes rather than lanes for cars.

The second plan called for buses and cars to share lanes on several streets, such as Điện Biên Phủ Street and Mai Chí Thọ Boulevard.

In the third plan, the left side of one-way streets would be used for buses that pick up and drop off passengers instead of on the right side as usual.

Lawyer Thái Văn Chung, deputy chairman of the HCM City Cargo Transportation Association, said opening private lanes for buses on wide streets such as Võ Văn Kiệt, Phạm Văn Đồng, Điện Biên Phủ and Hà Nội Highway would be effective.

Streets in urban areas during peak hours face traffic congestion, making it difficult to open private lanes for buses, he said.

Last year, the number of bus passengers fell by 3.4 million compared to the number of bus passengers in 2015, while the city paid more than VNĐ1,000 billion (US$44million) in subsidies to bus companies in both years, according to the centre.

The centre said that poor infrastructure and lack of private lanes had caused buses to run late, leading to a drop in the number of passengers. — VNS