A bus leaves from a station in Đà Nãng city. The city, in co-operation with Toyota, began a project on urban transit corridor improvement in Đà Nẵng city funded by Toyota Mobility Foundation in 2015-19. — VNS Photos Công Thành

ĐÀ NẴNG — Nearly 200,000 residents choose public buses as the main vehicle for their daily journeys in Đà Nẵng rather than a motorbike, and 90 per cent of commuters are satisfied with public bus service.

The figure was reported on Monday at the wrap-up ceremony for a project on urban transit corridor improvement in the central city funded by Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) in 2015-19.

Deputy head of the project managing board, Võ Duy Thắng said an 18-month survey on the project revealed the number of bus commuters had increased by 55 per cent, while motorbike users reduced 25 per cent.

He said 83 per cent of surveyed commuters said the public bus was their regular vehicle for commuting.

In 2017, the city, in co-operation with Toyota Mobility Foundation, debuted a new public bus route as part of Đà Nẵng’s urban traffic corridor improvement project after two years of work with an investment of US$2.9 million.

The project helped boost the city’s internal bus services by offering public car parking areas, bus stops and shuttle bus routes connecting residential areas and public destinations.

It also helped support commuters with free bike parking (Park&Ride) and smart parking at the departure bus station as well as bus tracking apps on mobile devices.

Shin Aoyama, president of the secretariat of TMF said: "The Toyota Mobility Foundation was established with the belief that helping people to move freely is essential to unleashing their potential.”

“The urban transit corridor improvement project was initiated in 2015 to enable the deployment of an advanced and smart public transport and parking system for the city of Đà Nẵng thereby integrating multi-modal mobility,” Aoyama said.

A parking area in Bạch Đằng street offers smart parking service for cars as part of the project on urban transit corridor improvement in the city with funding from Toyota Mobility Foundation.

“We are grateful for the city to allow us to successfully implement this project in this wonderful city, and look forward to hearing about the positive contribution our project will have on the innovative, hard-working and kind people of Đà Nẵng, and as a model case of mobility across Việt Nam.”

Speaking at the ceremony, vice chairman of the city’s people’s committee, Đặng Việt Dũng stressed that the project together with a pilot model of on-road parking management has contributed to developing a multi-modal transport system and strengthening urban transport management.

“The project has been evaluated to be sustainable and have a positive impact on the city’s public transport system as well as changing local residents’ habit of using public transport.”

Toyota Việt Nam donated two Toyota Coaster buses to the city as part of the project signed in 2015.

Đà Nẵng has developed 11 public ones including five new inner-city bus routes with 61 buses operating every 20 minutes between 5am until 9pm.

The city’s population of 1 million has far outgrown the current public bus system meeting just 10 per cent of demand.

Residents make 2.1 million journeys each day, 80 per cent of them on motorbikes. — VNS