HCMC traffic congestion increases with vehicle numbers, travel demand

It released a list of six new spots Friday: the Hang Xanh and Pham Van Dong – Phan Van Tri intersections in Binh Thanh District, the Nguyen Thai Son - Pham Ngu Lao intersection in Go Vap District, the Tran Quoc Hoan - Phan Thuc Duyen intersection in Tan Binh District, and the Nguyen Van Linh – Pham Hung intersection and Xang Bridge area in Binh Chanh District.

At some old hotspots, congestion has not eased for many years.

Ngo Hai Duong, head of the department’s Road Traffic Infrastructure Management Office, said congestion was cleared at some spots only for them to backslide.

The number of vehicles has increased and people are traveling more post-Covid, he said.

HCMC has 8.8 million registered vehicles, up 4% from 2021 and including nearly 900,000 cars, and more come from outside every day.

"Many main streets in the city have been overwhelmed, and it only takes a small incident to cause congestion," Duong said.

While waiting for major road projects to be completed, the department would fix existing roads and improve road signs to enable smooth traffic flow and surveillance to deal with traffic incidents swiftly and prevent extended jams, he said.

The ratio of area for traffic per area for construction in the city is only 13.3% against the 26% stipulated by the Traffic Law for such a megacity.

The city has 4,700 km of roads in total, or just 2.38km per square kilometer, much lower than in other Southeast Asian cities like Bangkok and Singapore.