Vietnam’s capital passed a law, on Tuesday, that would ban motorbikes, the city’s dominant form of transportation, from the city centre by 2030, state media reported.
Under the new law, which was approved by 91 per cent of the votes of the city’s legislative People’s Council, which is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, motorbikes would be banned from downtown districts and curtailed in others, the VN Express news site reported.
Congestion and pollution reduction have been cited as the primary reasons for the ban.
Cars, which currently make up 40 per cent of Hanoi’s road usage, would not be banned outrightly, but restricted from certain streets at particular times of day.
Hanoi, with its population of 7.6 million, has more than 5 million motorbikes on the streets.
The only public transportation available is a city bus system, with a metro system in the works that has been repeatedly delayed.
Critics of the ban describe it as unrealistic given the popularity of motorbikes and current lack of alternatives.
“The city seems to be focusing more on imposing a ban than offering a real solution,’’ Ngo Anh Tuan, the former director of Hanoi’s urban planning department, told VN Express in June. (NAN)