Motorcycles are parked on the pavement blocking people from walking past a street corner in downtown Hanoi on January 6, 2012. Vietnam's big cities such as Hanoi are facing serious urban problems like a lack of parking for both motorcycles and cars.

Viet Nam News/Asia News Network Tuesday, Mar 06, 2012

HANOI - While the number of personal vehicles in Ha Noi is increasing rapidly, the capital is still fumbling with solutions to tackle the dire shortage of parking facilities.

Figures from the municipal Transport Department show that there are about 300,000 cars and over 3.8 million motorbikes of various kinds in the city at present, excluding the number of vehicles owned by people commuting from other provinces to work and study.

The number of personal vehicles is increasing by 15 per cent each year, but there are only 1,178 licensed parking lots in the city, meeting just 10 per cent of demand.

Funding for parking facilities is supposed to account for 3 per cent of the traffic development budget, but in Ha Noi, it is just one-tenth of that, according to Vice Chairman of the Ha Noi Planning and Development Association Dao Ngoc Nghiem.

The remaining 90 per cent of vehicle users in the capital use parking lots in apartment blocks, urban areas, agencies, schools, hospitals, roadsides and alleys.

This lack of parking facilities has led to the development of dozens of illegal parking lots on pavements and in vacant public places throughout the city.

With increasing demand and insufficient facilities, municipal authorities had allowed certain pavements, roadsides and alleys to be used for parking as a temporary measure, said deputy head of the Urban Research and Infrastructure Development Institute Luu Duc Hai.

"However, many of our roads were not designed for this use, and parking on them obstructs traffic and adds to congestion," he said.

Excerpt from:
Hanoi faces parking crunch