The Ha Noi metropolitan area has a population of 6.5 million with densities as high as 30,000 inhabitants per km² in the city center. Vehicle ownership has increased sharply and 84% of all households own a motorcycle. Roads represent only a 1.9% of the total land area, which is low when compared to other major cities, and while bus services have expanded quickly, public transportation’s share in the total urban transportation demand is still only 5%. Without measures to restrain the growth in overall vehicle traffic, particularly that of individual vehicles, fuel use and emissions will grow along with enormous congestion problems, because of the lack of street space in much of Hanoi City (Schipper et al., 2008).
This paper draws on the extensive content of the Global Transport Knowledge Partnership (gTKP) Knowledge Centre to describe how urban mobility measures may help Ha Noi manage mobility in a sustainable manner and avoid congestion in the future.
The presentation was made at the keynote address by Peter Midgley at the International Seminar on Sustainable Development of Ha Noi Urban Transport on 25 June 2010 in Ha Noi – Viet Nam.