2368 - Ideas for Improving Health Impacts of Urban Transport in Vietnamese Cities

Abstract

Background In Vietnamese megacities motorcyclists account for a modal share of over 80%. The existing fleet relies mainly on combustion engines, which leaves not only the high number of motorcyclists widely unprotected against high pollution levels in the streets, but also causes high exposures for all other inhabitants, especially when considering the high number of roadside activities, which are found in typical activity patterns in Vietnam. On the other hand, the current transport systems provide such a high utilization of road infrastructure, that they can’t be improved by many typical measures from transport planning and traffic engineering, which are currently implemented in other countries worldwide to reduce emission or improve health. For example, promotion of public transport by bus or implementation of green waves was found to potentially impair the transport systems in Vietnam in short term. Methods Based on this situation and in-depth analyses in traffic engineering and transport planning in Vietnamese traffic situations, first workshops and initial exposure monitoring have been conducted in Vietnam to identify all necessary fields of action to be addressed by guidelines for a more health-oriented design of urban transport systems on the one hand and a more health-oriented usage of transport systems on the other hand. An interdisciplinary Vietnamese-German project team, that covers all stages from the design of transport systems, via human behavior and the resulting transport demand to its effects on pollution levels and exposures as well as other risks and the ability to quantify the impacts on human health is established. Results Based on initial fieldwork and surveys, nine working areas from the field of traffic and transport have been identified and assigned to experts for upcoming detailed research. All research areas are set up to assess measures from the respective field regarding health impacts from at least, (major) accidents, (minor) injuries, air pollution, stress, radiation/noise, fitness and accessibility as well as regarding other established goals of traffic management. Conclusions The ongoing work in Vietnam shows strong indications that health-oriented design and use of transport systems has significant impacts on human health and can contribute to the fulfillment of other traffic and transport related goals at the same time. While the awareness of planners and users of transport systems to improve the own health or the health of others is still low, fieldwork indicated that small shifts in awareness, guidance or general transport planning practice can have very significant impacts.