Urban Transport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate arising future challenges of the transport system in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in the light of a very strong population growth (legal and illegal migration), a strong trend from non-motorised transport to motorised individual transport, a fast transition from motor scooter based individual transport towards a car based individual transport (Ackermann et al., Abschlusbericht zur Verkehrserhebung – SrV-Ho Chi Minh City 1996. Dresden, Technische Universitat Dresden, 1997; Georget, Ho Chi Minh City – Transport modeling in a rapid growth environment – Cube Voyager Model MVA, 2009) and all with these developments related negative impacts on the environment and public health. To support the authorities in HCMC, TU Vienna, Institute of Transportation, was setting up an integrated land use and transport interaction model called MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) (Emberger et al., Method to identify optimal land use and transport policy packages: a comparison of CBA and indicator based optimisation. In: Proceedings European Conference on Transport 2003, Strasbourg, 2003; Pfaffenbichler, The strategic, dynamic and integrated urban land use and transport model MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) – development, testing and application. Institute for Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, p 274, 2003) in close collaboration with experts from the HCMC University of Transport and the Transport Development and Strategy Institute (TDSI), Ministry of Transport of SR. Vietnam (MOT). With this model it was possible to quantify and assess the effects of potential transport strategies on land use, environment and economy for a time period of 30 years. The results of this research exercise are presented in the following text.