Accordingly, focus of urban transportation should be turned to buses in both the width and depth.
Part 1: Developing the width and investing in the depth
Developing a bus service that is fast, safe, convenient, comfortable, hygienic and secure is an important way to attract more people using this type of transportation. However, at present, the bus is just mainly developed in width.
Not attention enough
Since 2001, Hanoi has developed public buses by changing the vehicles and expanding the route network. In particular, there are 7 groups of solutions, such as: Development of route network, supplement and renewal of vehicles, development of priority infrastructure, application of information technology, renewal of ticket system, improvement of management method and policy. After 15 years, the bus system has evolved dramatically in terms of route network, vehicles and passenger volume. Specifically, in the period 2001 - 2015, the number of routes increased from 31 to 91 (equivalent to 2.9 times), vehicle amount increased from 334 to 1,404 (equivalent to 4.2 times) and passenger volume increased from 15 million to 431 million (equivalent to 28.7 times).

Bus on Hanoi's street.

Nevertheless, Hanoi has mainly focused on the development of route network and vehicles. Meanwhile, other groups of solutions have not been paid much attention and investment, especially the infrastructure for buses such as priority lanes and signals at the intersections. Plan No 81 / KH-UBND dated June10, 2011, on development of transport in Hanoi in 2011 – 2015 plan, only Kim Ma - Ha Dong BRT with 14 km of lanes reserved for buses and 6 transit locations are included in the portfolio of investment projects. By the year 2017, the city has developed the Kim Ma - Ha Dong BRT but eliminated the bus lane on Nguyen Trai Street with a length of 3.5 km. Meanwhile, the project to develop public passenger transport by bus in the capital for the period 2011-2015 and orientation to 2020 set out the goal of developing 110 km of lanes reserved for buses. Thus, the volume of bus lane meets only 13% of the target for the period 2011-2015. The priority signal for buses at interchanges has not yet been implemented up to now.
In addition, in the last two years (2015 - 2016), the bus passengers amount has decreased. Specifically in 2014, passenger volume was 463 million which decreased to 431 million in 2015 (equivalent to 6.9%).
Not yet attracted to employees
There are many different reasons for this decrease. In which, it is particularly worth considering the expansion of the width in the period 2011-2015. Although the city achieved the goal of expanding the route network and vehicle but did not meet the target on output and demand response rate. In 2010 - 2015 period, average passenger volume is from 1.27 million to 1.67 million passengers / day which is about 60-78% of the target.
The network development mainly attracts low-income people such as pupils and students. According to the survey in 2011 in Hanoi, the number of students taking the bus accounted for 57%, while the workforce accounted for 27%. However, in 2016, according to survey data of Hanoi Transportation Corporation (TRANSERCO), students still use the bus most, but only accounted for 37%. This can be resulted from their choice of alternative methods such as electric motorcycles or electric bikes.
In fact, these are the obstacles that the large cities must dealt with when developing the buses. Therefore, only by solving these challenges can we really make a big push for the bus model. It is time to take breakthrough solutions to attract more employees to use the buses.
MR. TRAN MINH TU - TRANSPORTATION SPECIALIST, ALMEC COMPANY (JAPAN)