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Hanoi Plan To Ban Motorbikes By 2030 To Combat Pollution (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the putting-a-stop dept.

Hanoi -- a city of five million motorbikes -- is planning to ban the popular two-wheeled transport by 2030. From a report: The city council voted for the ban almost unanimously, hoping to unclog roads and reduce soaring levels of pollution. The council has also promised to increase public transport so that half the population are using it by 2030, instead of the current 12 percent. But some residents think it very unlikely the bikes will go for good. Council officials decided to put "immediate management measures" in place after a report found the number of motorbikes in Hanoi was set to grow at an "alarming" rate. Some studies suggest there are already as many as 2,500 motorbikes per kilometre. According to the non-governmental group GreenID, the city recorded 282 days of "excessive" levels of PM2.5, which is harmful to human health, last year.

3 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. It's not the bikes... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's the trucks and cars. Encourage motorcycles and scooters, they are much more environmentally friendly, you can pack 6 of them on the road compared to every car, and are extremely low cost so they promote upward mobility of most workers, since they can now commute a fair distance to jobs (not just stuck in their own little village or district).

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    1. Re:It's not the bikes... by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They are riding two stroke instead of the much cleaner four stroke and that is what is making all the pollution. If you have never owned a two stroke they smoke like crazy, picture a chainsaw motor on 2 wheels and you have an idea how a two stroke bike engine belches smoke.

      But yet again its a case of "we have to DO something!" instead of "we have to do something SMART" because the SMART thing to do would be to push four stroke bikes and hybrids NOT simply ban bikes, instead I'm sure this bill treats an electric bike no differently than a two stroke thus effectively banning the solution.

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  2. They should look at what is happing in China first by ukoda · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They should see what is happening in China first. Many Chinese cities had a very high usage rate of electric scooters. Very practical transport for flat cities that provide lanes for them and a potential pollution free option. Interestingly there is a movement there away from scooters to cars. When the weather is ok the scooters are a more practical solution being cheaper and faster, but in the case of China the movement to using cars is a status thing, not about what is best but what impresses others more. As a result some cities that had free flowing traffic 5 years ago are now gridlocked much of the day.

    Translate that to the Hanoi situation and try and imaging 2500 cars per km! Of course Hanoi is not China and I suspect few people will be able to afford the cost step from a motorcycle to a car. Regardless it is a trend in the wrong direction. The better option would be to ban the new sales of 2 stroke motorcycles now then force the transition from petrol to electric over a period of time. The irony here is the bulk of commuters will likely switch from petrol to electric, simply because of the advantages, over the next few years. For example a few years ago in China I could buy an electric scooter for USD $400 (500W) or a 125cc motorcycle (5KW) for $1200. For the average commuter in a Chinese city it makes little difference. Now in China I have found you can buy more conventional electric motorcycle (1.2KW) for $1000. In my book that means for city commuters electric motorcycles are close to parity with petrol ones in cost and performance today.

    No need for a well intentioned but short sighted law change.