Experts said Vietnam now has more than 31 million motorcycles and 1.6million other automobiles of all kinds, with the figures forecast tozoom up in the coming time. They warned that a lack of traffic safetyand environmental pollution are very real risks if measures are nottaken to ease the situation.
As the country haspoor traffic infrastructure and commuters are unaware of many road laws,the use of the ITS to control traffic in an effective way isinvaluable, they stated.
According to theDepartment of Science and Technology under the Transport Ministry, ITSapplications include various items, for example traffic cameras ordevices to monitor the weight of vehicles and speed.
ITS technology has been put into use on several highways, such asNational Highway No. 3, the HCM City – Trung Luong Highway and the CauGie – Ninh Binh Highway.
However, participantssaid the application of the smart system in Vietnam has encountered anarray of challenges, such as a lack of investment capital and a shortageof ITS workers who meet technical standards.
Theytherefore urged the country to devise standards, train staff, buildtraffic steering centres for each region and call for investment intothe system.-VNA