Traffic congestion has reduced by 5-15 per cent during peak hours in some areas of Hanoi City after the adjustment in timings for schools and offices, said Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Director of the city's Transport Department on Wednesday.
Mr. Hung was speaking at a meeting of the City People’s Committee to review results of the new school and office timings to ease traffic congestion.
According to the Transport Department, the new adjusted timings have significantly improved vehicular traffic congestion in some areas, particularly during peak hours.
Hung added that thanks to reduced traffic congestion now it takes less time to travel on several routes in the city, which earlier faced constant traffic gridlock.
However, he confessed that vehicular traffic was still causing problems on some main roads of the city. Besides, traffic jams have now begun to occur in new areas where they had never happened before.
Representatives from the Department of Education and Training said that most schools had become familiar with the new school timings.
The department requested the People’s Committee to permit schools that are located in Tu Liem, Thanh Tri and Hoang Mai Districts to maintain flexible school timings as they were not affected by the traffic congestion.
Notably, about ten universities in the inner city centre have not yet abided by the city instructions of new timings.
In the meeting Nguyen The Thao, Chairman of the People’s Committee in Hanoi, proposed to relevant departments to continue to find measures to further curb traffic congestion.
Universities must also follow the city instructions and adopt the new school timings, Thao said.
