National Assembly deputies offer ideas to reduce traffic congestion at roundabouts across the country

On the morning of May 28, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy.

Ho Chi Minh City loses 6 billion USD/year, Hanoi 1 billion USD/year due to traffic congestion

Delegate Nguyen Van Canh (Binh Dinh) proposed adding content that priority should be given to encouraging individuals and organizations to propose reasonable traffic organization solutions so that vehicles can travel quickly and smoothly, thereby helping to use energy economically and effectively.

According to Mr. Canh, if traffic is congested, people using any fuel will have to consume more energy than usual.

Delegate Nguyen Van Canh speaks (Photo: National Assembly Media).

Delegates said that according to statistics, Ho Chi Minh City alone has lost about 6 billion USD/year and Hanoi about 1 billion USD/year due to traffic congestion. From this, we can imagine that the waste caused by traffic congestion across the country is huge, wasting time, and causing harm to health and the environment.

He said this pushes up logistics costs, increases product prices, and reduces the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods.

The delegate gave an example of very good traffic organization, bringing about many effective results at the Phu Dong roundabout, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. The organization at this roundabout can be applied to most congested roundabouts in urban areas across the country because traffic at this roundabout is always crowded but does not cause congestion even during rush hour.

He said he observed and noticed that instead of letting vehicles freely enter and exit the roundabout like many other roundabouts, four traffic signal posts were installed to regulate vehicles from outside the roundabout and inside the roundabout there were two stop lines to give way to vehicles.

According to Mr. Canh, instead of letting hundreds of vehicles move freely, the vehicles are now divided into 6 blocks. The control center can easily control these 6 blocks of vehicles through traffic signals to avoid overloading in the roundabout, no traffic congestion from any direction, helping the infrastructure around the area to be used effectively.

The delegate said that this has helped tens of thousands of vehicles passing through this roundabout every day without being congested, bringing great benefits in terms of time, health, energy and activities of the city's district center.

Believing that this model can be applied at the Democracy roundabout in District 10 of Ho Chi Minh City and from the above example, Mr. Canh proposed to add a regulation that the Ministry of Construction is responsible for directing and guiding the organization of finding ideas and solutions to reduce traffic congestion.

In addition, the regulation on the fund to promote the use of energy economically and efficiently will also add a provision for funding individuals and non-state organizations with feasible ideas and solutions to reduce traffic congestion that can be implemented in many localities, not overlapping with expenditure tasks from the state budget, according to Mr. Canh.

"Don't let businesses climb mountains alone without ropes"

Delegate Tran Quoc Tuan (Tra Vinh) said that amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy is very necessary and has very important political significance for the commitment to achieve "zero" net emissions by 2050.

At the same time, it contributes to ensuring national energy security, reducing social costs, and improving competitiveness to meet the requirements of sustainable development in the new period, according to Mr. Tuan.

Delegate Tran Quoc Tuan speaks (Photo: National Assembly Media).

Emphasizing that construction is one of the most energy-consuming industries today, delegates cited that according to the World Bank (WB), the construction industry accounts for more than 36% of total global energy consumption and over 40% of CO2 emissions. In Vietnam, more than 60% of electricity in buildings is used for air conditioning and lighting, mainly due to the use of inefficient materials.

Citing the fact that "although it is very cold outside, the air conditioner is still on inside the glass building", delegate Tuan said that if we use well-insulated glass with standard energy labels, we can both save electricity and avoid wasting money, including avoiding wasting the state budget.

Emphasizing that the world is far ahead of us, the delegate said that Europe, the US, Japan... have long applied energy labeling for construction materials, which not only contributes to saving energy but also enhances the competitiveness of businesses.

"However, when implementing this regulation in Vietnam, it will inevitably face difficulties such as lack of criteria and national standards for many types of materials, the small number of qualified testing laboratories, high testing costs and weak post-inspection mechanisms," the delegate acknowledged.

From reality, delegates proposed that when labeling energy for construction materials, the Government should issue a roadmap for mandatory labeling for a number of construction materials that have a major impact on electricity consumption such as construction glass, insulating materials, construction materials, etc.

Besides, he said that it is necessary to build a Vietnamese standard system on energy efficiency for construction materials in sync with international standards, socialize testing activities, and grant certification...

"We do not let businesses climb mountains alone without ropes," said the delegate.

He also proposed to regulate the application of QR-code in the production of this type of material to trace energy labels, helping consumers understand how good the product they are using is, and at the same time have a strong post-inspection mechanism, strictly handle cases of intentional violations, thereby promoting the construction industry to develop sustainably, economically and civilly.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/dbqh-hien-ke-giam-un-tac-giao-thong-tai-cac-vong-xoa-tren-ca-nuoc-20250528121952890.htm