At the seminar. Photo: Plan

The seminar's attendees have successfully gained meaningful insights thanks to the great contribution from scientists, representatives from the Department of Transportation at provincial city and national levels, businesses operating in the field of public transportation, and non-governmental organizations.

Over the years, Vietnam has witnessed a rapid development in the urban transportsystem. Many modern urban transport infrastructures have been invested and operated;plenty of means of public transport, modern facilities have been used in order to improve the quality of services to meet the travellingneeds of urban population.

Currently, land for urban transport is too small compared to urban centers in the region and in the world Other transport infrastructure as walking space and space for terminals, parking is also very limited. Space for pedestrians is unsufficient, especially in big cities like Hanoi and HCM City, many sidewalks in the downtown areas are used for the business purpose. Space for the bus station and car park is very small compared to the developed countries.

In addition, the process of urbanization is happening quickly leading to the increasing demand in travelling, thus to the rapid increase of the transport means, especially personal vehicles. As a result, the rapid development of transport infrastructure did not catch up with the growth of transport means. Also, the growth of personal vehicles is still high while passenger public transport system has not yet met the travel demand and the explosion of personal vehicles, especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the progress of construction and operation for the big volume public transport (BRT, urban railway) missed the deadline.

For example, Hanoi, with a population of 7.5 million, has 5.6 million motorbikes and around 550,000 cars in addition to some 1.2 million bikes brought in from elsewhere, according to police figures.

Delegates agreed that we need to review and complete institutions to improve the quality of planning and urban transport planning; complete and develope regulations, standards and guidelines for urban transport planning; organize and manage the urban transport in a scientific way, using technology and modern equipment such as signals, control stations, camera systems, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), etc to make smooth traffic protection, safety and environmental protection.

However, urban transport problem in Vietnam is a difficult task to perform synchronization solutions, so we need to develop roadmaps in stages and selected on the basis of policies which can be implemented immediately and soon applied, delegates stressed.

A reading corner on Gender and Girls rights to Youth Union and Library of University of Transportation and Communication. This is also the place where students can learn social knowledge and life skills; Champion of Change club can conduct communication sessions on gender equality and safety for girl and women.

According to a 2018 study from Plan International Vietnam, in over 1,000 surveyed passengers, more than 40% stated that they have witnessed acts of harassing young women in bus stops, train stations, and terminals.

Therefore, in order to help build safer cities for girls, Plan International Vietnam has cooperated with the University of Transportation to carry out a survey regarding the safety levels of 80 bus stops, train stations, and terminals in Hanoi, using 7 indicators of Girl Safety Walk Tool. This activity aims to identify safe and unsafe factors around bus stop/station areas and then propose recommendations and initiatives to improve situation.

This is also the basis for Plan International Vietnam and University of Transportation and Communication to develop and advocate for the using of safety indicators for bus stops/station in Hanoi, making public transits safer for girls and for everyone./.

VNF