Hanoi is choking on the fumes of 5m motorbikes, but can ban break its habit?

Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi, is struggling with air pollution exasperated by the abundance of scooters and motorbikes stalling in heavily trafficked roads. Traffic is at almost four times the capacity of roads in crowded areas. As Hanoi continues aggressively expanding, fumes from motorbike exhausts, construction, and industry have drastically worsened air quality in the capital city, to the point where there were at least 15 days in 2016 where average PM2.5 (PM2.5, where PM stands for particular matter, measures the tiny particles found in smog that can damage one’s throat and lungs) levels in Hanoi were “hazardous”, at 300μg/m3 or higher.

To ease both traffic congestion and air pollution, Hanoi’s department of transport and city council have agreed to ban scooters and motorbikes by 2030. Vietnam’s government is also starting to invest heavily in public transport, such as a $53 million USD bus rapid transit system, or BRT.

It is unclear how effective these efforts will be. Many citizens in Vietnam rely on their motorbikes because current public transportation is inconvenient— they do not live close enough to a station, and the general loops that busses make do not get citizens to their final destination as quickly as a private motorbike would.
Doubts have also been raised about whether or not it is worth having invested so much into the BRT. Having BRT exclusive lanes, lanes that take up almost half of some roads, has actually worsened traffic congestion. BRT is not yet proved to be as popular of a mode of transportation as the department of transport had hoped.

This article focuses on motorbike exhaust emissions as a big contributor toward Hanoi’s terrible air quality. Emissions from coal plants, however, should also be considered. Hanoi is surrounded by 20 coal-fired plants in the northern region. Just this June, Vietnam granted investment licenses for 3 coal-fired power plants worth a combined $7.5 billion USD.

As a country that is still developing, Vietnam does not necessarily have the budget to invest in energy sources that is not from coal and natural gas. The new coal-fired power plants mentioned above are financially backed by Japanese, South Korean and Saudi Arabian investors.