Only 15 days, but such a good habit has been formed, that is a very encouraging sign, hopefully after 1 year, Vietnam's traffic will change in a positive direction, no longer chaotic and with many accidents.
Not running red lights, not speeding or recklessly overtaking, people obeying traffic regulations well, has had an impact on the general traffic safety and order situation nationwide.
According to statistics from the Traffic Police Department (Ministry of Public Security), from January 1 to 14, there were 681 traffic accidents nationwide, killing 365 people and injuring 453 people, a decrease of 355 cases, 47 deaths, and 426 injuries compared to the same period last year.
Traffic accidents decreased in all three criteria, enough to prove the effectiveness of Decree 168. However, there are still some shortcomings that need to be overcome to facilitate people when participating in traffic.
In the first two weeks of implementing Decree 168, traffic congestion occurred seriously in some areas and routes of the two major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. There were many causes of congestion, including damaged traffic light systems, unreasonable traffic signs, and unscientific traffic organization. Localities quickly added traffic lights and reorganized traffic. Although it did not meet the traffic needs of the people, it still reduced congestion compared to the first days.
For Decree 168 to be effective when put into practice, modern transport infrastructure is needed. Localities need to implement infrastructure projects such as overpasses, underpasses, and reorganize intersections reasonably to minimize traffic jams. In the long term, public transport replacing personal vehicles is the strategy to build and organize a sustainable transport system.
Another issue that people are very concerned about is that the traffic police need to consider each case to make a decision on punishment, "the right person, the right crime" to avoid "wrongful" cases, due to unintentional mistakes, broken traffic lights or many other objective reasons.
The purpose of the law is not to punish, but to raise awareness of building civilized traffic. To know if a country is civilized or not, look at the traffic system and the people's awareness of obeying the law.
