Congestion - the "bottleneck" of development
After many years of investment, Hanoi's transport infrastructure has improved significantly with ring roads, radial axes, bridges over the Red River and urban railways. However, rapid urbanization, population growth and explosive personal vehicles causing congestion are still a difficult problem.
Regularly traveling from Khuat Duy Tien to Linh Dam during rush hour, Mr. Nguyen Van Duong said that Ring Road 3 is often congested both on elevated and low-lying roads, especially the section near Nguyen Trai intersection. On rainy days, the entire route is sometimes "like a giant parking lot".
Prolonged congestion increases logistics costs, reduces labor productivity, and affects the investment environment and quality of life. Meanwhile, the traffic land fund in the central area is limited, and road opening faces many barriers in site clearance and urban space.
Therefore, opening more roads is no longer the only solution. Hanoi needs to shift its focus to organizing, operating and effectively exploiting existing transport infrastructure.
According to Mr. Duong Duc Tuan - Standing Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee, the Master Plan of the Capital with a 100-year vision follows the "multi-layer, multi-layer, multi-polar, multi-center" model, taking the Red River as a strategic development axis, connecting urban railways, beltways and inter-regional traffic. This requires governance innovation to effectively exploit the transportation system and new development space.
From infrastructure investment to modern traffic management
Dr. Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem - Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association - said that Hanoi needs to simultaneously develop infrastructure and innovate management. When traffic land funds are increasingly limited, effectively exploiting existing infrastructure is no less important than investing in new projects.
Currently, Hanoi is gradually realizing this thinking through a series of strategic solutions: Developing urban railways associated with the TOD model, building low-emission zones (LEZs), switching to electric buses, developing static transportation, applying artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and real-time operation.
The Capital Planning orientation is to develop about 163 TOD locations with a total scale of nearly 20,000ha, including 5 national-level TODs, 23 city-level TODs and 135 regional-level TODs.
According to Mr. Phan Truong Thanh - Head of Finance - Investment Department, Hanoi Department of Construction, these will be the nuclei to attract investment, effectively exploit land funds along urban railway lines, and create financial resources for reinvestment in public transport infrastructure.
From July 1, 2026, Hanoi City will pilot LEZs in Ring Road 1 area, and at the same time expand public passenger transport, converting all buses to electric and clean energy. In which, the static transportation system plays a key role with concentrated parking lots, interchange parking lots (Park and Ride) and charging station infrastructure. Hanoi City People's Council has also approved a list of 78 parking lot projects and many preferential policies to attract investment.
In parallel with infrastructure investment, data is becoming a traffic management platform. Cameras, sensors, AI and journey data help functional agencies monitor, forecast and regulate traffic in real time.
Lieutenant Colonel Dao Viet Long - Deputy Head of the Traffic Police Department (Hanoi City Police) - shared that the clearest change is the shift from situation handling thinking to proactive prevention. Thanks to the support of the Traffic Command Center and the AI camera system, functional forces can monitor vehicle traffic in real time to flexibly adjust the traffic light cycle and proactively divert traffic early.
Previously, Hanoi had more than 300 intersections that had to arrange direct traffic control forces, now it has been reduced to 266 intersections thanks to flexible adjustment of traffic lights and the application of AI cameras.
This is a shift from passive congestion handling to proactive forecasting and early regulation, towards smart, safe urban traffic and putting people at the center.
