Recorded at about 6 pm in the area of National Highway 1, the section in front of Linh Trung 1 Export Processing Zone, Ho Chi Minh City, a large number of people gathered to wait for passenger cars to return home for the September 2nd holiday.
The rain caused many passengers to find temporary shelter under bushes and roadside trees. Many families carrying young children had to stand huddled under trees, waiting for buses to pick them up.
This is one of the pick-up and drop-off points for fixed-route buses in Ho Chi Minh City, about 4km from the new Mien Dong Bus Station. Because it is located in the direction from the center of Ho Chi Minh City, this location is chosen by many bus companies as a meeting point to pick up passengers.
Due to the convenient location, closer than moving to the new Mien Dong Bus Station, many passengers choose to take buses along the way instead of going to the station to buy tickets.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan (37 years old, from Khanh Hoa province), holding her young child, leaning against a tree to avoid the rain, said that her family had booked tickets in advance and was scheduled to pick her up on National Highway 1.
Knowing how to wait outside in the rain and wind is very hard, especially when there are young children, but the bus company arranges to pick up passengers here instead of inside the station. The bus company proactively calls to announce the pick-up time, so we have to wait here" - Ms. Lan said.
According to regulations, the time for passenger cars to stop and park at the pick-up and drop-off point in front of Linh Trung 1 Export Processing Zone is only limited to 3 minutes.
However, reality records show that many passenger cars when arriving in this area continuously turn on turn signals, open doors and stop for dozens of minutes to pick up and gather passengers.
At crowded times, hundreds of passengers stand and sit along the road to wait for buses, making this area sometimes no different from a miniature bus station.
Due to being located on National Highway 1 - a road with very high vehicle density - a large concentration of people and the fact that passenger cars continuously stop to pick up and drop off passengers, traffic through the area is affected.
