On July 30, the Traffic Police Department (CSGT) of the Ministry of Public Security informed that it is coordinating with the Vietnam Road Administration to study piloting the "overtaking lane" model on qualifying highways, in order to form a civilized travel habit and ensure traffic safety.
According to a representative of the Traffic Police Department, currently many expressways in Vietnam only have 2-3 lanes and one emergency lane, even some routes do not have this lane. Faced with that reality, the proposal to use the lane adjacent to the median strip (lane 1) as an overpass lane is being carefully studied by the unit.
In this lane, vehicles will be prohibited from moving continuously. The main purpose is to keep the lane always clear so that vehicles can safely overtake other vehicles in the same direction. After completing the overtaking operation, drivers must immediately switch to the old lane (lane 2 or lane 3) if these lanes are empty.
This regulation applies consistently to all types of vehicles, including cars. New drivers or people with slow driving habits are advised to move in the right lanes and absolutely do not enter the overtaking lane to avoid obstruction.
Also according to the Traffic Police Department, many drivers wonder how to determine whether the vehicle is "continuously moving" on the overpass lane or not. Representatives of the unit said that functional forces will base on images and videos from the surveillance camera system on the route or dashcam data provided by people to handle.
Accordingly, in the case where images record vehicles moving to lane 1 to overtake, but after overtaking, they continue to circulate in this lane even though lanes 2 and 3 are still empty, that may be the basis for functional agencies to handle violations.
When moving in this lane, vehicles must still ensure compliance with the minimum speed and not exceed the maximum speed allowed by the route.
However, there are also "exceptions" that are not administratively handled, including emergency situations or force majeure events that drivers encounter.
In the near future, functional agencies will select a highway in the Northern region that meets the conditions (usually routes with 2-3 lanes or more in each direction) to establish a pilot model.
The goal of reorganizing this traffic is to form the awareness of "going slowly close to the right" for drivers, helping vehicles always circulate smoothly and safely. After the pilot process and learning from experience, this model will be replicated on eligible expressways nationwide.
The detection and handling of intentional violations will be carried out entirely through image data. The Traffic Police Department encourages people to send videos recording violations from dashcams to support functional forces in ensuring traffic order and safety on highways.
