The April 30 - January 1 holiday has recorded a sudden increase in travel demand on many highways in recent years, especially the North-South expressway axis in the East.
On April 30 alone, the non-stop electronic toll collection (ETC) system on 5 North-South expressways recorded 186,068 transactions, an increase of nearly 45% compared to normal days.
This is a very large traffic volume, showing that traffic pressure during the holiday is strongly concentrated on the strategic infrastructure system.
The Vietnam Road Administration said that after nearly 2 months of officially operating the ETC model without input barriers, from March 2nd to the end of April 27th, the entire system handled nearly 5.95 million vehicles, with revenue of more than 580.6 billion VND.
In April alone, it continued to grow stronger than the previous month, clearly reflecting the trend of people prioritizing expressways for long-day journeys.
However, the pressure of holidays still caused some hot spots to be locally congested. On the morning of April 30, the entrance to the Noi Bai - Lao Cai expressway at the National Highway 2 intersection area had to be temporarily closed due to a sudden increase in vehicles. Functional forces forced to divert traffic from afar, guiding vehicles to follow National Highway 2 to IC3 Phuc Yen to reduce congestion.
The Vietnam Road Administration recommends that people before entering the expressway need to check their ETC account for sufficient balance, monitor the route early, prioritize updating traffic information in real time to avoid congestion points. Drivers need to absolutely comply with speed, maintain a safe distance, do not stop and park arbitrarily, and pay attention to traffic diversion instructions from functional forces.
A notable advantage during this year's holiday is that the entire route from Hanoi to Ca Mau has 21 rest stops, temporary stations and essential service points, with an average distance of about 100km/station.
Along with intersections connecting areas with gasoline and food, this is an important condition to help people be more proactive in resting, refueling, and limiting dangerous stopping and parking on the expressway.
According to the Vietnam Road Administration, in the previous 3 days of Giỗ Tổ holiday, there were still 27 accidents on national highways and expressways, killing 2 people. This number is a clear warning that large traffic always comes with high risks if subjective.
The holiday is still long, and traffic volume is forecast to continue to increase sharply in both directions. The modern expressway system is creating great convenience for people, but for a truly safe journey, each driver needs to carefully prepare a travel plan, choose a suitable time frame and put safety first. When infrastructure and awareness accompany each other, pilgrimage trips will be truly complete.
