One day after Hanoi authorities banned parking lots on 262 streets on February 15, local traffic police and transport officers fined hundreds who were in violation, while many residents felt displeased as they failed to find parking for their vehicles.

Many people parked their motorbikes randomly on the side of Hang Bong Street after they failed to find parking , Photo: Tuoi Tre

As earlier reported, the authorities had ordered the Transport Department to revoke licenses from these parking lots on roadsides and roadways before February 15, in an effort to re-arrange the service and improve traffic safety.

In implementing this ban yesterday morning, joint inspection teams from the local Departments of Police and Transport handled 135 violation cases. They also gave fines to 188 cases of stopping or parking vehicles in the wrong place.

Meanwhile, a large number of vehicle owners felt inconvenienced and uncomfortable as they failed to find new lots for their vehicles.

Nguyen Van Cong, an employee of Thai An Travel Company located on Hai Ba Trung street, said it took him 2 hours to find a parking lot for his vehicle.

Thu Hien, a woman who wanted to visit her relative in the Viet Duc Hospital on Phu Doan Street but did not know where she could leave her motorbike, told Dan Tri newswire, “The ban is necessary since it will make streets clearer, but before the ban was issued, the authorities should have taken measures to meet people’s demand for parking.”

The vehicle keeper at the hospital’s parking lot said, “Since the ban was applied, the lot has been constantly overloaded since it has received many vehicles from other parking lots that have been banned.”

Meanwhile, many parking service operators said that the ban was issued “suddenly” while there were no replacements for the lots that wereremoved. As a result, they found it hard to deal with clients who had used the service on a contract basis.

A police officer handles a man's parking violation on Lo Duc Street (Photo: Tuoi Tre) 

“My parking lot has served about 100 clients under the service agreements signed between us. Now we don’t know how to do to keep them with us,” Nguyen Van Trong, a staff member of a parking service company, which operated a lot on Tran Quang Khai-Tran Khanh Du Streets. 

Do Xuan Thuy, general director of the Dong Xuan Joint Stock Company, which had closed 6 of their parking lots under the ban, told Tuoi Tre, “For some of the lots, closure may not cause much trouble to vehicle users, but as for the other lots previously located in the Dong Xuan market, their shutdown has really caused difficulties to market goers.”

Many traders at the market also expressed their discontent. One of them said, “We are doing business here, so we need to have a parking lot for our vehicles. If this lot is banned, there must be another one set up to replace it.”

Many people even called the Hoan Kiem District People’s Committee, asking competent officials to come to the market to witness the situation. 

Dao Quang Tam, deputy head of the district’s Urban Management Department , said, “Many traders have called on us to come. They said they did not know where they could park their vehicles before entering the market. They asked the district authorities to help find parking for them.”

Tam said after the ban was issued, the district government revoked 55 licenses for parking service operators. “The ban has made streets clearer, but the demand for parking is very great, so we don’t know what the situation will be in the days to come as a result of the lot closures.”

Lam Anh Tuan, deputy head of Hai Ba Trung District, said, “The people’s aspiration is that new parking lots will replace the banned ones in order to meet the demand for parking. We have recorded their feedback and will refer them to the city government for consideration.”

Source: Tuoi Tre