Promoting mass transit for improving urban environmental management : a focus on pricing and financing of bus service in Hanoi City, Vietnam | |
| Author | Pham Duc Hoang |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.UE-04-02 |
| Subject(s) | Local transit--Vietnam--Environmental aspects Urban ecology--Vietnam--Hanoi Buses--Vietnam--Environmental aspects |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Like most cities in developing countries, Hanoi is expanding rapidly while having only limited resources. As a result, the city is suffering serious deficiencies in urban services. Public transport or bus service, in particular, is far from adequate and is unable to cope with the very heavy and increasing demand placed upon it. Even with heavy subsidies given by the Hanoi People Committee, buses carry only around 3 percent of the total trip demand, which is quite below the desirable level as well as what is observed in a city with a well manage transport system. This makes people to tum away from bus service to using their private vehicles, especially motorbikes. Due to this shift, many urban problems starting from serious traffic congestion and ever-increasing traffic accident to severe air pollution in the city have been recorded so far. With this in view, this study investigates ways and means to improve the quality of bus service in Hanoi focusing on pricing and financing issues seeking a better urban environmental management in the city. For achieving the overall objective indicated above, the study attempts to draw together the views of: bus users and nonusers, providers and regulators. This was done by collection of relevant secondary documents, in-depth discussions in focus group and interview with officials and individuals involved in the sector and questionnaire survey of 150 bus users and nonusers. The results of the field survey suggest that almost all major quality indicators of bus service in the city need to be improved. As a result, respondents are opposed to the idea of increasing bus fare with the current condition of the service. They are, however, willing to pay more for their trip if an improvement is brought about in quality of the service. On closer scrutiny of pricing issues, it is found that due to rigid fare regulation and transfer pricing practice, most daily bus users end up paying more than 10% of their income on bus fare. This situation also reduces overall bus ridership. The current fare collection system is, thus, one of the main reasons of revenue loss to the Hanoi Public Transportation and Services Cooperation (Hanoi Transerco) annually. Investigation of the financing issues reveals that the problems are associated with ownership, absence of competition, and ineffective subsidy mechanism. Constraints in involving the private sector in the provision of bus service also crucially affect investment for improving the service. The research findings lead to the identification of a number of policy options for the improvement of bus service in the city. On the pricing side, daily fare should be deregulated under price cap control mechanism and concessionary monthly fares should be expanded. In addition, transfer pricing policy, diversification of ticket options, fare evasion counter measures and differentiated fare strategies are also proposed to attract people to use the bus service. On the financing side, an effective subsidy mechanism, innovative ownership model of public-private partnership, and measures to encourage the involvement of private sector are proposed. Finally, a supplementary policy package is recommended for a comprehensive improvement of bus service in the city. |
| Year | 2004 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Urban Environmental and Management (UE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Amin, A. T. M. Nurul |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sajor, Edsel E. ;Truong Quang |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation (SDC) ;AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004 |