VietNamNet Bridge – Some people in Hanoi have reacted against Department of Transport deputy director Nguyen Xuan Tan’s personal opinion that many people are just buying cars to show off.

Congestion in Hanoi

The department's deputy director in an interview on September 15 said congestion in Hanoi was caused by many people having bought cars as status symbols rather than for practical reasons.

"They buy cars just to show off, don't care where they park or even know how much the maintenance costs are," he said. "A neighbour of mine bought one, they didn't need it, but still bought one to look good. In two years, they only travelled 10,000km."

He went on to say that people should realise that a car isn’t some kind of trend. People should only buy a car if they really need it, he said.

After the interview was published, many readers commented on Tan's opinions.

Reader Nguyen Van Hoc commented "Congestion occurs because of managers, don't blame car owners. Buying cars is a way to stimulate consumption and pay taxes."

Reader Long Dan commented that a car was necessary because his "Need for enjoyment increases with time. Besides, even if people buy cars just to look good, they don’t use them often enough to cause congestion so it's not right to blame them.” Absolving himself from any kind of personal responsibility he added, “The government's weakness in infrastructure planning is the sole cause."

Meanwhile reader Hoai Huong thinks that Vietnamese people are suffering from such thinking of state officials. "The world have used cars as main transport hundreds of years ago while car remains a dream for many Vietnamese people until now."

According to the local Transport Department, in the first months of 2015, about 183,000 new vehicles were registered including 40,000 cars and 11,600 motorbikes. Hanoi now has over 5.5 million of vehicles using its overloaded roads.

DTriNews