Air pollution is an ongoing issue in Vietnam, with two of the nation’s major cities landing in the top 15 most polluted metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia.
Most of the air pollution is caused by an increased demand in transport, growth in construction and
industrial activities, and poor waste management. The Vietnamese government has made commitments to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions by introducing motorcycle bans by 2030 in four of the major cities including Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang and Can Tho.
This proposal has been controversial - motorcycles are the primary mode of transport in Vietnam and there is a lack of evidence to show how effective the ban would be in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollutants in cities.
However, research conducted at La Trobe University suggests that substituting motorcycle trips may be effective in reducing pollution, especially when replaced with active travels.
“Active travel could substitute 62 percent of short motorcycle trips in Da Nang. This can save up to 18 percent of GHG emissions from motorcycles,” says Dr Yen Dan Tong from the La Trobe Business School at La Trobe University.
Dr Tong collaborated in this project with Dr Julio Mancuso Tradenta, a lecturer in economics and course coordinator for international business, also from the La Trobe Business School. The project collaborated with colleagues from Can Tho University in Vietnam and University of Southern Queensland.
In this project, the authors took advantage of a unique dataset produced in Vietnam during the Covid-19 pandemic to quantify the potential reduction in GHG emissions that would be achieved from the substitution of motorised transportation with walking or cycling.
“Our study used a dataset available from NCOVI – an app that was used for contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Dr Tong. “It included activity-based travel diaries that showed each respondent’s total distance travelled and their trip purpose.”
This is the first research conducted with such in-depth information in a developing country. that demonstrates how much GHG emissions are produced in relation to an individual’s travel behaviour, and it could help develop improved transport policies in developing nations for a better environmental future.
Six categories were used to define the purpose of travel from 100 respondents, including working or studying, shopping and buying groceries, social activities and leisure, personal business, eating out and visiting relatives.
They found that 65 percent of individuals used their motorcycles to travel less than 5 kilometres. If most of these trips are replaced by active travel, including shopping trips, a further 22 percent of GHG emissions can be reduced.
“We calculated that the weekly GHG emissions in the transport sector is 9.19kg CO2e per capita in Vietnam where motorcycles contribute to a large part of carbon pollution,” says Dr Tong.
“I was really happy to find something positive we could take away from the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Dr Mancuso Tradenta. “The project offered hope in moments of deep sadness and provided an academic opportunity to contribute to the reduction of global warming.”
“Researchers and policy makers can use our data to calculate the benefits of a motorcycle ban. This could also contribute to more informative cost-benefit analyses of solutions to reduce GHG emissions that are based on changes in transport behaviour.”
Dr Tong and Dr Mancuso Tradenta believe there is great potential environmental benefits in adopting innovative transport and infrastructure policies that incentivise active travel more effectively. This can lead to improving traffic congestion, air pollution, and community health and well-being in Da Nang as well as other cities in developing nations.
