As Saigon considers altering work hours to tackle traffic congestion, Hanoi is launching a multi-thousand-dollar competition to seek public solutions to its own traffic woes.

According to VnExpress, Hanoi’s Department of Transport announced the competition will start this Thursday, January 19. Local officials are particularly keen on ideas involving underground parking spaces, intelligent transportation systems and private vehicle control, reports the local news source.

Even though Hanoi has taken several steps to help ease congestion, no improvement has materialized, department director Vu Van Tien told VnExpress. Recently, the capital has added more highways and overpasses to its road network, in addition to launching Vietnam’s first rapid transit bus system and adding more regular buses.

“[T]here are still many problems and accident numbers and severe traffic congestion remains high,” Tien told the news source.

Hanoi currently has about 500,000 personal cars and more than 5 million motorbikes on its streets, VnExpress reports. The number of personal vehicles is expected to rise to more than 1.3 million cars and 7.3 million motorbikes by 2025, as new vehicles are being registered at the rate of 19,000 each month.

Similarly to Saigon, Hanoi has been looking into several potential solutions, including banning motorcycles in downtown areas. However, for the time being, none of these solutions seem feasible just yet.

[Photo via VnExpress]

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