Need for a 'sidewalk code of conduct' for Vinh city

(Baonghean) - Recently, the issue of sidewalks has been stirred up on many forums as well as in reality. Nghe An Newspaper published readers' opinions on the issue of building a "code of conduct" for sidewalks in Vinh City.

Everyone understands that sidewalks are for pedestrians, for planting trees and other public facilities as prescribed by law. However, sidewalk culture and sidewalk business are what "distort" the original function of sidewalks. The problem of harmonizing the benefits between sidewalk function and sidewalk economy has been a vicious cycle for a long time, leading to conflicts and half-hearted sidewalk "rescue" campaigns, following the trend, and then everything goes back to the way it was.

Looking back at this campaign in some places, we see that it all stopped following the crowd effect, achieving some positive changes but in essence, it did not bring long-term effectiveness. Because the core problem is people's awareness, legal problems and the conflict between the benefits that sidewalks bring.

For Vinh city - a new urban area that is developing towards a modern urban area, the sidewalk is the face of the city, a place that brings many economic benefits to the people and the State. We need to boldly create a separate "code of conduct" for the sidewalk, still ensuring the function of the sidewalk in social activities, in public transport and sharing the economic benefits in harmony. That requires serious, thorough, reasonable and reasonable work and research of the authorities and the people who do business on the sidewalk. Although the sidewalk is mainly for pedestrians, with the current motorbike culture, that function is hardly used for the right purpose. Therefore, we should have a classification with specific regulations on the use of sidewalks that is flexible, realistic, meeting the needs of state management as well as the consensus of sidewalk businesses, as follows:

Cars parked on the sidewalk in Vinh city. Photo: Phuong Thuy

1. Require each ward and commune to conduct a survey to accurately measure the sidewalks on the city's main roads, along with the current characteristics of each sidewalk such as length, width of the sidewalk, whether the sidewalk has an agency or a house, whether there is business on the sidewalk or not... At the same time, survey the opinions and wishes of the people to use the sidewalk.

2. The City Urban Management Department will synthesize and classify sidewalks with similar status and area and propose synchronous solutions for each type of sidewalk to submit to the authorities for approval and widely notify the people to know and implement. We should not level the sidewalks into one type with the same regulations as at present.

3. In my personal opinion, sidewalks can be divided into 3 types:

- Large sidewalks (over 5m wide): 1.5m for pedestrians, 1.5m for households on the street to park motorbikes. Otherwise, if the sidewalk is large enough for car parking, lines will be drawn for parking. If businesses use the sidewalk, a fee of 50,000 VND/m2/month will be charged to the state budget.

- Average sidewalk (from 3 - 5m): 1.5m for pedestrians, 1.5m for households on the street to park motorbikes. For the rest, if businesses use the sidewalk, a fee of 30,000 VND/m2/month will be charged to the state budget.

- Small sidewalks (under 3m): 1.5m for pedestrians, 1.5m for street-side households to park motorbikes. Otherwise, no business is allowed on the sidewalk if any.

4. In addition, there needs to be a survey and assessment to repair and supplement trees on sidewalks, underground cable systems, sign systems, water pipes and dredging of sewers on the roads.

Each sidewalk will have painted lines with letters and colors to distinguish the lane for walking, the lane for residential use to park motorbikes and cars, and the lane allowed for business. All are transparent, clear, flexible, suitable for each sidewalk, for each road according to the current usage status while still ensuring the harmony of interests between the people and the State in sidewalk management. When implementing a synchronous, drastic, thorough and reasonable solution, the sidewalk will become a civilized face for the city and contribute to the State budget as well as bring economic benefits to the people.

This is just one of the solutions in sidewalk planning; in reality, we must rely on specific data to classify and regulate each type of sidewalk appropriately, while still ensuring management and harmony in business, so that both people and the State can benefit from sidewalks. We need to boldly build a "sidewalk code of conduct" for the city as a basis for planning Vinh city into a modern city and moving towards a smart city in the current 4.0 industrial revolution.

Tran Anh Nghia

(Hung Binh Ward, Vinh City)