The conditions of walking of Hanoi’s inhabitants and their effects on the urban planning projects
Author: Nguyen, Mai Hue
Under the direction of: Jean-Paul Hubert and Sylvie Fanchette
Gustave Eiffel University
Texte français
Keywords: Urban planning and development, Vietnam, Urban civilization, Modernity, Pedestrian space, Public space, Sidewalk, Walking in Hanoi, Urban life.
Abstract
Hanoi, a thousand-year-old city built between the waters of the Red River, is now a megacity with new dynamics to integrating into the networks of globalization. From the end of the 1980s, the important economic reforms (Doi Moi) were initiated by the Vietnamese Communist Party (this Party has been the only political force in the country, since 1975). While urbanization is one of the most important vectors of Vietnam’s integration into the Market Economy, public authorities have to deal with new social and environmental problems. These problems are accentuated by the vigor of Hanoi’s demography (more than 8.0 million inhabitants in 2019), and the fact that urban planning appears to be out of step with population growth. Meanwhile, the central authorities are struggling to confer more power on the localities and still remains very marked by democratic centralism. The city institution, which usually the state’s job but now involves doing of some private sector, those with short-term profitability objectives. This raises questions of the city sustainability of urban options selected. Each individual, who plays a major role in the construction of the informal city, is now barely in the authority’s control. After having identified the limits and negative externalities related to the urbanization of Hanoi city, this thesis proposes to focus more specifically on inner-urban mobility of the capital and more particularly on : Walking. Starting in the 2000s, many city-dwellers are now financially capable of buying their own motorized vehicles (generally less than 125 cm3). These machines have become essential to the city dwellers’ daily life (more than 5.7 million motorcycles for 8.0 million inhabitants), and are responsible for 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the capital. The lack of an urban policy that favors non-smoke transportation, and modality of how the Vietnamese urban political economy is imprinted of clientelism and "arrangements" by different social classes. All makes it very difficult to set up sustainable urban policies that encourages Walking. This thesis, conceived as a decision-making tool for building a sustainable city, aims to identify the technical difficulties (urban, political, administrative, social...) and other obstacles faced by the local authorities - actors of the urban fabric. This thesis answered three aspects of the public spaces of the city of Hanoi. First, the degradation of pedestrian spaces is linked to the urban growth in Hanoi since Doi Moi and the making of a city that favors motorized vehicles. Second, the authorities are more interested in presenting a pedestrian image of a civilized and modern city as an international metropolis rather than improving the condition of walking. Finally, this thesis also explains the system of arrangement between all the actors of the city to share the profits of the public space.
