Long way to be global city?

Sploke77 wrote:

It will be a long way before this city reaches global standards. My latest example is S follows :
Even a  so-called 5 star hotel like the Pullman does not believe in having sufficient car parks. As the citizens get more affluent, cars will increase. So, this latest hotel probably can only park 10 cars at most! It does have a so called basement parking ONLY for motorcycles!  NO underground car park ? Who is that discerning designer of the hotel? Has he got enough brains? Even some budget hotels in Singapore has more than forty car parks spaces !! LOL..beats me that this is even part of ACCOR chain, ha ha..

I'm sure all hotels are designed to house/lodge travels who take taxis.  Otherwise, they'd spend all that money to park cars that take up spaces where they can "park" people and make more money.

Just do what everybody else does..just leave your car in the middle of the street.  I've never seen a CSGT ticketing an illegally parked car and calling for a tow truck to tow it.  When you come back...you may have mirrors missing, but..

jimbream wrote:

Looks like a job for
[img align=c]https://internetman.net/images/iman.gif[/url]

THD,where are you?

Where's the construction design in HCM coming from?

Yah, I was writing when you clicked the "Submit" button. 

Most designs are from the French occupation period, or at a time when there were bicycles roaming the city instead of cars.  You realize the economic boom just really took off since 2000 when the USA lifted the embargo and "normalized trade relations".  Since then, our allies (the South Koreans, Japanese, and Australians) started swarming in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta … _relations

Just wait a bit...soon the USA will invent flying cars so we won't have any of this traffic problem.  Then you can just hover your car above your window of your hotel room.  Or stick it on the side of the building.

Google will do it! 

colinoscapee wrote:

The first purpose built multi level car park is supposed to have started by now. Saigon needs at least 5 of these just to get the streets into some kind of reasonable state.

Have you seen what they have in Singapore?
It's a compact,open wall car storage. It uses an electric elevation unit to store cars in their own cubicle.The car has it's own platform,so once your car is parked and locked onto the platform,no one else need touch it physically.
I've seen that on TV,but not in real life until singapore.
However,if I own a Jag or a Merc coupe,I'll park wherever I please thank you very much.

colinoscapee wrote:

Interesting to see how the new train system goes, Im hoping it will get some vehicles off the road. The traffic wouldnt be so bad if people were a bit more patient and actually gave a damn about someone else

In 2015 I'll treat my family to a trip by train to Suoi Tien Park.
That way we can avoid the crowded aggressive traffic.

jimbream wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Interesting to see how the new train system goes, Im hoping it will get some vehicles off the road. The traffic wouldnt be so bad if people were a bit more patient and actually gave a damn about someone else

In 2015 I'll treat my family to a trip by train to Suoi Tien Park.
That way we can avoid the crowded aggressive traffic.[img align=c]http://www.globalsherpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/china-new-year-train-crowd.jpg[/url]

Wow, undercapacity!  I bet you can fit about 100 more passengers in that traincar.  Like they do on buses. 

I rode a public bus one time during a holiday - forgot which one.  I got on the bus like 300 meters AFTER the start of the route; meaning the bus just start to go on it's route....and it was full.  I mean packed like a sardine can!

Regardless, the bus conductor still let me on.  And I wasn't the last one!  He kept squeezing in some more.  We kept jamming the bus to maybe 400% capacity.  I estimated we had over 100 passengers for a maybe 24 seats.  If I was a NEW Expat, I'd be sweating bullets concerned about safety and how moronic the bus operators were, but since I've been here a while, I just rode along thinking to myself, I'd probably die if this bus gets in an accident but what the hell...just enjoy the ride...standing, squished, feet numbed, arms tired from holding on to the ceiling bar...overall a fun experience feeling what the "average Vietnamese" endures. 

I'd recommend a bus ride to any Expat...especially during rush hour.  Find one that's really jam packed.  Just be aware of valuables in your pocket and you'll have a good time.  Especially if the bus suddenly slams on the brakes, you get this domino squish...like everyone lurches forward together.  Like a giant pig-pile.

bluecheer wrote:

What's a Global City?
Do mean living in/like every other Western City!!
Isn't that why we leave it all behind to get away....................other wise just stay where you are.

When I was younger and in the states I always knew like would be better if everyone rode motorbikes.  I enjoy it here in Vietnam. Everyday I can play chicken with someone riding against traffic, what a rush! Night time is also fun with no lights on other bikes, bicycles, foot traffic not to mention the big trucks and buses honking horns. My reflexes have improved, depression is less, life is good....

bluecheer wrote:

What's a Global City?
Do mean living in/like every other Western City!!
Isn't that why we leave it all behind to get away....................other wise just stay where you are.

Has little to do with living West vs East. It's a city that is a jack of all trades and excels in all aspects of the economy from airports, banking, universities, housing, politics, etc. New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore being examples.

HCMC has these things--just not on a global scale. I'd hardly consider HCMC a place to "get away" from it all... this place is pretty fast paced and noisy imo. I hope HCMC can achieve global status if that is what they're aiming for (which it is).

colinoscapee wrote:

Can you please tell me what city has banned cars completely

Venice

Its about the only one and for some other reason than to much traffic, and

Amsterdam is virtually car free to and quite frequently closed for (private) cars is well. There are also areas, where cars are completely banned during day/business times or only have a small time frame to load/unload goods.
yes, and that is working very well. I used to live there a few years.

As a matter of fact, I have since many years no more a car and actually like public transport (in Vietnam a long way to go). But sooner or more later it will come.
Until than I just plan a bit more time for travel and locally either use my E-Scooter or the stinky one

colinoscapee wrote:

Venice is an exception due to the water and access.

You asked.  Google has the answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_car-free_places

But most of these places like you said have access issues or are partially banned.  Several islands in Australia ban cars.

I think as long as the governing authorities have cars, they won't inconvenience themselves. 

But I think like Civic Square in Canberra, HCMC can make D1 or at least Bến Thành Market area pedestrian only.  Places that are walking only are very tourist friendly.

colinoscapee wrote:

Actually I said city, not islands. Also its only parts of a city, the poster said ban cars in Saigon, that means, quan 7 all the way out to Hoc Mon., maybe they should of said just in the business district. The Peoples Committee of D1 has been talking about making Bui Vien a mall for years, it wont happen as it will limit people who live in the hems, they wont be able to get to their houses.

In the real world of Sai Gon today, think there's about two chances of banning cars altogether. None and zero.(at the moment)
Mainly because it's usually the rich, powerful and/or those people connected to 'high places' within the government who own the most number of cars on the roads in the city.
The rest of us just put up with wearing breathing masks and ride motorbikes, electric or pedal powered bicycles.

A really good, modern 'Skytrain' system, such as the one working in Bangkok right now would be great for inner Sai Gon and most of the outer districts.
BUT even that would require major redesigning, years of planning, demolition of many of the cities streets and buildings plus years or decades of never ending construction work.

That would also entail these same rich, powerful, well connected current private car owning people to most probably give up their own buildings or move their businesses, something I don't think they would be very happy or co-operate doing.

Last point, as previously mentioned, Sai Gon was a city mainly designed and built around the French colonial days when horses or water buffalo pulled carts and carriages, bicycles, etc and only a very few motorized vehicles where on the streets. Everyone else just walked or tried to hang on the outside of a moving vehicle. (so I've been told)

I'm no architect or urban designer but I'm guessing by it's whole basic design, especially that of the inner districts of Sai Gon would not lend itself to such modernization and re-construction very well at all.  

Even if it WAS possible, and the Vietnamese can do damned near anything once they make up their minds they really want to,- how much (if any) of the very few of what's still left today of the older, traditional, heritage buildings would be left intact afterwards ?
How many of the parks and open public places to relax or study in during the day would vanish as well ? 
Not very much would be my guess. 
Sadly it's a fact of life that modern money has the biggest say in what is happening now and for the near future.

I'm not against progress, BUT what of the past heritage ? 
What will be left for the younger generations growing up today and next generations still to come ?
What are they going to be able to look back at and see the real things for themselves and not just paintings or some old photographs ?

That's just my 2 Dongs worth.

Sploke77 wrote:

Like I said, to progress, they must have cars first. Otherwise, why do so many car companies sell their wares here? Haven't they done their projections 10 years down the road? More middle class should own more cars and then push the Govt to solve that problem first. Meanwhile, plans to build MTRs and the like could commence and difficulties and solutions along the way, like resettlements could bulldoze their way through. We would then have a situation like what is happening in the rural areas of the Middle Kingdom!

That won't happen for decades, because of Vietnam's infrastructure.   It's a country with high population density, not a lot of land, widening the roads to make room for cars will require them to demolish current buildings and rebuild everything, and I'm sure the vietnamese government would rather keep things the way they are.  Also, a basic car like a Honda Civic, which costs $16,000US, costs literally double that in Vietnam.  Given that the average Vietnamese salary is roughly $2500-$3000 a year, its completely unrealistic to expect middle class Vietnamese to buy a vehicle, when a scooter is more economical.

Cars in Vietnam are completely unaffordable, even to more affluent citizens like US, Canada, nobody here would pay $36,000 for a Civic, and to ask a citizen from a developing country to pay such a price for a car, is completely unrealistic.  And seeing as how it's a pain in the butt to drive around in a car at 5 mph in busy traffic, when you can get around much more easily on a scooter, you can see how cars will likely not be so commonplace.