Electric bicycles will be regulated as motorcycles for management purpose

The draft Law on Road Traffic has added the concept of what is an electric bicycle. Accordingly, for vehicles with a capacity of over 250 volts, they will be called motorcycles, and all current electric bicycles will be regulated as motorcycles for management.

Many new regulations have been supplemented

This is information that Ms. Hoang Hong Hanh - Deputy Director of the Legislation-Inspection Department (Directorate for Roads of Vietnam) said at a press conference to introduce new regulations in the revised Law on road traffic by the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam, held on the afternoon of June 8, in Hanoi.

At the press conference, Ms. Hoang Hong Hanh said that the draft Law on road traffic supplements the concepts of smart transportation means, public passenger transport, and prohibited acts in accordance with the Law on Prevention of Harmful Effects of Alcohols.

Regarding traffic rules, the draft Law on on road traffic adds the principle to ensure that traffic drivers stand in a convenient position for road users to observe and see clearly both at night and during the day; revise the regulations on seat belts at points with seat belts in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on Road Traffic.

According to Ms. Hanh, regarding rules to protect vulnerable people such as the elderly, the disabled and children such as the rules of concentrating on giving way to pedestrians, the rules of giving way to buses, and school buses moving in and out the pick-up and drop-off stops on the road, stipulating the use of dedicated seats for children under 13 years old.

Regarding vehicle identification lights, the draft Law on Road Traffic also provides regulations related to identification, this is the content of the law localization as prescribed in Article 32 of the Convention on Road Traffic. After receiving comments and adapting to the reality, Vietnam will not toughly stipulate that all vehicles must turn on identification lights, but only identification lights become a mandatory component of vehicles, to both ensure the provisions of the Vienna Convention, while ensuring the accident prevention mechanism for the people.

Since validation of the law, all vehicles, including motorcycles and motorbikes, must be designed with identification lights. Technically, identification lights are not for lighting, they can be combined with lighting lights or work independently. The identification light will not have a separate switch, but will be automatically turned on when the vehicle is started.

As for the road signaling system, Ms. Hanh said, the draft law introduces regulations on the order of validity of the road signaling system, more specific regulations on signals of traffic controllers, traffic light signals, of which a new notable point is the regulation on green light signals, which is codified under the Convention on Road Signs and Signals.

Accordingly, the green light signal is a signal to move, except in the case that the forward direction is congested, if entering the intersection, you will not be able to exit the intersection before the traffic signal changes to signalize the other directions to enter the intersection. This green light regulation also guides road users to follow the exclusion rule that does not apply in case the moving direction is congested and no exit is possible if moving in.

Classification of Driving Licenses in accordance with International Conventions

According to Ms. Hanh, the draft Law on Road Traffic will adjust the classification of driving licenses in accordance with the International Convention on Road Traffic to facilitate the use of Vietnamese driving licenses abroad and foreign driving licenses in Vietnam. Accordingly, the classes of the driver's license have been added with A0 (vehicle under 50cm3) and C1 (vehicle weighing 7400kg).

This classification of driving license will not give rise to administrative procedures for re-issuance of issued and valid driving licenses. The issuance of a new class license will be applied for the first-time issuee and the issuance for an expired license will be subject to re-issuance case. Particularly for the A0 class license, it is carried out according to the roadmap so that people have time to implement

Regarding the question of identification light rules, Mr. Pham Minh Tam - Deputy Director of the Traffic Safety Department (Directorate for Roads of Vietnam) said that Vietnam's traffic organization is basically mixed traffic. In this mixed traffic flow, motorcycles and motorbikes are the venerable means of transport. Regulations that vehicles participating in traffic during the day must have identification lights is a technical solution to help reduce traffic accidents or reduce the severity of accidents.

Currently, the Vietnam Register is developing standards for identification lights. When new cars are manufactured, they will have to satisfy the criteria such as easily recognizable locations, brightness levels that do not cause glare for people on the opposite. Specifically, the draft law will not retroactively apply to manufactured vehicles without built-in identification lights./.