The traffic problem I want to talk about is the daily school-run jam on the road outside my neighbourhood in Ho Chi Minh City. I'm a mother of two and I work in a bank, so I'm stuck in it more than I'd like.
It happens twice a day, from about quarter to seven to eight in the morning, and again from half four until six. There are three schools along one fairly narrow road, and hundreds of parents arrive on motorbikes at the same time to drop off or pick up their children. People park right on the pavement, some ride the wrong way to save time, and it all just grinds to a halt.
The effect on people is quite serious. A journey that should take five minutes can take forty. Kids are breathing in fumes while they wait, and I've seen several near-misses where a child stepped out between bikes. It also makes everyone tense and irritable; you hear constant horns, and people argue over tiny spaces.
In my view, a few simple measures would help a lot. The schools could stagger their start times by twenty or thirty minutes so that not everyone arrives at once. The council could also mark out proper drop-off bays and put a traffic warden there during peak times. And honestly, parents like me could share rides; four families on my street now take turns, and it's already reduced the number of bikes a little. None of these ideas are expensive, so I think it's more a question of organisation than money.