The Ministry of Transport’s updated national traffic signs, introduced earlier this year, will go into effect this month.
Even though violations won’t be handed out until the new signs are installed, according to Tuoi Tre, drivers should begin to take note.
Among these new signs is a nighttime speed limit, which indicates the upper speed limit for drivers after dark. Other updated signage includes a black-and-yellow emblem warning drivers at bends which could potentially cause large vehicles to overturn, as well as a sign prohibiting vehicles from overtaking on the right along a two-lane street.
Ngo Hai Duong, head of the municipal department of road and traffic infrastructure management, told Tuoi Tre that Saigon began installing 1,147 new signs on Tuesday.
Unlike before, the revised rule on overtaking vehicles applies only to two-lane streets with two-way traffic. For one-way streets with multiple lanes and two-way streets with multiple lanes in each direction, vehicles are allowed to overtake others from the right as long as they follow the speed limit.
Vehicles are also now allowed to make a U-turn at intersections with “No Left Turn” signs. At those intersections which prohibit both U-turns and left turns, a new sign will combine both commands for drivers.
The new rules and standards are part of a governmental effort to improve traffic nationwide. In Saigon alone, traffic jams are a costly problem and have seen a rise this year, as the number of traffic accidents in the southern hub increased for the first time in eight years.
[Photo via Tuoi Tre]
