There are still thousands of inadequate traffic lights and signs.

According to the Vietnam Road Administration, currently, the whole country has 2,021km of expressways put into use, 25,290km of national highways and over 53,000km of local roads (streets, provincial roads, district roads, commune roads and village roads). Therefore, there are many road signs and traffic lights on the road network. According to reports from 38/63 localities and road management areas, there are 2,716 traffic light clusters at 2,716 intersections on the road network. Of which, 1,500 clusters have been handed over to the traffic police; 1,216 clusters have not been handed over; through the review, 586 clusters of lights with shortcomings were discovered, so far 139 clusters have been handled, and 447 clusters are still being repaired.

Traffic signs are obstructed from view.

On national highways and expressways under the management of the Ministry of Construction alone, there are 1,839 traffic light clusters at intersections. Of these, 1,100 clusters have been handed over to the Traffic Police; 739 clusters have not been handed over; through review, 447 clusters with shortcomings were discovered, of which 83 clusters have been resolved to date, and 364 clusters are still being resolved.

The leaders of the Roads Department also pointed out the damages and shortcomings in traffic light clusters, including: light clusters that have been in operation for more than 5 years, are affected by sun, rain, wind, storms and other weather factors, leading to unstable and intermittent green and red signals; damaged power supply systems, including damaged electrical cabinets, damaged components or old batteries, leading to weak light signals; In addition, signal lights and countdown lights are damaged due to operation or traffic accidents; burned-out light bulbs; many light clusters do not have countdown lights; there are no pedestrian signal lights at intersections or they are broken and not working; the location of the signal light poles is unreasonable and obscured; other damages and shortcomings have not been completely fixed.

The reason for the incomplete handover of traffic light clusters on national highways is that most of these light clusters are at local road intersections (branch roads) intersecting with national highways and are invested by the People's Committees at all levels, provincial traffic safety committees, and other local agencies using local capital, socialized capital, and are managed, operated, and exploited by local authorities. Therefore, it is necessary to complete the procedures to continue the handover.

For damaged or inadequate traffic lights, road management agencies must continue to complete repairs as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 24 of Decree No. 165/2024/ND-CP before handing them over to the Traffic Police. Some localities have reported that the handover of traffic lights is currently pending assignment to the agency after reorganization.

Regarding the road sign system, the Vietnam Road Administration also said that the country has 5,962 signs with shortcomings on the entire road network. Of which, 1,576 road signs with shortcomings have not been processed and 4,386 road signs with shortcomings have been processed. Regarding the shortcomings on national highways and expressways under the management of the Ministry of Construction, there are currently 957 signs (647 signs on roads managed by road management areas, Vietnam Expressway Corporation, BOT investors and 310 signs on national highways managed by the Departments of Construction). The results of the review of the road sign system on local routes reported by 38 provinces and centrally-run cities show that there are a total of 2,403 road signs with shortcomings.

Of these, 1,784 signs have been recently handled; 619 signs have not been handled. The remaining road signs are due to some signs being installed in unreasonable locations and need to be moved to other locations to ensure reasonable traffic organization; some locations have arranged enough signs on sign posts, but currently the traffic volume and density of vehicles participating in traffic are increasing, so it is difficult for drivers to observe the signs, so these signs need to be placed on gantry frames or booms for easy observation by traffic participants. In many cases, signs have been used for many years, the surface of the sign and the symbols and drawings on the sign are blurred, the reflectivity is reduced, so it is necessary to repair the surface of the sign, re-adhere the reflective screen to increase recognition...

Based on the existing problems and shortcomings in the traffic light and road signaling system, the Department of Roads requests the Department of Construction, People's Committees at all levels, and BOT enterprises managing national highways and expressways to urgently complete the work of fixing, repairing, and renovating traffic light intersections with shortcomings; urgently and completely resolve the task of handing over the task of operating, exploiting, and using the traffic light system to the traffic police force.

Current road signs with content and meaning different from the new standard (QCVN41:2024/BGTVT effective from January 1, 2025) must be replaced and adjusted immediately to ensure safe, smooth and unified traffic. Road signs installed on roads with symbols, signs, sizes, colors, and borders that are not completely in accordance with the new standard but do not cause misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the meaning of use compared to the new standard must be replaced before August 20, 2030.