Traffic in Vietnam

[Tomte]

I just came back from a 3 week vacation in Vietnam. There is so much to tell about this country, so I will limit myself to one aspect: traffic.

I still have to sift through some 1600 photos (thanks to 2 digital cameras in constant use...), but I thought I share this little clip I made in Saigon.



I plan to do a head count over a one minute period, I bet the streets have a by far higher traffic throughput than our quiet European roads.

Further impressions to follow.

[Tuktuk]

Yeah these are impressive impressions - especially while bikes are crossing. This means they drive more chaotic but much more non-egoistic by relaxed and anticipatory driving.

Or is western world's driving style more chaotic ... ?

I heard from other Europen visitors which nearly got heart attacks while participating Vietnam's traffic. I guess you have to forget everything what you have learned and just have to trust them.

[Kenners]

I just came back from a 3 week vacation in Vietnam. There is so much to tell about this country, so I will limit myself to one aspect: traffic.

I still have to sift through some 1600 photos (thanks to 2 digital cameras in constant use...), but I thought I share this little clip I made in Saigon.



I plan to do a head count over a one minute period, I bet the streets have a by far higher traffic throughput than our quiet European roads.

Further impressions to follow.

Seems like you'd actually have to pay attention to drive in Vietnam. See anybody texting while driving? Didn't think so; all the texting drivers are long since DEAD.

k

[alphonse]

impressive traffic indeed - thanks for sharing tomte and welcome back

alf

[Tomte]

Seems like you'd actually have to pay attention to drive in Vietnam. See anybody texting while driving? Didn't think so; all the texting drivers are long since DEAD.

k

The thing is that it all flows quite well as long as there are only a handful of cars but tons of motorbikes/scooters/bicycles (like in Saigon). In Hanoi, there were many more cars, so you got proper traffic jams at rush hours.

The basic principle on the road is that nobody has any rights. All drive very opportunistic while watching that they are not getting hurt. Like that, they actually do look if they impede somebody else because they know that they can get hurt them.
Traffic lights are only for cars and only if they don't want to turn right OR left. The rest do what they can to get where they want.
Crossing a road is an exercise in confidence. They will avoid you as long as you go your pace, don't stop, hesitate or change direction suddenly. It doesn't matter if you try to cross a traffic stream in a car, on 2 wheels or by foot. It all flows around you like a swarm of fishes... apart from the fact that fishes don't honk every 2 seconds.




And yes, you can basically transport everything on a bike...




Apart from that. I saw bike riders calling, holding the phone in the left hand (thanks to a semi-automatic gearbox). Of course, car drivers text as well, but not as regularly as in Europe and North America.

[Superslow]

Hope you had a good trip!

re traffic: looks like Cairo, only replace about 90% of the bikes with cars/trucks/semis. Oh, and make everything brown.

Reminds me of this, too:

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