Sheer unadulterated chaos, and even more so in foreign eyes. The unfamiliar stand petrified, not knowing how to walk across the street. Like the musical notes in a Beethoven score, to the eye it’s incomprehensible, to the ears it’s awe, and in the end thought provoking. It’s as much a part of the Vietnam scene as non-la’s and banh mi.

The Graphic here notes the steep rise of accidents (injuries and even fatalities) ought to have included a line showing the number of motorized vehicles on on the road. Accidents may be up seven fold, but this is certainly no less dramatic than the sheer number of vehicles itself – as vividly portrayed in the picture. This is an all too common sight in places like Saigon & Hanoi, particularly at the 4pm school bell when parents swell school house exits to ferry kids home. It’s the opening act for the 5pm rush hour. The people of VN love and depend on motorbikes, as do I.

The traffic problem ties to (1) speed (2) increasing number of vehicles, (3) traffic culture, and (4) road hazards

Let’s take them in reverse. Perhaps you have seen that tree branch or rickety chair in the middle of a road. It’s a makeshift warning sign of something you need to slow down and avoid. Vietnam’s roads, even the best of them, offer their own deadly hazards. Potholes and dips that can easily upend an unsuspecting motorbike. Booming construction means widespread gravel & sand spills, more cartage means fallen objects (even helmets), crowds & vendors routinely spilling over into streets. This is VN, expect the unexpected. One road hazard in just the right place, or wrong, oft leads to it’s own disastrous domino effects.

Traffic culture. Puddle avoidance is one that gets me, motos will seemingly risk life & limb to avoid a puddle. True, it’s quite impolite to splash your neighbors, not to mention spritz those behind you with foul roadwash. It’s also true, that where there’s a puddle there’s a depression-exactly how deep in anyones guess. Rains dramatically re sculpt and undermine the best of roads. Driver’s also steadfastly avoid steel (manhole) covers, no matter how safe it may appear. Anyone who’s witnessed such a manhole failure will never have faith again. Traffic moves on one guiding principal-avoidance. Mutual avoidance of other vehicles & avoidance of hazards, real or possible. The second guiding principle is momentum = right of way. In Physics, its mass times velocity-and so it is in VN. Always yield to higher mass-higher velocity objects. Hence tractor trailer rigs, buses and laden lorries well expect you to get your smaller/slower arse out of the way. Horns are the ubiquitous audible demand to give way. These are the dinosaurs of traffic, take heed. Buses are the kings, they hasten about under the pilot-age of fearless experienced hands, under color of authority.( If anyone ever did get the mythical Camel through the eye of a needle, it’d expect to see a Saigon bus at the helm). In this hierarchy, pedestrians are the lowest of the low. Especially the slow ones. Motorists typically pay little heed to lower life forms, who are expected to clear the way. Auto’s take their rightful place in the chain, but now with a curious new twist -esteem. This means Esteem cars (i.e: expensive or rare), or Esteem Plates (Blue, or Red, or Sadly – NG). The more expensive & affluent command greater esteem. These odd vehicles are the raptors, swift and treacherous, and oft tempted to usurp motorcycle only lanes to bypass dinosaurs or lesser esteemed autos. Esteem is often demonstrated by speed, careless disregard for safety, and wanton disregard of others. German and British breeds especially. What always seemed odd to me, is that these vehicles are often piloted not by the esteemed-but by hired drivers, whom themselves are ostensibly moto-folk. Do they shake their fists, and curse 4-wheeled aristocrats on the way home on their Honda Waves?

The sudden increase of dinosaurs and raptors, not to mention motos, is a direct result of VN’s economic fortunes. There’s frankly more trucks hauling goods everywhere. There’s certainly more personal fortunes & esteem, and nowadays-esteemed vehicles are de-riguer. One’s esteem literally hinges upon it. One of the real problems of autos is where the hell to park? There is an alarming number of vehicles being idled around awaiting their owners call. Like aircraft circling O’hare in a blizzard, these raptors circle aimlessly about whilst their owners meet, shop, lunch, or conduct business. Meter maids – for lack of a better term- now chase many off the sidewalks & curbs back into already congested traffic. On top of this, the number of motorbikes-VN’s transportation staple- has skyrocketed in the past decade. All these vehicles, 2 wheel, 4 wheel, and more, are now out competing for a rightful share of thoroughfare. Congestion is inevitable, traffic density is way up. Despite which, Saigon can still generally be transversed in under 30 minutes by motorbike even in heavy traffic. The key is knowing the narrow neighborhood alternatives. This too part of the problem. An increasing number of motorbikes are being bullied off into the narrow honeycombed residential byways, once the quiet province of pedestrians and bicycles. One cannot disregard those cursed carts either – Slowly hauling trash, bricks, re-bar, and all manner of gainly or awkward items. Their engines and drivers strain slowly, they are the tortoises slowly meandering the roadways. The construction and refuse industry depends on them. Tourists too demand their perilously slow & ungainly Xichlos.

One other aspect of traffic culture: mobs. Organized queuing is for the timid. Push to the front, or follow a flanking strategy. Even if it means impeding opposing or cross traffic. is Red lights and railway crossings are a prime example. Gridlock is a living testament. Even emergency vehicles like ambulances cannot cut a swath, and alarmingly few will yield to anything but flashing Blue-Lights. Traffic control devices (traffic lights) are fairly new to VN, and like the white line down the middle of the roadway, are oft dismissed as a ‘suggestion’ rather than a limitation. People do drive on the wrong side of the road, people do ignore lights.

Speed kills. New and improved roadways are raising the bar, and drivers are opening the throttle. Highways, and expressways are all the rage. Where else can a raptor be let off the leash. Mishaps are simply all the more grim and gruesome. To my mind this has become the most deadly potion. The MV (mass*velocity) quotient, more vehicles, more mass, and now more velocity. But more velocity requires greater braking distance, farther vision, more room for reactions. Carts, children, bicycles, and Honda Cubs have not gotten faster. Relatedly, the boom has brought ‘urgency’ to the mindset. Esteemed and otherwise are dashing cross town to important meetings, truck drivers with harrowing schedules and demands, Better roads, autobahn vehicles, a sense of privilege, and the pressures of keeping up in the post WTO boom are exacting a blood toll.

For all it’s criticism, the seeming chaos of Saigon traffic is really a symphony, or an ongoing opera, but clearly something of a marvel -if one pauses to consider the vast number of people & good transported with ugly flair. I’d dare to venture that few places do it more efficiently. Or as seemingly incongruous as it may seem, even more ‘green’. Has there been some attempt to quantify the efficiency of transport in VN. Trending petrol per person at it’s simplest level? Most observers prescribe in one way or another, an ethnocentric solution. Such “Where I come from…” solutions would simply thwart this ugly but compelling efficiency.

The alarm here focuses upon the spiraling number of accidents. Helmets certainly are key to preventing tragic head injuries, but I suspect that other traumas-like lost limbs ans spinal injuries still lead the way. The catalyst to helmet laws was the prolonged and intensive hospitalization required of head injuries. Patients required months of intensive care and treatment. Hospitals were being choked; beds, nursing & doctors were being stretched dangerously thin to attend to increasing numbers of horrific head trauma cases. Helmets have helped, health authorities admit, with the gravity & incidence of head injuries. Nonetheless, the number of traffic trauma cases still swells emergency rooms with less celebrated, but albeit more easily treated infirmaries such as broken bones. Effective measures need to diminish the occurrence of injury-probable accidents. Rules and enforcement need to be applied to put speed in check, keep high density thoroughfares clear , and severe penalties introduced for ‘reckless driving’ behaviors which imperil others.