All foreigners have very different perspectives about the traffic situations in Hanoi. Some choose to look at it as a joke, as a majority of the conversations we have at a dinner party is about that crazy guy on a motorbike did this and what we saw them carrying. Others look at it as an extreme hazard, never allowing their children to cross the road by themselves (which I do not blame them for). My friend, Jemimah Beardwood, has shared with me her perspective on one certain area of Hanoi:
"Having avoided the wildlife, I found myself in the middle of the round-a-bout. Not just any old round-a-bout from a cosmopolitan country with some ridiculously sensible system. No. This was motorbikes of all different colors swerving in all different directions and beeping at each-others bad driving, utter hypocrisy. “Slow and steady” I chanted like a mantra. The other side of the road was so far “I would walk 500 miles”. Whoever sung that song obviously didn’t have to cross this road on their journey. Whoever sung that song obviously didn’t have to cross this road on their journey. Closing my eyes I shuffled across listening to syllables I’m sure I will never be able to understand. “xin chào, bao nhiêu, cảm ơn bạn” all mixed into one sound. "
The round-a-bout Jemimah is talking about is the one next to Hoan Kiem Lake. I know how she feels. This round-a-bout is known as one of the busiest crossings in Hanoi. Someone was able to capture the essence of it perfectly in this video:
Every time I cross that street, I wish whoever I'm with good luck and I say "Maybe, I'll see you on the other side." It is truly a very interesting and frightening experience. But that's what makes Hanoi...well, Hanoi!
Use the tips from my previous post about how to cross a street when crossing this roundabout. If you are a newcomer to Vietnam, you may want to try practicing on smaller and less...congested streets.
Is it everyday when you have to cross a road like this?
Ok, I have onlybeen required to cross a road like this a few times. But crossing these busy streets has become part of my daily routine.
Being a pedestrian in Hanoi is definitely not easy. Anyone is vulnerable, women, men, children, etc. Pedestrian accidents are actually the only ones that have an equal amount of men and women who die. Anyone is vulnerable while being a pedestrian.
(Consulting Services for Demonstration Corridors Monitoring and Evaluation Bi-annual Report April 2011)
My first day in Hanoi, I had realized what I had gotten into. My brother and I wanted to cross a street to get to a store. I waited for the vehicles to stop for me. This street was not even very wide-- maybe 4 meters. 10 minutes later (yea, this is sort of an exaggeration), they were still going. I realized that drivers were simply not going to stop for me.
This is the normal experience that newcomers go through. Everyone has a hard time in the beginning, and it takes getting used to. For me, I was still nervous after a year each time I crossed the street. I did have a good reason though.
Here are some hints that can help you the next time you are attempting to cross a street in Vietnam that I have learned from personal experience:
Look left, then right, then left again, as Vietnam drives on the left-hand side.
Do not hesitate and wait for a pause in the traffic, unless you want to pitch a tent on the side of the road and wait. Like I said before, they will not stop for you.
Just keep walking(do NOT RUN. This doesn’t help in countries with developed street systems, and it will definitely not work here) and do not slow down or speed up, as drivers usually interpret your speed from far away to see how fast they should be going in order to not hit you… or they don’t pay attention at all and just swerve around you. Do not make eye contact with the other drivers, as they will suspect that you know they are coming and they take away your right of way (2).
When walking on the side of the road you should not change your course as well. My mom once had her foot run over by a motorbike when she was walking on the side of the road and heard a motorbike coming behind her. She got scared and jumped to the side at the same time that the driver was attempting to swerve around her. (By the way, sidewalks here are not such a huge help, as they are usually either covered with mini pho restaurants, people squatting, or, most often, these squares with trees coming out of them.)
Hold your hand out to the side to make the drivers more aware of you and so they can see they need to acknowledge that you are attempting to cross the street.
On a two way street, stop in the middle and repeat the process again.
Motorbikes almost always swerve. Cars, on the other hand, are not as likely to swerve. The giant busseswill NOT swerve. When you see a bus coming, the best idea is to wait until it passes, and make sure that no more busses are coming. The busses are also quite tall so they may not even see you. A bus running you over is way more likely to kill you than a motorbike. Recently, on November 13th, three people were killed and three more injured after two trucks collided and one of them flew across the road, and slid into two other busses, another truck, four motorbikes, and a bicycle. The average pedestrian does not have the same amount of force.
This is a picture of one of the vehicles that was hit.
As you can see in this picture, the street just looks like a swarm of little ants to a bus driver:
That old adage, "There is safety in numbers," really applies to the art of crossing the street in Vietnam. You are less likely to be mowed down when you are in a line of friends. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be friends. I usually go up to random strangers and use them as human shields.Many times old Vietnamese people grab my arm and force me across the street with them, screaming things in Vietnamese that I don’t understand. Always glad to help a fellow citizen.
And finally, my most important tip: Never stand in the middle of the road in order to take a picture of the traffic. I know from personal experiences…
Foreigners are so vulnerable to being hurt by vehicles because of one thing: predictability. In a majority of our home countries, we know that if we cross at the crosswalk, the cars that are coming will stop when they get to the crossing. Here, however, we can predict that the motorbikes will swerve around us and that we need to keep going regardless if someone is coming right at us. If a person predicts that the behaviors of the driving will be the same here than it is in their home country, that is when the accidents happen.
Using my tips, I hope you are able to keep your head up high and walk across the streets like a man… or just stay alive.
Works Cited
1.Nguyen, Trung. "Three killed as truck hits nine vehicles in southern Vietnam ."
Taxis tend to be the best way to travel around Hanoi. Firstly, they are very cheap. If I ever take a taxi to school, the 10-15 minute drive usually costs around 60,000VND (equivalent to about US$3). And this price has increased massively since I first came when it would cost 30,000VND (about US$1.50). Yet this is way less than a taxi would cost in places likeNew York City or Washington, D.C. In addition to being cheap, they are also everywhere! All you have to do is go onto a main road and lift up your hand when you see a car with a taxi sign on top. There are so many that, usually, 2 out of 3 times there will be a empty taxi stopping for you in the first two minutes of waiting. They are usually quite open to taking people around, excluding the drivers asleep in their car that shake their heads when you ask them for a ride. Finally, being in a taxi is one of the safest places you can be on the streets of Vietnam, aside from trucks and busses.
As you can see in this table, when a car is in an accident, the number of people injured or killedcompared to the number of people who are unscathed is much lower than the number of people who are killed in motorbike, bicycle, and pedestrian accidents.
(Consulting Services for Demonstration Corridors Monitoring and Evaluation Bi-annual Report April 2011)
At this point, Taxis may seem like heaven. However, there are some factors you need to consider in order to continue being safe-- and not cheated-- in a taxi. The first thing that is important to know is the "legit" taxi companies and the "cheating" taxi companies. The most reliable taxi companies are Hanoi Taxi, Mai Linh Taxi, Van Xuan Taxi, Hanoitourist Taxi, and Hanoi CP Taxi. Noi Bai and Airport Taxi is good as well, as they take you to the airport and there isusually a fixed price (2).
Some of these taxi drivers can be very tricky, especially when they are not legit taxis. One example is recently, when a taxi driver cheated two Japanese people out of more than US$360, and around the same time, two singaporeans were charged US$285 for only 10km (3).
A friend of my mom was visiting us and she had to catch a bus downtown for atrip to Sa Pa. She was running late, and the taxi driver could obviously see her rush, and he made the meter run very fast, causing her to pay about 4 times as much as what she would have to pay normally. He locked her in and said that she couldn’t go until she gave him the money. Since she was in a hurry, she had no choice but to pay.
Another way taxis attempt to get more of your loot is by taking you on a long, unwanted detour when going to your destination. Hanoi has many streets and many alleyways, and there are often multiple ways of arriving to a destination. Taxi drivers will deliberately go a way that could take 10-20 minutes longer, resulting in a farther distance and more money on the meter. If you know the city well, you can direct them yourself and not allow them to go a longer way, however sometimes they refuse, saying that there is traffic on the shorter way or that it is actually longer (1).
Another thing to consider in taxis is that a majority of them (at least the ones I've been in) either have no seatbelt or they keep the belt stuck behind the seat so that it cannot be used. Some taxi drivers act just as many of the other vehicle drivers in Vietnam act: going the wrong way, swerving, speeding, etc. Not wearing a seatbelt in these situations could bepotentially very dangerous because of this. Just the other day, the driver of the taxi I was in attempted to squeeze into a tiny space between a car and a bus as the bus was attempting to turn the other way, and it banged against the side of the taxi. The taxi driver wasn’t so much concerned about me as he ran outside to check the damage done to his car.
3."Two apprehended for allegedly cheating Japanese in Hanoi ." Thanh Nien News 05 November. 2011. . 17 December. 2011 <http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20111105-Two-apprehended-for-allegedly-cheating-Japanese-in-Hanoi.aspx>.
On Tuesday, I went to the Protec Helmet company store to talk to Lotte Brondum, the regional development director of Asia Injury Prevention, an NGO whose main focus is to promote raise awareness about the social, economic, and human impact of the increasing number of road accidents in developing countries. In Vietnam, their main focus is increasing the number of people who wear helmets in order to decrease the number of fatalities and serious injuries associated with road accidents. They opened their Protec helmet factories in 2002.
Previously, the only actual "protective" helmets were the big full faced ones, which were expensive, hot, and uncomfortable. Protec helmets protect only the most important parts of the head, and at the same time are not too heavy or expensive, and they can adapt to the hot climate. The big full face helmets cost $100, about 9 days of an average Vietnamese person's work, which is only about 2 hours for a foreigner. The Protec helmets are only around 270,000VND (about $13, which is much more affordable for Vietnamese people. Full face helmets usually weight about 1kg, while Protec helmets weigh about 300g. This is important because a big reason why people choose not to wear helmets is because they say it is too heavy and uncomfortable. Protec also has a variety of designs and colors. Since the creation of Protec helmets, the helmet wearing percentage increased from 3%-90%.
The Protec helmets have a dense Styrofoamlining which is why it is so protective. They also have a sticker on the back that show that it is a standard quality helmet. Every helmet is tested and certified at Protec's laboratory, and they all meet the Vietnamese, European, and Australian standards. The different tests include, crash, puncture, velocity drop, and testing of the chin straps and buckles.
("About Us")
However, many other helmet companies copy the design of the Protec helmet but without the protective lining, so they are not actually safe. They do not test their helmets. This is a problem because these helmets are not protecting people, and yet the police do nothing to enforce the standardization law.
A really great thing about the company is that many of the employees are disabled, and they give them amenities such as food, recreation and training.
("About Us")
Also, they have created helmets for children. This is important because the percentage of children who wear helmets is much lower than the percentage of adults who wear helmets. The parent's excuses consist of the following:
The helmet is too heavy for the child and will injure the spine(tests have shown this is untrue, yet in 2007, 68% percent of parents said this was the reason they didn’t make their children wear helmets, and 32% in 2011)
The skull cant grow
Parents think they are good drivers and will never have an accident so their children don’t need helmets.
They think it is a short distance or a small street so nothing bad will happen.
The helmet is too expensive and they don't want it to get stolen.
Children are the future road users, therefore it is important that they have the knowledge of how to be responsible.
Today I went for a jog around Tây Hồ (West Lake). On a normal jog , one would normally be attempting to combat the fatigue and exhaustion going through you as you run. Along with that, I have to deal with speeding motorbikes, treacherous teenagers, and impatient cars. As I have mentioned before,a majority of the sidewalks in Vietnam are covered with motorbikes, tiny restaurants and cafes, and giant pots of trees which take up the whole sidewalk, thus, forcing me to run on the street.
No matter how cute, it's still annoying.
This sign is even saying that you should park your motorbikes on the sidewalk.
Here you can see the trees whose pots take up the entire sidewalk.
Teenagers are often having races along the lake. As the lake's road is very curvy, I cannot always see what is coming around the corner, resulting in having to dodge a speeding motorbike. When you are already exhausted, this is surely not going to make your running experience any better. Along with racing, teenagers often do what is called a "wheelie" where they lift up their front wheel while riding.
It looks very similar to this, except minus the helmet and the very high quality bike.
This is particularly dangerous because 1) they might fall on their heads and 2) their view is blocked by the giant motorbike covering their face. Their swerving abilities are hindered as well when they are only balancing on their back wheels.
If you do wish to run outside in Hanoi, your best bet for staying safe in terms of traffic safety and not being run over is before 5am or after midnight, when people are still occupied by sleep instead of zooming around on their motorbikes. However, I have attempted to run in the dark, and a majority of the lake had no lights, and was almost impossible to see. Wearing reflective clothing or holding a flashlight would be a good start… even if you are just walking.
Even though running around West Lake may be an extremely interesting run with so many scenes going on at once, a runner in Hanoi must always be prepared for anything… it may even be a good idea to wear a helmet ;).
The first day I arrived to my street in Hanoi, my first thought was: Do my parents really expect me to live here for 2 1/2 more years?! And the answer was yes, they did expect that. "It's different! It's interesting!"my mom would say. But to me, it felt like I was living in, well, Vietnam (Obviously when I first came, I enjoyed Vietnam much less than I do now.) The street wasn’t paved. When it would rain, the whole street would be one dirty ocean of muddy water. Construction was going on everywhere, so the sides of the roads (and sometimes, the middle) was covered in rubble, bricks, long poles, and other construction materials. This also included the workers standing around in the middle of the street. Then the workers' dogs would run out and charge at us every time we stepped out of our gate. And we also had our many holes in the sides of the roads that are meant to capture the rainwater. Oh yes, this was the life.
(He may look nice now, but he's a whole nother dog when off the chain...)
One night, I was awakened at midnight by the sound of truck. I looked out the window and saw the truck laying a thick coat of black cement on top of the dirt. The street was being paved right before my eyes!And that, to me, was like waking up in the morning to a blanket of fresh snow. Along with the paved road, the construction was coming to an end, and holes were covered up by cement blocks so people wouldn't fall in.
While our street became more 'orderly' there were some limitations. First, we have no street lights.The light fixtures are there but there are no bulbs and no connections. Hence, there are lamps but no light.
Because of this, at night, when we are walking or biking, the street is pretty much invisible. The only lights come from oncoming motorbikes.
When motorbikes are coming at you with their bright lights, however, the lights blind you and it’s even less possible to see.
Over time, large holes have reappeared on the sides of the roads as large cement drainage blocks have been stolen or shoddy paving has sunken in.
As you can see, my friend is on her way to falling into a hole.
One person had the good idea of filling a hole with a desk...to keep people safe?
Lots of construction work has begun again, including repairs to the drainage systemsin the alleyways, as per this example on the side of my house.
I am a little confused as to how people are able to exit their homes. Many houses have no other access other than through such alleyways. Perhaps they now wade or swim to their house gate.Associated with this construction, more rubble and bricks have reappeared in front of my house. Déjà vu!
When we first came, our street was a dead end so it was not very crowded with motorbikes and cars. About a year ago, the circular connection of our street was completed plus several new apartment buildings sprung to life at the end of the former 'dead zone'. Because of this, we now have motorbikes flying by at all times of the day, and just walking out of my house onto the street, I need to look both ways to make sure no one is coming.
Yet with all my complaints, I have really grown to love this street. We have plenty of kind neighbors, as well as a killer view.
Another issue with helmets that I did not mention before is that helmets, otherwise known as "rice cookers",can be associated as a fashion faux-pas. Because Vietnam is a developing country, their interest in fashion is developing as well. Many people tend to wear these helmets that look like baseball caps with cool designs on them. They are more protective than no helmet at all, but not nearly as much as a normal helmet.
In this picture, you can see that the ones on the right are the fashionable lower quality ones, and the ones on the right, although not very protective either, are thicker and more protective than the other ones.
Also, because Vietnam's motorbike riding population is growing all the time, helmets are in very high demand, and the good quality ones are getting more and more expensive. That is why people have been selling cheap helmets, about 5 times less than the standard helmets, and these helmets are not very good quality (1) .One seller in Ho Chi Minh City said he sold his helmets for 2,000VND (equivalent to approximately 0.1USD), and his helmets were made from waste plastic! (2)
According to the Vietnam Consumer Safety Association, 80% of all helmets sold did not pass certain safety tests (3). They have not been very useful in protecting the heads of the Vietnamese during road crashes and accidents. Substandard helmets are the cause of 15.9% of all head injuries in Vietnam (2).
The reason the authorities cannot stop these people from selling these substandard helmets is because the sellers argue that there is no evidence showing that these helmets are for motorbike riders, and could be for bicycle riders or pedestrians (2). Some even have ruses on them, putting logos of people walking, bicycling, and golfing, and these activities do not have a set standard for their helmets (4). However, because these are so cheap, people buy them.
Because I ride my bike a lot here, I knew I needed a helmet. When I went to go buy one, I had a huge selection to choose from, between good helmets and the cool, fashionable ones. I tried them both on, and the fashionable ones were much more comfortable, that’s for sure. It felt like wearing any old baseball cap, it was much lighter, less hot, and I knew it didn’t look as silly as the good quality helmets. In the end, I thought about my safety and chose the helmet that would protect me more.
However, the difference between bike riding in countries such as America and here is that in those countries, you wear helmets to protect your head when you fall over. Here, your head will be protected by a helmet, but what is protecting you from the motorbikes running you over?
Works Cited
1.Diperbaharui, Terakhir. Asia Calling. N.p., 12 July 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.
They can be the most important thing and the most annoying thing when it comes to motor bike riding. They have been a big issue for a long time in Vietnam. Helmets were not highly used a couple of years ago, and the rate of deaths and injuries due to traffic accidents was much higher. According to Grieg Kraft, an American man who lived in Vietnam in order to promote helmet use, in 2000, fewer than 3% of Vietnam motorbike riders wore helmets. 25 riders were killed everyday, and many of them were from brain damage (1).
Many people in Vietnam don’t like wearing helmets because of the lack of comfort, especially during very hot months. And, they can feel heavy.I know this from experience.My housekeeper used to pick me up from school on her motorbike and by the time I got home my neck would ache. And it ruins a good hair day. Finally, Vietnamese claim that helmets disrupt their hearing…..and are not suitable for children.
This all changed on December 17th, 2007. A new law required that all people riding motorbikes were to wear a helmet.One week, virtuallyno one was wearing a helmet. A week later, nearly 100% of the people had changed their behavior due to the risk of incurring a fine. According to the hospitals, the numberof people sustaining head injuries from traffic accidents dropped immediately after the law was passed. In Ho Chi Minh City, for example, the head injury rate fell by about 50% on weekends. Hence, the helmet law was serving it purpose.(1).
However, over time, lax behavior has crept in. Many motorbike riders do not regularly wear helmets or weak very small, fashionable head gear which is unlikely to provide much protection. This seems to be especially common with teenagers--who also appear to enjoy adventurous (i.e high speed and swerving) motorbike riding.The other day, I want for a walk around the suburban West Lake area of Hanoi. I began to count how many motorists were not wearing a helmet. Within fifteen minutes, the number reached twenty.And this was on a weekend day when traffic was relatively light.
Taken by me
After doing further research, I found out why I often find CHILDREN not wearing helmets. First of all, the law does not apply to people under the age of 16 (2). Parents use this to their advantage, and it aids their belief that the helmets injure the neck and throat of children, and disrupts the development of the brain of young children. I always see children sitting and standing in dangerous places, suchin the middle of the two parents on the seat or in front of the driver on the ledge between the seat and the handles. These children aren't wearing helmets, so if they fall, they have almost no chance of surviving. That is why children are involved in 90% of the traffic accidents (3).
Taken by me
Today after taking a trip downtown, I was able to capture some photos of...well, you'll just have to look for yourself.
Taken by me
Taken by me
taken by me
Taken by me
Works Cited
1. "Head Injury in Vietnam." Bike Helmet Safety Institute. N.p., 21 Dec. 2007. Web.
It has been raining cats and dogs here for a week. A tail landed on our porch. But the downpour never longer than five minutes. You never know when it will happen. I was luckyyesterday when I didn’t listen to my mom and decided to take a taxi instead of ride my bike to school. She told me she could "see the sky" and that she was "sure" it wouldn’t rain. Once I got into the taxi the rain started again, harder than it had been all week! So, you never know...
In more developed countries, there is usually not a problem with floods because of good drainage systems on the side of the roads. Here they have holes in the road but the metal bars on top usually get stolen right away. Then there is a hole in the street. Yes, in the street where people ride their bicycles and motorbikes and where people walk. However, there are still floods because of the way the street is structured. It curves more in than out so the water cannotflow into the holes efficiently. Also, dirt and trash are being stuffed into the holes which blocks the water from getting through, which just defeats the whole purpose of the hole. Sometimes a tree stump is put into the hole to act like a warning flag.
As you may be able to see in this picture, the water from the rain is just sitting about halfway up because it is blocked by all of the trash.
This what it looks like after a typical downpour.
(Take note that they are now having to drive on the WRONG side of the street.)
Floods are a common thing here...probably the most common natural disaster. A flood in 1964 killed 10,000 people. In one flood event in 2008, about 24 inches of rain occurred over a four day period. There were massive traffic jams as motorbikes and cars were abandoned in the waters. The death toll was about 55, including three school children who had fallen in uncovered storm drains.
I also read a story about a man named Vu Thanh Quang, 27, who was riding his motorbike on the street in the southern province of Dong Nai. The highway had just been flooded after heavy rains, and he slipped into the drainage canal and drowned. Locals said that not long ago another person had fallen into the same drainage canal. This shows how dangerous riding motorbikes after heavy rains can be.
Teenagers seem to look at flooded streets as water park rides. We were outside on our street filled with water, and I was wearing a nice pair of jeans. They weren't so nice a few minutes later though. Teenagers zipped by on their motorbikes with no shirts on, spraying water everywhere. I'm sure it was impossible for them to see anything. My mom was able to get a picture of one zipping past.
I'm sure this is great fun, especially because there is not much else to do here. But when there are floods, the holes in the streets are completely invisible, and yet, so big. Our neighbor had fallen into one of those holes on his bicycle and needed stitches on his forehead. I even heard a story about baby pugs falling into one!
Here my friend is looking at her camera and not at the upcoming hole that she will nearly fall into.
So, to sum it all up, don't drive on a motorbike during heavy rain....or at least just be careful ;)
