I’ve never experienced anything that compares to Hanoi traffic. There’s a ton of it, that’s for sure, but it’s not like the stop-and-go traffic back home. Hanoi traffic flows. It’s like a giant serpent winding its way through the maze of streets here.
In large U.S. cities, when traffic is bad, it’s “stop-and-go.” Stop. Go a short distance. Stop. Go. Stop… repeat ad infinitum. (Well, it seems like “ad infinitum”). You have to stay in your lane, and you pretty-much have to stay behind the guy in front of you. You’re boxed in. Stuck.
In European cities like Paris or Rome, things are less constrained. Lanes may or may not be marked, but even if they are, most drivers ignore the lines anyway. Motorcycle riders zip in between cars wherever they can, but ultimately they only get as far as the next traffic light.
Things are Different in Hanoi
It’s different in Hanoi. There doesn’t seem to be much stop-and-go. People are moving. It looks pretty chaotic at first. OK. I guess it IS pretty chaotic. But even in chaos, there is order. (Did I just say that? Ooooh… that sounds pretty deep. I wish I knew what it meant!)
If you observe Hanoi traffic for a while, you might notice that there’s a huge amount of cooperation going on. Individual riders make hundreds of decisions every second, cooperating with other riders in their own self-interest. Their decisions are made in their own self-interest, but the result is for the greater good. Sounds like Economics 101, eh? Maybe “Trafficomics 101?”
For example, suppose we’re on an average size road with two-way traffic. When riders want to make a left-hand turn, they start edging their way over until they’re all the way over to the other side of the road, where they can make their turn. Riders in the opposing direction see them edging over, so they edge over the other way to give them room. No one needs to stop or even slow down.
Now let’s take a more interesting example: traffic moving through a large intersection near our hotel. This intersection has a traffic light. A green arrow gives the “OK” for the left-turners to go. A bunch of riders go, but when the green arrow goes out, many more riders still need to get across. The green light for everyone else to go comes on. A gigantic mass of motorbike riders starts off in both directions.
Let’s say you’re one of those remaining left-turners. You have two choices: wait or go. Waiting isn’t really an option. You’d be there all day, and you’d be in everyone’s way. That wouldn’t be good. But you can’t just turn left in front of a mass of riders coming toward you. What do you do?
It’s ingenious, really. Just as in the simpler case noted above, you start working your way over, little by little, dealing with one opposing rider at a time. Since you and oncoming riders are pointed in opposite directions, it’s easy enough to slide past each other. Slowly, but surely, left-turners make their way across the intersection with little or no impact on the oncoming swarm. I tried to show this in the diagram at the top of the post.
If you’re a first-time visitor like us, you look might out the taxi window and find yourself immersed in a pulsating sea of motorbikes. They’re intermingled together and they seem to be going in all directions at once. Total chaos.
And yet, everyone is calm – almost relaxed. You’re in the taxi thinking, “Disaster is imminent!” But all those riders around you are are just making their way along. No big deal. While you’re thinking about imminent danger, they’re thinking things like, “Maybe I’ll try that new phở place for lunch today.”
Living the (Honda) Dream
This scenario is possible partly because nearly everyone here is riding a motorbike. And the motorbikes that one sees here more than any other are Hondas. There are quite a few models, but the “Super Cub” and its bigger brother, the “Dream,” are arguably the ones you see the most.
Ever since the first Super Cubs arrived here back in 1969, the Vietnamese have had a love affair with Hondas. In Vietnam today, there are about 50 million motorbikes – one for every two people. More than 70% are Hondas.
But what’s not to like? They’re extremely reliable. They’re economical. You can ride around all day for 50 cents worth of gas. They’re cheap, or at least as cheap as you want to go, since there are thousands of old ones still around.
As one might imagine, spare parts abound, as do shops to keep your Honda Dream in tip-top shape. I saw a street in the Old Quarter that was lined with nothing but motorbike repair shops.
As I understand it, Vietnam has a fairly new helmet law. But as far as I can tell, there’s no law about how many people or how big a load you can carry. I think the law is that if you can get everyone or everything on board and you can still move, then you’re good to go. It’s nothing to see a family of four tootling along on their Honda Dream.
(For a few words about walking in Hanoi traffic, see the previous post).
Tomorrow
I’d be perfectly happy to be a wide-eyed Westerner roaming around Hanoi tomorrow, but we have plans. We’re going to make a one-day excursion to the famous Ha Long Bay. We’ll be riding in an air-conditioned bus, (I hope), so our non-existent motorbike riding skill won’t be put to the test. It’s a lot to pack into one day. But not too much, I hope.
To be continued…
