We’ve been seeing tons of motorbikes with 3+ bodies per bike and wild driving all over SE Asia, so we were surprised that Saigon could still shock us so much with their motorbike riding. Motorbikes rule the roads here, and in some cases the sidewalks. They weave in and out of each other and any other traffic, ignoring annoying boundaries like lanes, center lines, and curbs. Our guide on a tour helped shed some light on why there are so many. He said:
- There are 12 million people in Saigon (Google claims there are 9 million, so we could say “about 10 million people”)
- There are 8 million scooters (web sources agree)
- People pay the equivalent of about $1,000 for a new average scooter, but can often find perfectly fine ones for only a few hundred USD
- The Vietnamese government discourages car ownership by putting hefty taxes on non-motorbike vehicles of close to 100% of the normal cost of a car (his example was that a car we might pay $40k for in the U.S. would cost $75k-$80k here)
So you end up with this incredibly densely-populated city crammed with scooters. The most amazing part to us onlookers was that most of the intersections are unmarked, yet somehow they don’t crash into each other. They all just go for it and somehow understand how to avoid each other. It’s really amazing to watch and we found ourselves on more than one occasion standing slack-jawed for minutes at a time just watching. Any words trying to describe it fall short, so we included a video to share a better taste of it.
Really glad you shared the video! It was fun and a little crazy to watch 🙂 Molly thinks that if they start driving motorbikes at such a young age they’re probably just overall better drivers than those who have to wait here until they are 16 🙂 And that’s how they do it without crashing.
That’s a great theory Molly! I’ve thought that since they know there are constantly going to be things to dodge and avoid that maybe it helps them be more focused or something. One of your guides said there are rarely accidents!
Wow! Brian and I just watched the video a few times and decided they wait for critical mass on their side and then just go. Amazing! And terrifying.
There’s a strange balance of selfishness and cooperation that they all have to strike to make it work. It’s actually similar crossing the street as a pedestrian. There are almost never breaks in the traffic, so you just have to slowly go for it and everyone just expects it and weaves around you.
Wow! So crazy and super interesting!
Does it make you want to try it? 😁