I’m afraid of having to deal with hordes of motorcycles driving on the wrong side of the street.
I have seen many people breaking traffic rules on the road, just because they want to save a few minutes of their time. Sometimes they do this by heading head-on into oncoming traffic. This is a reckless and dangerous decision that could cost them their lives – or that of someone else.
Just this morning, as I was trying to walk towards the front doors of the building I work in, on Tran Phu Street, Ha Dong District, a motorbike coming from the opposite direction almost hit me.
The thing is, this happens so often that I started to get scared. Some people do this without worrying about anything else, even when the appropriate turning point to change lanes is only a few dozen meters away. Fortunately, I often drive slowly and always watch the road, so I wasn’t hit.
Traffic etiquette in Vietnam is still very poor, even when traffic police officers continually remind people to follow the rules and issue fines to violators, the impact does not last. You can still see offenders being fined on the road, some for speeding, others for not wearing a helmet. These are traffic hazards. But when the police are not there, people continue to break the law.
This is why very tragic accidents have occurred near the gates of my company. Lives have been lost. In Hanoi, these violators also contributed to traffic jams. And this is not just a problem in Hanoi, but in many major cities across the country. It has been this way for generations.
Law-abiding people like me live in constant anxiety on the road every day. It will take a long time before the Vietnamese learn good traffic manners. The law is already there, the punishment is already there. So why can’t people just follow the rules?
If we rely solely on sanctions from authorities to deter violations, we are only treating the symptoms of the problem, not the problem itself. We need to start with more education, making people more aware of the impact of their behaviors on the world around them, to inspire them to do the right thing.
Increasing the amount and variety of fines, including more vehicle seizures, could also be a viable solution to deter further offenses. This is how we can keep traffic in order and reduce the number of accidents.
