Asia Pacific | Caution Ahead! Vietnam’s Drivers Are Suddenly Following the Rules.
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Credit… Video by Linh Pham Caution Ahead! Vietnam’s Drivers Are Suddenly Following the Rules.
Steep new fines — more than many people make in a month — have made the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi less freewheeling than they used to be.
Credit… Video by Linh Pham
By Damien Cave
Damien Cave, who is based in Ho Chi Minh City, spent many hours in traffic to report this article.
Jan. 28, 2025 Updated 6:32 a.m. ET Vietnam’s motorbike drivers have always tended to treat red lights as suggestions, more slow down than stop. At rush hour, they’ve brought the same indifference to other rules, like: Yield to pedestrians; or, stay off sidewalks; or, do not drive against the flow of traffic.
Some found it charming, the ballet of many wheels dancing around pedestrians. But Vietnam’s road fatality rates have long been among the highest in Asia. And after cracking down on drunken driving, the country’s leaders are now going after everything else.
Under a new law, traffic fines have risen tenfold, with the biggest tickets exceeding $1,500. The average citation tops a month’s salary for many, and that’s more than enough to change behavior. Intersections have become both calmer and more congested by an outbreak of caution. Faulty green lights have even led scared drivers to walk motorbikes across streets the police might be watching.
“It’s safer, it’s better,” said Pham Van Lam, 57, as he pruned trees outside a Buddhist pagoda by a busy road on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City this week. “But it’s cruel for poor people.”
Making Vietnam more “civilized” (“van minh” in Vietnamese) appears to be the goal. It’s a word the government has often deployed for public order campaigns, signaling what this lower-middle-income country often sees as its north star: the wealth and order of a Singapore, South Korea or Japan.
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Vehicles waiting at a traffic light this month in Hanoi. Credit… Linh Pham for The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
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