~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Busy streets of Vietnam make room for autos

HANOI - Hunched behind the wheel, student driver Tran Chi Dung maneuvered into the chaos of Vietnam's streets, where motorbikes, bicycles, cars, trucks and pedestrians dart about in every direction. `Watch out!'' warned instructor Le Anh Tuan, as three large buses barreled toward them. ``Put it in second gear! I said second! That's fourth!'' Car culture has arrived in Vietnam, and despite the harrowing roads, everyone wants a piece of the action. The waiting list for driver education courses is three months.

With Vietnam's economy expanding at a red-hot 7 percent a year, the number of people who can afford a car is rapidly growing. A Mercedes-Benz or a BMW has become the ultimate status symbol for Vietnam's nouveau riche. And further down the income scale, members of an emerging middle class are scraping together the money for secondhand Toyotas.

Looking back

Ten years ago, cars were a rare sight on Vietnamese streets. Bicycles ruled the road, which then gave way to motorbikes, which now share the streets with a fleet of automobiles whose size seems to increase exponentially with each passing month. Motorbikes still account for nearly 95 percent of the vehicles on the road. But car sales rose by 58 percent last year, when dealers sold 42,500 vehicles -- six times as many as they moved just five years before, though they have slowed this year because of a hefty new luxury tax.

All the new drivers are compounding Vietnam's traffic nightmares, which already defied description before people who had rarely even sat in a car suddenly got their hands on the wheel.Thirty-seven people die every day on the roads of Vietnam, most of them driving motorbikes without a helmet. The highway fatality rate here is nearly 10 times higher than in the United States.

In a nation where vehicular Darwinism reigns and major head trauma is just a motorbike crash away, it's only natural that people long for the relative safety of a car. An air-conditioned sedan also allows them to enjoy a sense of social superiority over the masses still getting around on two or three wheels, roasting in the subtropical heat or getting drenched by the monsoon rains.

Thrill of driving

Even people who can't afford a car are lining up to get their driver's licenses. For now, they content themselves with renting cars for day trips. ``I'll have to save money for a long time,'' said Dung, the student driver who calmly avoided the three rampaging buses. A financial researcher for a securities firm, he is learning to drive so he can take the company car on business trips. In a red baseball cap and wire-rim glasses, Dung clutched the wheel as a steady stream of motorbikes swerved past, leaving just a foot or so for clearance. They were undeterred by the ``Driver Education'' sign posted on the Jeep, which had no seat belts.

Vietnam's more experienced drivers are terrified by all the novices now on the road. ``The drivers these days are amateurs,'' said Tran Tuan Vinh, who has been driving in Hanoi for six years. ``They don't know what to do. They just let the car go wherever it goes.'' Vinh said he recently saw a new driver hit the gas instead of the brakes, plowing his Toyota sedan over four motorbikes. One cyclist died and three were badly injured. Experienced or not, drivers in Vietnam swerve across center lines, tailgate with abandon and stop for no one -- not even little old ladies with baskets of fruit perched precariously atop their shoulders.

Watch the road

``There's just no respect for the traffic laws,'' said Hoang Quoc Cuong, the headmaster at one of Vietnam's state-run driving schools. Cuong and his staff try their best to instill good driving habits, but it's harder than shifting gears in the balky old Russian trucks that spew black clouds of diesel exhaust along Vietnam's roadways.

Meanwhile, the government is trying desperately to reduce the traffic chaos. In addition to building new roads and improving old ones, it has begun installing more traffic signs and traffic lights. In Hanoi, authorities have restricted the number of motorbikes permitted in certain districts.

And thriving municipal bus systems have recently been established in both the capital and Ho Chi Minh City, providing sanctuary to people seeking refuge from the roads. Like the legions of Vietnamese who have had motorbike accidents, Nguyen Thanh Quyen and her friend Nguyen Thi Ha An are scared to drive again. Seated in the air-conditioned red-and-yellow buses that roar down the streets of Hanoi, they no longer have to worry about getting flattened by an oncoming vehicle.

``This is safer, much safer,'' said An, 22, a clothing designer who has had three minor motorbike accidents. Quyen had a more serious crash, mangling her arms and face on the pavement. ``It was terrifying,'' she said.

Traffic woes

The motorbike drivers outside their bus seem oblivious to the danger it poses, swerving just inches in front of the hurtling hunk of steel. ``They don't realize that I have the right of way,'' said driver Le Hai Dang. ``I have to slam on the brakes all the time.'' Bus ridership has been growing rapidly over the last several years. But for those who have the money, a car seems like a better shield against the mass of humanity that darts about the roads on every imaginable conveyance, going wherever they please without looking.

With help from a brother who works overseas, Dang Ngoc Khanh scraped together $8,000 for a secondhand Daewoo sedan. And now he uses it to make a living, hiring himself out as a driver to anyone who needs a lift. ``I bought it for the convenience of my family, but then people started calling and hiring me,'' said Khanh, who also uses the car to take his two children to school each morning.

Further up the income scale, Doan Quoc Viet, president of a thriving private real estate development company, recently popped into a Hanoi Mercedes dealer. The $50,000 C-Class model wasn't good enough. Nor was the $100,000 E-Class sedan. ``When they get the S-Class, I will buy one,'' said Viet, referring to the $200,000 model. ``The C-Class and E-Class are no better than my Lexus.'' Mercedes customers pay in cash.

By Ben Stocking - The Mercury News - September 13, 2004