Vietnam drivers, who face very slope fines, go road bases

Vietnam motorcycle drivers always tend to treat red lights as suggestions, and more slowing than stopping. In the peak hour, they brought the same indifference to other rules, such as: the pedestrian return; Or move away from the sidewalks. Or, do not lead against traffic flow.

Some found it charming, and ballet of many wheels dances around the infantry. But road death rates in Vietnam were long ago Among the top In Asia. After taking strict leadership measures driving, the country’s leaders are now following everything else.

Under a new law, traffic fines rose ten times, with the largest tickets exceeding $ 1500. The average quotation is a month’s salary for many, and this is more than enough to change behavior. The intersections became quieter and more crowded due to the outbreak of caution. The flawed green lights led to drivers fearful to walk in motorcycles in the streets that the police may monitor.

“He is safer, he’s better,” said VAM van Lam, 57,. “But it is harsh for the poor.”

Vietnam made more “civil” (Van Minh “in Vietnamese) It seems that the target. It is a word that the government often publishes in public order campaigns, which indicates what this medium -income country considers its northern star: the wealth and arrangement of Singapore, South Korea or Japan.

All three countries have given road safety because they have grown richer, as China did, adhere to the idea that organized streets reflect the realization of the update.

But Vietnam has its own history and path. Economic growth led to millions of poverty without pushing them to rest. In most cities, there are increasing numbers of people, motorcycles, cars, trucks – and communist bureaucracy Struggle to keep up with.

The streets are the runway of Vietnam. Especially in cities, it is the forum where it was the biggest conflict in society – between government control and personal freedom, between the elites that seek harmony and taxes that seek income – have been played for a long time.

In 1989, with the state registered more than a million people, the recognition that the central planning for the Soviet style did not achieve economic growth, a special institution was legalized in the streets. The small business revolution was followed, with small plastic chairs and sidewalk sales.

Home, work and road merge quickly. The living rooms in the street have become stores. Motorcycle and dining vehicles gather sidewalks. The pedestrian walked, a later idea, in traffic.

The government sometimes tried to bring the system to certain areas. More than a decade ago, an anthropologist in Yale I saw such efforts “The rapprochement between the disciplinary goals of the late Vietnamese state and the interests of an emerging class.”

But like the tropical vegetation that grows in the edges of cities, the urban culture stopped in Vietnam resisted to be tamed.

In 2007, when the government decided to force motorcyclists to wear helmets, obedience mixed with imaginary compliance. Some people tied the kitchen utensils to their heads. Many people still wear headscarfs in the form of a pisser cover, and not safer than one.

When the police began targeting driving driving a few years ago by raising the fines sharply and confiscating vehicles, many violators are only Leave their motorcycles behind them Instead of paying to restore them.

Now another violent reaction is a fermentation. Millions of dollars flow (Hochi Minh city stated that ticket revenues jumped by 35 percent in the first two weeks of law). Many see the new rules, along with added cameras and provide bonuses for commodities, more than institutional greed than safety.

“The police just want to take as possible as possible.” “The upper fines hit the pocket of low -income people with more difficult.”

When traffic lights turned red, motorcycle rush and cars – usually stable – suddenly.

“It is good to have a traffic matter, but what about the life of the poor like us who need to work on the street every day?” He added.

Some drivers described the new repressive law, tyranny and exploitation. Many complain that the fines are very high, and that their usual trips take twice the length, and eat on the profits of taxi drivers and trucks, or those that depend on effective birth. Themes around ambulances stumble for hours and people who are rich (or hole) to report red lighting violations, spread on social media.

Caution, through all calculations, flow malfunction.

In the main cities, motorcycles played by old bases now play back drivers trying to be careful, stop early, and sometimes even when the lights are green. Truck drivers temporarily stopped wherever they can avoid fines for work several hours in a row. The intersections are now significantly higher, as the heavy drivers raid as traffic used to feed and move like a river around the stones.

“We are stuck everywhere, all the time,” said Huenin Van May, a truck driver on regular trucks between the city of Hoshi Minh and the port of Fung Tao, about 60 miles away.

He added: “It is exhausting,” and it takes a break near the logistical center with towers from the shipping containers behind it. “There are many changes in laws.”

However, as many admit, there is logic for this effort. Since the consecutive implementation, Beer sales decreased by 25 percentAnd driving driving is drunk across Vietnam.

The national leaders of the patriots – just a few months after the authority, with many who started their career in state security – are eager to move forward. It seems that the pursuit of government safety and control is aligned: in Hanoi, officials announced plan Last week to add 40,000 cameras to nearly 20,000 already in place across the capital.

But in such a small country, with an average age of about 32 years, compared to about 40 years of the United States and China, it seems that the government realizes that some rebellion is inevitable.

When it comes to driving, patience preaching is one response. As a column writer in a newspaper Recently: “Hours of traffic jams are similar to a wide rehearsal of society, where every person must learn to control themselves, accept restrictions and interact with others.”

In some places, concessions were also made to pragmatism. After 10 days of complaints, the city of Ho Chi Minh Send The difference to install signals that allow motorcycles to turn right red at 50 intersections. In Hanoi, local authorities have also moved to control some traffic lights.

A balance between chaos and the matter began to appear. Although some motorcyclists are still accelerating against traffic, and on the sidewalks, they stop much more when they should be alongside the rows of cars and increasing trucks in the country.

After they felt success, some commentators began to ask about what could be changed with large fines – the large tickets for garbage may help reduce garbage throughout the country?

“It takes time and effort to enhance a civilized style,” said Naguin Diane, former Vice President of the University of Economics and Law at the National University of Vietnam in Hochi Minh. “These new traffic regulations are part of this effort.”