Job Discussion Forums

[TRH]

This is only peripherally tied to the subject of this thread but I went to Vung Tau for the first time recently. While sitting and watching traffic in the town area, I suddenly made a curious observation. Absolutely everyone was wearing their helmets, unlike a lot of areas of HCMC. Later while driving around, I noticed that people would not desperately try to get ahead of everyone at every stop light and would in fact sometimes give up the right of way at intersections. My only explanation is that perhaps the police actually enforce traffic laws there and don't just stop people for the revenue stream. It may be tied to the authorities wanting the place to be visitor friendly.

[mark_in_saigon]

Very interesting observation. Yes, this could move over to another discussion, maybe motorbikes, but also maybe a discussion relating to how VN follow rules and norms of civilized behavior when driving. The natives observe that the situation is getting worse instead of better, but it is not that complicated to figure out how to improve it. Remember on the news how some foreign guy stood on a street and started grabbing scooters going the wrong way? A lot of the VN noticed and asked why is it that a foreigner has to get in the street and ask citizens to follow their own rules? I think the guy had been hit by someone going the wrong way on that street, the fact that it was a one way street was more or less ignored, and transgressions were accepted as a fact of life, as they truly are.

If anyone over in VT could let us know what is going on there, it would be nice. I notice that medium sized towns do not seem any more inclined to follow rules than the big cities, although they do not have to push quite so hard due to the smaller numbers and greater elbow room.

Supposedly they are going to put "black boxes" on buses and trucks soon. I read that when this happened in Thailand, the speeding came way down. It would be easy to control some of this terrible behavior among drivers, but up to now, I have not seen any process that leads in that direction.

[Anh Dep]

In relation to the traffic in Vung Tau, well its the same as Saigon but on a smaller scale. They still drive through red lights, they still drive up the road the wrong way,pull out of hems without looking and so on. I lived in Saigon for 5 years and the only difference is the volume. In relation to people wearing helmets, they dont like wearing them and will take them off at every chance. After 9pm you will see so many people without helmets, its a joke, no police to be seen as they are usually drunk somewhere. The traffic wont get better because as far as Im concerned the average VN local doesnt care.