Hanoi: Transportation

The image of Vietnamese cities we construct from films and photographs is full of bicycles peacefully pedaling through the streets. However, the increasingly westernizing market economy has transformed personal mobility to a state where most people now move by motorbike. According to one study, in 1995, more than 60% of trips were made by bicycle and less than 20% by motorbike. In 2005, the numbers had switched. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency reports that in a country of 86 million people there are over 25 million motorbikes and 1.3 million cars. Despite the low rate of car ownership, the number of cars is increasing quickly as they become an increasingly important status symbol. Streets already clogged to the point that, at rush hour, roads informally become one-way streets by force of critical mass, including motorbikes traveling on sidewalks.