On 15 December Vietnamese will have to put on their helmets when riding motorbikes. All around town posters with the regulation family size smile above signs which proclaim "Lets get home safely", or "Helmets for your safety." Even neighbours in my Hanoi alley have got in on the act and are advertising and selling helmets.
Its hard to under-estimate the transformation of Vietnamese society from languid bicycle-riders to motorcycle-mad road fiends. Suddenly the family could go Sunday driving on the one small 'xe may'. Country people could transport produce further and faster, city people could get to work easily and on time. But the social costs have been high because road rules in motorised Vietnam are minus zilch. In fact if you tried to ride according to basic road rules in Hanoi you would probably be a death-risk. This week a friend and I were almost skittled by a motorbike bearing a boy who looked 15 and droved his machine as if he were in a computer game. Which he probably was. Online, you do not die, you just refresh the screen and start the game again.
In the real world so far in 2007 14,000 people have died on the roads and health costs for injuries have soared each year. But Vietnamese resisted the helmet. According to press reports, a decade ago women proclaimed helmets would interfere with their hairstyles. Men quickly agreed, of course. It is astonishing that years later the authorities, who can enforce most things, have not acted to enforce helmet-wearing. Authorised safe brands have been available at high rates of subsidy for some years. Of course, as Vietnamese friends point out, there is no point making people buy helmets if they don't care a fig about road rules. And there are the usual grumbles about what to do with helmets when you have to go to cafes, hospitals, offices. (This will spawn a new industry of helmet-minders). In a country where 76% of the population is under 25 - that ripe motorcyle riding age - I await the dawn of D-Day with a sceptic's hope.
Its hard to under-estimate the transformation of Vietnamese society from languid bicycle-riders to motorcycle-mad road fiends. Suddenly the family could go Sunday driving on the one small 'xe may'. Country people could transport produce further and faster, city people could get to work easily and on time. But the social costs have been high because road rules in motorised Vietnam are minus zilch. In fact if you tried to ride according to basic road rules in Hanoi you would probably be a death-risk. This week a friend and I were almost skittled by a motorbike bearing a boy who looked 15 and droved his machine as if he were in a computer game. Which he probably was. Online, you do not die, you just refresh the screen and start the game again.
In the real world so far in 2007 14,000 people have died on the roads and health costs for injuries have soared each year. But Vietnamese resisted the helmet. According to press reports, a decade ago women proclaimed helmets would interfere with their hairstyles. Men quickly agreed, of course. It is astonishing that years later the authorities, who can enforce most things, have not acted to enforce helmet-wearing. Authorised safe brands have been available at high rates of subsidy for some years. Of course, as Vietnamese friends point out, there is no point making people buy helmets if they don't care a fig about road rules. And there are the usual grumbles about what to do with helmets when you have to go to cafes, hospitals, offices. (This will spawn a new industry of helmet-minders). In a country where 76% of the population is under 25 - that ripe motorcyle riding age - I await the dawn of D-Day with a sceptic's hope.
YEP: THEY DID IT. Even at 8am on D-Day cops were pulling over the handful who had not converted. I could not believe the sight of thousands of helmet heads - in Hanoi, Haiphong, Cat Ba. Frightening. But there were a lot of helmets that were probably bought at a kids' toy shop. And my xe om (moto taxi) driver probably summed the change up, he gave me a cap, put on his own - but didn't bother fastening it.
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