Vietnamese and motorcycles
There is a small lake called Hoan Kiem Lake on the corner of the east side of the old city area. It is about the size of Ueno Shinobazu-Ike Pond.
Around 8 o’clock on a summer night, after people finish their dinner, you can see many bikes (most of them are motorcycles with prime movers) with two people riding around this lake. I did not know what they were doing in the beginning, but when I asked the Vietnamese guide, he answered that they are cooling themselves. Even in a windless condition, if you ride a motorcycle you can feel the wind.
Since the bikes run seamlessly like the water of the river, filling up the full width of the street, it is hard to get across the road. I thought the locals were facing the same difficulty. I tried to see how they were crossing the road, and found out that they were crossing without any difficulty. When I asked the Vietnamese guide, he answered laughing, “It is not a problem. You just walk and the motorcycles will avoid hitting you”. Certainly, when we are crossing, if we suddenly stop, it is conversely dangerous. From the perspective of a rider, I learned that it is easier to avoid people if they are walking at a constant speed.
After observing, I noticed that it is quite common to see two people riding a motorcycle, and in some cases there are bikes carrying four people including children. There are also bikes carrying large luggage which are placed on both sides of the loading plate. Most people use bikes for commuting, and office buildings usually have parking spaces on the semi-underground floor. Nevertheless, the overflowing bikes are occupying the sidewalk. In addition, you can often see people resting on the bikes parked on the sidewalks. Thus, for the Hanoi citizens, it seems that bikes play the same role as the cars and it is an indispensable property of their lives. I also heard that the Vietnamese people use the motorcycle even if they are heading to a store 100 meters away.
In Hanoi, finally, the construction of subway line 1 and line 2 had started. It is assumed to take a certain amount of time and measures until the people can use the subway for daily commuting. In Bangkok, Thailand, it took ten years from the start of the subway’s operation until it was fully adopted to the civic lifestyle. Even after the subways began its operations, people will not be able to easily switch their means of transportation unless the route from their home to the subway station and to their office is comfortable and easy to walk. As I had already covered in the issues on TOD (Transit Oriented Development), the comfortability and easiness of Japanese sidewalks, in which we regard normal, should be recognized as a very valuable establishment.