A common problem between these two articles was urban transport in rapidly growing cities. Traffic, specifically motorbike traffic, is very prevalent in Ho Chi Minh City and I am a little bit concerned for my safety. I will probably find myself avoiding crossing streets at busy intersections and I expect to be completely confused by the seemingly chaotic traffic. I am sure that one must spend a lot of time in the city to be able to cross the street like the man in the gif below.
I knew that motorbikes were popular in Ho Chi Minh City but I did not quite understand the freedom of mobility that motorbikes allowed or the ramifications for traffic congestion. Allison Truitt discusses these two things in depth in her article On the Back of a Motorbike: Middle-Class Mobility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Motorbikes are a symbol of individual freedom and allow for more mobility than cars, bikes, buses, or walking. They have become incredibly popular, despite safety and traffic concerns. Not to mention the growing urban population adds a thousand registered motorbikes a day (Truitt). There are obvious upsides to creating order in the form of public transit in including less traffic, pollution, accidents and greater mobility for people who cannot afford motorbikes. However, as mentioned in Cities in Asia, 2012: Demographics, Economics, Poverty, Environment and Governance, even though Asian cities have the greatest need, they often far worse at providing such amenities. Attempts to regulate traffic with lights, laws, and officers has been very successful due to cultural barriers.
I think it would be very interesting to observe the cultural barriers towards creating order and regulations. As the article mentioned, many precautions have been put in place that are either ignored or only followed to avoid a fine. It seems like laws are not easy to enforce and people are not compliant towards officials. This is what I expect to see in Ho Chi Minh City along with the hordes of motorbikes. These may be things that are difficult to pick up on with just observation and no language skills. It would be helpful to be able to conduct interviews. The easiest way to see how people interact with authority would be to shadow a traffic officer and somehow take note of citizen’s attitude and body language. It would also be interesting to have a copy of traffic laws and then record which ones are most frequently broken.