yet more...
Rambling man...
4/18/2019
Today's Topic: Traffic Update # ?? I write this particular update from the Nội Bài International Airport in Hà Nội on my way to give a workshop at a university in Đà Nẵng. The workshop topics this time are the affects of brain injury on learning and school psychology in America. During the ride to the airport in the GRAB car (think UBER), I realized it was time to update my perspective on traffic in Hà Nội. As I rode along sedately oblivious to the chaos on the road around me, I found myself reflecting back on my very different white-knuckle inaugural experience riding from the airport to my hotel on the day I arrived in Việt Nam. Rather vividly, I recalled thinking, on that particular ride. “Relax there, Paul-o, settle down!! Enjoy the experience...keep your blood pressure under control. I’m sure the driver knows what he’s doing swerving in and out of lanes, driving in both lanes at one time, and tailgating other cars, literally one foot or less from their bumper. The university wouldn’t send a bad driver to pick you up. Surely they want you to arrive at your hotel and not the hospital, right?” Now, nine months on, I was thinking how quickly one can become desensitized to the bedlam, gridlock, and craziness that is traffic in Hà Nội. All Skinnerian psycho-babble aside, it seems to me that in the past nine months, traffic in Hà Nội has changed. Now, I have little data to support my perceptions, but there seems to have been a noticeable increase in congestion and the number of vehicles I see on the roads about town. True or not, all I know is, I am encountering more dense rush hour traffic and increasing incidents of gridlock. So...something has changed. The most recent unofficial statistic I could find on the web-o-matic was that Hà Nội is the third fastest growing city in the world, with an average growth rate last year of 7.37 percent!! (https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/hanoi-hcmc-maintain-momentum-as-fast-growing-cities-3870166.html). This unofficial statistics seems to coincide with what I have heard "on the street": there are a large number of people coming to Hà Nội from the surrounding provinces on a daily basis in search of a livable wage. This alone would translate to a significant increased mass of bodies, and with those bodies, the majority come with a motorbike or bicycle attached.
So what about this desensitization of which I speak? Well…here are some things that no longer kick my autonomic nervous system into high or over-activate my salience network:
1. That car creeping along at a 90 degree angle to the flow of traffic in the middle of the block (no exaggeration) just to acquire the traffic lane on the opposite side of the road. I might add that it does not matter if I am a passenger in said vehicle, or an observer of said vehicle.
2. Cars making a u-turn in the middle of the block or, crowded intersection, without using a turn signal (like that would help, right?)
3. Cars driving toward you in your "lane" (and I use the term loosely - few people pay attention to lines on the road)
4. Motor bikes darting in front of, and around, your car (and other motor bikes)
5. Pedestrians of all ages, literally standing still in the middle of traffic.
6. Pedestrians stepping in front of your moving car as they walk from one side of the street to the other side of the street.
7. Cars (yours included) cutting perpendicularly across three lanes of traffic to access the three lanes going the opposite direction
8. Your car (and others) entering the main road from a side street without stopping - think of someone not stopping at a stop sign but simply continuing into traffic and turning right or left without so much as slowing down OR glancing to the left or right.
Although the list goes on and on, I'll stop here and say that after roughly 270-280 days in Hà Nội traffic, I don't even notice these things anymore. What I do notice is, I'm having to leave earlier in the morning to arrive at my university on time...
Bonus round: The way Uber/taxi drivers honk their horn reminds me of a junk yard dog. These guys will honk their horn at anyone; motor bike, car, bicycle, pedestrian, truck, dog, or vendor that vaguely, or remotely, looks like they are even thinking about getting in their way. Now, I'm not talking about a single toot on the horn here. No, no. I'm talking tapping out @#$! in Morse code on that car horn. Pity the poor fool that decides to act on their intent. Mr. Uber will lay on that horn like a tourist lays on a beach.