Motorcycles – the preferred mode of transport in Vietnam – are piling up in lots in Ho Chi Minh City as it becomes more economical for some owners to abandon them than pay the fines to take them back.
The city, Vietnam’s financial hub, has become more aggressive in targeting drunk driving in recent years, increasing fines and impounding vehicles. Those fines are now often higher than the value of the vehicles, which many drivers don’t recover, officials say.
Now the police are wondering what to do with them.
Some residents are so frustrated by this that they air their grievances publicly, even though criticism of the ruling Communist Party can be dangerous in Vietnam.
Nguyen Khang, 30, who works at a bank in Ho Chi Minh City, said an ineffective and unnecessarily punitive system was holding motorbikes “hostage”.
“The relevant authorities also understand this,” he added. “But basically, they haven’t found a more holistic approach yet.”
The zero-tolerance campaign against drunk driving echoes earlier efforts in Vietnam to promote public order — say, by clearing food vendors from the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City — that were widely seen as heavy-handed.
Hue-Tam Jamme, an expert on urban development in Vietnam, said the abandoned motorbikes reflect a transition: As more Vietnamese enter the middle class and buy their first cars, bicycles are becoming less necessary in a country widely known for motorcycle of KINISI on the ROADS.
Vietnam’s car ownership rate is still far below that of wealthier countries, although it rose from 3.3 to 4.8 cars per 100 households from 2018 to 2020, according to recent government data.
In Ho Chi Minh City, cars represent a relatively small portion of vehicles on the road – 13 percent in 2018, according to Professor Jamme’s figures – but their presence has already led to street-level tensions. There have been occasional physical altercations between car owners and residents who resent the loss of space for motorcycle parking and pavement trading.
“The motorcycle is not the status symbol it used to be,” said Professor Jamme, who teaches at Arizona State University and studies the role vehicles play in Vietnam’s cities and economy.
“I’m not surprised that people are ready to let go,” he added. “A big, heavy fine can be the trigger to say, ‘Okay, okay, I’m not even taking it.’
A four-year campaign against the harmful effects of alcohol has been a major factor in seizing vehicles across Vietnam in recent years. Among other changes, the maximum fine for drunk driving roughly doubled in 2020 to the equivalent of more than $300, which is more than the average monthly salary of a Vietnamese worker. The law prohibits individuals from driving with any amount of alcohol in their system.
The campaign has had tangible results in a country where beer flows freely in sidewalk restaurants and binge drinking is common. Beer sales nationwide dropped by at least a quarter almost immediately. tens of thousands of people lost their driving licenses. and last year traffic accidents, injuries and deaths decreased, Ho Chi Minh City police said.
In Ho Chi Minh City, nearly 155,000 vehicles were impounded in 2022, most of them motorcycles, and most as a result of alcohol-related traffic violations, a local police officer told state media last month.
Nguyen Huu Liem, 56, a construction worker in Ho Chi Minh City, said both his license and motorbike were confiscated in January after he had “a little drink to relax with a friend at the end of the day”.
“In my opinion, the fine is excessive for the average worker,” he said.
His motorcycle is worth five million Vietnamese dong, equivalent to about $200. The drunk driving ticket he received was about $80 more. He paid the fine anyway, he said, because the police told him it was the only way to get his license back.
Other riders leave their bikes in Ho Chi Minh City police confiscated lots, and the backlog creates administrative headaches.
As of last month, the city’s traffic department was short of motorcycle storage by 100,000 square feet, about the size of a city park, police told local media. Thousands of bikes have been auctioned off, but backlogs have continued to mount and fires have occasionally broken out in the lots.
Jack Dang, 35, a construction worker in Ho Chi Minh City, said he had seen groups of people scavenging for motorcycle parts in the plots.
“Once they get them here,” he said, “it’s over.”
