Riding around in traffic

Some would say that traffic in Hanoi is a nightmare, a sea of motorbikes that appear to operate without any rules.  The reality though, is that mobility is pretty good because of the motorbikes, despite being such a densely populated city.  And there are rules, they just seem to be informal and unwritten.  But everyone seems to know them.

Libby and I went for a long bike ride this afternoon in the traffic.  When we first moved here, we couldn't dream of riding bikes in the middle of traffic because it looked so scary to us, but now we almost look forward to riding on the streets.  I was able to safely take a few videos this afternoon while we were riding to capture some of the mundane everyday life of riding in the traffic.

Here's a video of us riding in street traffic, and at the end a motorbike pulls out right in front of me.  Very common:

This is what happens on a major road with lots of motorbikes and a slow bus -- minor traffic jam ensues, but despite the volume of vehicles, the traffic keeps moving:

Just a typical ride in traffic with Lib:

Here's a common event in Hanoi traffic -- needing to make a U-Turn instead of a left-hand turn.  We also have to go across a few lanes of traffic to make our next turn:

And finally a quick video of us at a red light at a busy intersection with cross-traffic going: