Vietnam Speed Limit Frustrations...
 

I’m a few days into my Vietnam motorcycle trip and so far feel like I’ve spent most of it at 40 km/h which is infuriatingly slow.

There seems to be a total lack of signage, which isn’t helping either. Today, I’ve ridden from Dong Xoai to Buon Ma Thout and it’s felt like I’ve driven along one long street of shops at 40 km/h the whole way. Where the blue town signs have the red strike through them, you’d think that’d mean a speed increase but the level of urbanisation is often no different or greater than before the sign...

I know that limits are slow in Vietnam, but it’s ridiculous that coaches are charging past myself and the other bikers at crazy speeds and we’re all pootling along.

Basically, does anyone have or know of an app or resource that shows definite speed limits? I’m being driven mad here (albeit it very slowly).


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Interesting. I don't remember having any issues with speed limits anyplace I rode in Vietnam. At various times I had plenty of complaints about traffic congestion, long stretches filled with shops and other buildings, industrial zones, and more like that. But there wasn't anyplace which stood out by forcing me to drive more slowly than I wanted considering conditions.

I rode mainly in the north, so maybe that made a difference. In any case, Vietnam is densely populated--not the kind of place you'd normally expect wide-open highways. Most expressways are off-limits to motorbikes anyway, and I'm sure you've noticed the frequency of water buffalo, schoolchildren, mud-slicks, and piles of almost anything imaginable blocking lanes or whole roadways. Buses with blaring air horns can blast right through in situations where I definitely would not, did not, and could not.

I'm also wondering about who it is enforcing the speed limits which you are not entirely certain actually exist. Are you running into lots of speed traps? Traffic cams? Checkpoints? Police cruisers? What happens if you merely ride as fast as you're comfortable doing (which will probably not be nearly as fast as those buses, or the shiny, professionally-driven private cars which outpace even the buses)?

Heya,
It’s new year out here at the moment and the police are EVERYWHERE...

I’m trying to do the right thing but I don’t have loads of money to pay bribes so I’m being cautious and trying to follow what the locals do. Thing is, their bikes are fully loaded up with their luggage for the holidays so they can’t get much speed up.

I’m mid-country at the moment and the signage is awful.


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No app, and Good Luck
 

My smartphone advisor says "good luck, no app."


I'm admittedly no expert on Vietnam motorcycling, but after four North to South motorcycle trips and one in/around Hanoi, I've learned to move with traffic, let the buses and VIP Mercedes speed past.



Using a Frankenstein-Minsk-Honda-Kawasaki 125cc and following cars, moving with traffic, I was tagged in a speed trap in Viah, in the city limits. The cops claimed 54 kph in the 40 zone. The "spotter" was about 1/2 kilometer before the cop stop, where they waved me over. After six RTW trips, these cops used up all of my learned tricks: they had a 250cc chase motorcycle if I had decided to try to ignore the cop in the middle of the road, a laptop computer to take Mastercard or Visa, a smartpone with google translator for us to use to "communicate" in English and Vietnamese, and finally agreed to cut the fine to 1/2 from where they started....that "negotiation" took 1/2 hour in the hot sun.



They claimed radar was used. I was closely following a car and 2-3 were around me, doubted whether radar could pick me out. After paying I went back and spotted the spotter. He had a hand held communicator, started to call me in again until I waved at him.


Bottom line: Spotter saw a foreigner, knew the tourist had money or credit cards, called ahead and I paid a "road tax."


I also saw 3-4 radar cop stops, always in or near urban areas.


Three other times from the far North to HCMC were "ticketless," but 2-3 times I was waved over to check my passport and motorcycle papers.


I'll re-iterate what my smartphone advisor said, that being "Good luck," and add, "be safe out there and carry enough cash for potential road taxes. Speeding is not your friend, even when you are not. "

Fascinating, and so completely different from anything I experienced in Vietnam during my admittedly brief time riding there. I rode a rented 250, covered about 3000 km, was never stopped by police (although once flagged over by police who waved me on as soon as I raised my visor and they saw I was a tourist), and went pretty much as fast as I wanted at all times--subject to traffic congestion, of course.

Does any of this help anyone struggling to figure out how fast to go? Damned if I know. There were no holidays while I was there, so perhaps fewer cops. I was in the north, not the south. And I never even thought of deliberately carrying cash suitable for bribing cops--although I do make a point of having some small bills close at hand no matter where I go, mainly for buying necessities in places where people claim not to have any change.

Just a by-the-way, when I'm determined to go faster than the flow of traffic or what I think is legal, I do try to tuck in behind someone else going the speed I'm hoping for. That's not likely to be a bus, but in Vietnam it would definitely have been a private car--they go fast, but don't normally display severe homicidal tendencies like the bus drivers.

Hope to hear how the rest of the trip goes.

Mark

What a difference a different province makes. Today’s signage has been excellent and consistent. I’m on the road north to Danang, having set off from Pleiku this morning.

I read last night that it is the responsibility of the local police force to ensure that signage is for for purpose. Certainly a conflict of interest if they can collect easy bribes from those accidentally exceeding the speed limits.

Perhaps the further north we go, the better things will be. Certainly the scenery is improving [emoji3].

If anyone is interested I am plotting my journey on Instagram. To follow search for @themcneillsonwheels

We also do YouTube under the same name but there’ll not be any trip footage until mid-March to April when we return.


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"Bottom line: Spotter saw a foreigner, knew the tourist had money or credit cards, called ahead and I paid a "road tax.""

In Hanoi, at least, it's called tea money.