Can someone tell me why Vietnam has so many bikes?

Can anyone tell me why Vietnam has so many bikes on the road and so little cars? I have the feeling I should know this answer, but I honestly don't know. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Would it not be to do with the fact the people couldn't afford to run cars? I dunno myself i'd just assume thats why.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

- You'd have to be insanely rich to have a car.

- Many live in houses that are so thin they dont even fit a car properly, and the fact that the alleyways are so thin you couldn't even turn your car into a garage if you tried.

- Many of the houses/shops I've been to in Saigon, the 'garage door' is the front door.

- It's just damn easier and faster to get around on a bike.

- No one pays attention to the road rules. The only real 'rules' is that you stop at traffic lights - but that is only a guideline - and that if there are two lanes on a road, one is for cars, the other is for bikes; if a bike is caught in a car lane, they get fined, but you can just usually bribe the guy.

- It's easier miss mindless pedestrians who don't use the crossings.

- On the 'freeways', there are two lanes, one for cars, one for bikes. Trucks are unfortunately included as cars, so if you're in a car and you're stuck behind a truck, bad luck....it's illegal to overtake. The only cars/trucks allowed to overtake are government or military vehicles (they have their own special number plate).
Since bikes don't take up an entire lane, they just overtake as much as they please, as long as it's in the same lane.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You know, it's kind of interesting. In South Korea, they largely use cars, but many of the roads they have aren't too well suited for lots of traffic.

Koreans are very, very aggressive drivers, and if you leave enough space between your car and the sidewalk, the ones on a motorbike will drive right between it (I once saw a motorbike carrying 4 people, when it looked like it could only hold 1 person comfortably). The traffic conditions, especially in the cities, are comparable to places like Los Angeles and New York, since they have so many people living in such a small area of land.

Heck, I remember one time my buddies and I were taking a cab back to out post. We were driving down the road, and in front of the cab driver we saw an "open" slot, which was quickly being closed between a bus in front, and a truck in the other lane. The cab driver quickly sped up, and then drove through the spot between the bus and truck. And as he did that, I swear we all almost collectively felt our lives passing before us, thinking we'd get crushed between the two vehicles, and bracing for impact. Luckily he was a skilled driver, so we managed to bypass the truck and bus (no, we didn't tell him to go through, he did it on his own).

As for Vietnam, yeah, I'm going to also say that it's because bikes are much cheaper than cars, and that they're probably more well suited for that area than a car is (Vietnam probably has narrower roads than in the US I bet).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?