Jon at The final Word...in Saigon posted awhile back on "Cars, Cars, Cars. And Cars", lamenting the traffic and hazardous smog created by the growing number of cars in Ho Chi Minh City.
Visiting Phnom Penh in Cambodia recently, I noticed that the traffic was nowhere near as bad as in HCMC, but the proportion of cars and pickups to motorbikes was substantially higher. At 2 million, the population density of Phnom Penh is half that of HCMC.
This is what I am afraid may happen in Saigon -- eventually the authorities will have to relent and allow car parking on the sidewalks as they do in Phnom Penh.
It is hard enough to walk down HCMC streets with all the motorbikes parked on the sidewalks -- adding cars to the mix will be an anti-urban action that will decrease the quality of life here substantially.
