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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   1182 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 30, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Vietnam government increased traffic violation fines by 10x. For example, red light violations by motorbikes went from $32-40 to $175-235. Although this is a step in the right direction for a country that is ranked 22 in terms of traffic deaths in 2019, most people are feeling the pain in terms of increased congestion. Drivers drive safer and more legally, and therefore slower. Possible negative externalities here are increased pollution from the legion of motorbikes "stuck" behind red light (whereas before they can just "find a way" and continue with their travel). My friend in Vietnam gives another negative externality, which is that the police are now given perverse incentive to slow down traffic even more for "tea money". He says that at a nearby crossing for him has now been changed to 40s of red for 10s of green. Anyway, I'll see how this shakes out in about half a year or so.

I'm surprised they went ahead with such a measure. I visited Vietnam about a decade ago, and it was an accepted meme over there that traffic lights were a suggestion rather than a hard rule.

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