Hanoi has no sidewalks.

It isn’t strictly true, but if you come to the city with that outlook you’ll be much better prepared to cope. There are dedicated walkways adjacent to some streets in Hanoi, but the vast majority of the spaces you see that resemble sidewalks simply are not. This can be a significant source of frustration for new arrivals walking the city. Don’t let it get to you.

Most of what look like sidewalks in Hanoi are semi-public spaces that just happen to flank roads and streets. Using those spaces to walk is one of many possibilities, but such walking is in no way the default function of the space. Parking, driving, retailing, cooking, and socializing are all as equally practiced as (if not more common than) walking. You’ll have a much less adversarial relationship to these spaces if you think of them as oriented perpendicular to the roadway (extending out from houses) than as parallel.

Seeing the “sidewalks” this way will allow you to understand many things about their use that might otherwise confound. The sidewalks are not cluttered; they are efficiently utilized. The guy who pulls his bike onto the sidewalk to park right in front of you as you walked along wasn’t cutting you off; you are the one walking across a series of mixed use spaces like you own the whole place. Those people you see “ignoring” the sidewalk and walking along the edge of a busy street aren’t daft; they understand which of the two spaces is actually oriented along their intended direction.

Conceptualizing Hanoi “sidewalks” as generic public spaces will also help you understand how the streets themselves have evolved into their current state. It wasn’t so long ago that the streets operated much the same way as the sidewalks. If this seems implausible to you, then you’ll be even more surprised that streets in lots of places were like that until recently:

Similarly to the United States in the above video, cars are taking over the roads in Hanoi to the exclusion of previous uses. Some anticipate a more rule governed traffic culture arising with this, but the current transition is anything but orderly for a very old city built without the automobile in mind.

It is best to think of Hanoi streets as public spaces undergoing rapid change simultaneously on varying fronts. New vehicle types are being introduced all the time. Their prevailing ratios are shifting constantly. The city’s growth demands more frequent, distant, and unpredictable travel within it. Citizens, police, and administrators are all trying to figure it out on the fly while any conclusions they arrive at are almost immediately obsolete.

What to make of all of it? Relax. Many of those people out there are winging it much the same way you are. Sure, they have a bit more experience, but a key to understanding it is that it has no ironclad “correct” approach. It is changing all the time. Hang back a bit. Watch the people around you. See how they do it. Follow along.