Vietnam's love afair with motorbikes

I went with Barbara to her favorite breakfast spot.  I've got to tell you, the walk there was not fun.  My little buddy was right about the traffic situation. The traffic at the marketplace was tame, but here in town, oh boy, what a nightmare!  Due to the lack of traffic laws, walking in Vietnam, and in most of Asia I hear, is extremely precarious   You see, pedestrians do not have the right of way in Nam, and crazily enough, motorbikes and cars are not limited to the streets.  Yes, this means a car can drive on the sidewalk along with the pedestrians.  For instance, if Barbara wants to enter a shop, she has to look behind her before even taking a step to the right, because a motorbike or car may want to pass between her and the shop door. Barbara likens it to snow skiing down a mountain.  The rules are the same.  It is the responsibility of the uphill, or in the case of a road, the person in the back, to avoid the downhill person, but it is also the responsibility of the downhill person to remain on a constant trajectory.  Sudden moves to the right and left are not advised.  Barbara is a good skiier, and often skiied within a few inches of her friends within hitting them, so when she feels the breeze of a motorbike cutting close to her, she trusts them to not hit her, and is quite confident that Vietnamese drivers are very skilled because they have to be. Bad drivers would get themselves killed very quickly. And worse, they would kill thousands of little babies.  You would have to see it to believe it, but whole families will ride on one motorbike seat with infants protected only by the parents between whom they are smashed. If a single parent and child are riding, the infant is seated on a high stool which is not attached, but only balances in front of the driver.  Added to that, the Vietnamese do not allow their children to wear helmets because they are afraid of neck injury.  Disregarding the fact that they are in a death seat!!!!!?????