It wasn’t the coldest, nor the wettest, not even the windiest – but it was still the worst combination of all three that I’ve endured. As you might imagine the work commute by motorbike was not pleasant.

On the last leg, of the admittedly quite short trip, I take a side road down to the lake away from the worst of the traffic and kill my speed and ride quietly home.  Increasingly though the hulking SUVs are also looking to avoid their own kind on the more widely used roads.

With cold rain stinging my eyes, my suit drenched despite my raincoat, an SUV behind me was peep peep peeping for me to get out of the way – so it could drive dangerously quickly along this winding, populated stretch where kids often play.

I had to pull up to let him past, my already soaking feet splashing down into a puddle.  I looked into his window and shouted, obviously in vain, “F**king, f**k off you f**king w**ker!”

I can’t even swear in Vietnamese.

If you ride a bike, motorised or otherwise, it is very easy to hate cars in Hanoi.

There are the nippy little hatchbacks and taxis which are an irritant but little more. Then there are those mid sized little trucks that chug up and down the dike road at too-high speeds, beeping and beeping and beeping.  Worst of all is the ridiculously large SUVs that Hanoi makes no concessions too and yet the arrogance of their drivers appears unchecked.

On a dryer day recently I rode the long way around Westlake, hoping to get some air before I got home.  On one stretch there was a horrendous traffic jam.  At its epicentre was a single SUV parked and filling two thirds of the road. It was outside a bia hoi where, presumably the owner was sat watching the chaos he caused.

I suffered a similar tail back on that road only to battle my way to just behind the cause and found a middle aged woman behind the wheel of car – driving while spooning ice cream into her mouth from a large tub.  Her slow speed caused the tailback and yet her erratic zig zagging meant no one could over take.

Cars beep you continuously to make way – the problem being that naturally in such traffic they should drive even slower than bikes.  However their sheer size bullies you into pulling over fearing for your physical safety.  Their louder horns meanwhile torture your ears till you can no longer stand it.

Day by day they plough through the traffic. In wet weather they literally makes waves.  It’s hard to know if they just don’t care, don’t notice or actively enjoy the chaos and resentment they cause.

Hanoi has literally no car parks, few houses have garages or even drives.   Where can they all be parked at night?

Like most lines you’d rather not cross you know there is one reason that you might. Family.

On expat message boards arguments rage over what is most irresponsible – running a car in Hanoi or using a bike as a family vehicle.  Having a car also means being able to escape Hanoi in its hot hot summer.  It means countryside, fresh air and exercise is close at hand for all the family.

For these reasons I’ve know a few ambitious young Vietnamese mothers who want cars.  One foreign friend, married to a local, said he had relented recently and borrowed a car for a family trip.  He told me how it didn’t take long before he was cursing bikes and acting King of the Road.

A lot of the presumed wisdom about Hanoi traffic is being turned on its head.

Don’t look, just walk slowly out and the traffic will part around you.

Peeping doesn’t mean the same as back home – it’s more ‘coming through’ than ‘f**k you’.

I’m not sure either are true any more.

Like much of what development brings it’s inevitable and though I don’t much like it I can’t swear I won’t one day give in to it.

Sadly this city isn’t built for cars, the Hanoi that will have to emerge for the car generation is going to be very very different.