Walking on the streets of Vietnam, a visitor sees a few natives walking, others are on bicycles - it is what one would imagine it to be like. You turn the corner and a massive roar deafens your ears. There, in front of you is a sea of motorcycles. Literally, there are thousands of them at one stoplight.

The traffic now is so thick that in order to cross the street, you need to keep an even pace so the drivers can adjust to pedestrians. You reach the other side and look back. One motorcycle close to you has five people straddling it.

Between 1992 and 2004 there was an "explosion of motorcycle use" in developing countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. Chinese knockoffs, at half the price as Japanese Hondas, help to fuel the explosion.

Until now, there were no studies done on this change and the revolutionary impact it would have on the native people.

Harley Davidson's motto, "It's all about the experience," has a different meaning for people in Southeast Asia.

Ralph Brown, a BYU professor of sociology and director of the international development minor, initiated a project to study the effect of motorcycles in developing countries. The project is still only in the exploratory stage, but Brown said his guess is that there will be a wave of migration to the suburbs and women will increase their education and have fewer children.

"[Motorcycles are] radically changing a variety of Southeast Asian life," Brown said.

With motorcycles, people can live farther outside of town where there is cheaper property, he said. In Vietnam, the preliminary data shows that motorcycles are increasing in Vietnam opportunities for education.

There are two kinds of economics, Brown said: primary economics, or earning money, and secondary economics, like growing a garden to save money. Today, there is a shift from secondary economics to primary.

With motorcycles, Brown said, more money is coming into the household. Women are able to leave the house for work, while at the same time have fewer children, and therefore, save money. Women, who were the primary farmers, had more children to help them with the work, now there is less need.

"Motorcycles are an engine to social change," he said. "They're not just recreational...they're fundamental necessities."

These are social consequences of motorcycles, John Hustedt, former BYU student said. Hustedt did research as a student, for a volunteer program, on the effects of transportation on social change in Southeast Asia. His research eventually became his honors thesis.

"In Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam, the introduction and widespread use of motorcycles is both a blessing and a curse," he said. "I got interested [in this project] when I realized how important of a public health problem it is. The World Health Organization named it as one of the 20 most important health problems facing Vietnam in the future."

Hustedt said during his research he learned how "intertwined transportation is with development and economic matters, and what a giant public health impact transportation related injuries and deaths have in a country."

"Through my research and experiences here, I hope to contribute in some small way to the knowledge base the local and foreign researchers have already built," he said.

Shannon Clawson, a current BYU student in international development, is planning to gather more exploratory data for Brown in Thailand this summer.

She said that she will take daily photographs of traffic at intersections. Then, she will dissect them to find how many motorcycles there are in each frame, the number of riders, their gender, their approximate age and if any modifications were made to the bike.

"This will create a data set unlike any other on the usage of motorcycles in Southeast Asia," Clawson said. This data will be used to further understanding of this "unique shift."

"I hope I learn so much I can't even keep it all in my head," Clawson said. "I hope I gain valuable field skills in research and development and I hope that I can use this experience to broaden my horizons and make me a better person."

She said that she hopes to work for a Non-Governmental Organization involved with international development in the future.

"At the end of the day, being involved in this project is not only really interesting and fun for me, but it's the kind of experience that will get me where I want to go both academically and professionally," Clawson said.

The research foundation that Clawson is helping Brown to build is primarily based on surveys. Bun Huoch Eng, a native Cambodian, is assisting in the research in Cambodia.

Eng said he assigns work and area to the local researchers who interview the natives. Surveys do not work well outside the United States and are foreign to Southeast Asians, so the researcher has an informal discussion with the person to "discover" the answers.

"There were some families who didn't answer the questions because they were afraid that we were spies from a political party or government," Eng said.

After the research is complete, Eng said, he records all the results to spreadsheets.

"It took a week to record all the results," he said.

Though challenges existed, there were enjoyable moments. Not all research is tedious.

"The best part of this project is working with different classes of people," Eng said.

Copyright Brigham Young University 16 Apr 2008