Overtaking is where motorbike traffic makes its daily decisions — and the law is strict about the geometry. Under the road rules of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety (No. 36/2024/QH15), overtaking happens on the left, only with clear view and safe distance, and never in the places the law fences off.

The left rule and the right-side fine

The default: pass on the left. Overtaking on the right — squeezing past a slower vehicle on its right side — is permitted only in the narrow cases the law lists (for example, when the vehicle ahead is signalling a left turn, or on one-way roads with multiple lanes). Outside those cases, overtaking on the right costs 600,000–800,000 VND under Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP, with point deduction. In practice this is the violation the flow commits constantly: the scooter threading past a car on its right at a light is doing it.

Where passing is prohibited altogether

The no-overtaking zones are the classic list: crests and curves with blocked view, bridges and narrow sections where signed, level crossings, intersections (except the permitted cases at signalised junctions), pedestrian crossings while occupied, and anywhere a solid centre line or a no-overtaking sign says so. Stopped queues — school gates, market pinch points — are also not overtaking situations; passing a stopped queue on the wrong side is usually wrong-way riding instead.

The motorbike-specific reality

Two-wheelers overtake constantly in Vietnam’s flow — legally where the view is clear and the lane allows, illegally the moment the pass needs the wrong side, the shoulder, the sidewalk or the opposing lane. The habit to hold: pass left, only where you can see the whole manoeuvre to its end, and abort rather than improvise. The gap that closes halfway is the accident statistic.

Escalation

An illegal overtake that causes a crash moves into the 10,000,000–14,000,000 VND band, and wrong-side passes that involve the opposing carriageway add the counterflow clauses on top. The fine for a clean right-side pass is the cheap version of this mistake.

Information, not legal advice. Verified against Law 36/2024/QH15 and Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP on 2026-09-22.