Riding a motorbike on the sidewalk — đi lên vỉa hè — is a violation in the same band as running a red light: 4,000,000–6,000,000 VND under Article 7(7) of Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP, with licence-point deduction. The band’s severity is deliberate: sidewalk riding mixes motor traffic with the one place pedestrians are supposed to be safe from it.

What counts

The violation is riding on the pedestrian sidewalk — not momentarily bumping a wheel over the kerb at a driveway, but travelling along the walkway. The enforcement reality in Hanoi: it happens constantly, around markets, at construction pinch points, and past school gates at pickup time, and the checkpoints that watch for it set up exactly where it happens most. Tourists copying the local habit inherit the local fine.

What the sidewalk is actually for

The road law treats sidewalks as part of the road space reserved for pedestrians, with motorbikes allowed only in narrow, specific cases: crossing the sidewalk to enter or exit a premises, and brief manoeuvring at very low speed where no alternative exists — and even then, pedestrians have priority. A rider travelling along a sidewalk against the flow of pedestrians is in the fine band, full stop.

Why the fine is that high

The 2025 schedule raised sidewalk riding from the small-change bands to the 4–6 million band, together with red-light running and wrong-way riding — a trio aimed at the violations that most often injure pedestrians. In dense neighbourhoods the sidewalk is where the elderly, children and market shoppers are; the law prices their space accordingly.

The rental context

On a rental, the deposit math is simple: 4–6 million VND is more than most deposits, and the rental-shop conversation about a deducted deposit is worse than the police conversation. The correct move at a blocked street is to dismount and walk the bike briefly, or route around — the same rule the locals who ride sidewalks daily are technically breaking.

Information, not legal advice. Verified against Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP and the Ministry of Public Security fine summaries on 2026-09-22.