If you’ve been noticing more cars clogging the streets on your daily commute, you’re not imagining things.

According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnamese spent US$133 million on importing 5,493 cars last month, an 86% increase over the same time period last year, reports Vietnam Plus.

And if you thought that was a lot, this figure is only half that of January when Vietnamese imported 9,596 cars valued at US$185.7 million into the country. The month-over-month drop was attributed to poor sales over the Tet holiday.

With rising incomes, Vietnamese have more disposable cash to buy big-ticket items like cars. Last year, Vietnam imported over 66,025 of them, nearly double that of 2013. And the trend is likely to really take off this year as taxes on vehicles built in ASEAN nations will drop to 50% under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA). This figure will fall to 40% in 2016, 30% in 2017 and hit zero by 2018.

Given that we’re still a long ways away from having comprehensive public transportation systems in Vietnamese cities, expect traffic to get much worse before it gets any better.

[Photo via Clubvespa]