durian explorer

There are times of year when an air ticket (including baggage) can be over 4000B. The bus prices of about 1000B are tempting at those times, and I have taken those buses, before the recent Bangkok / Chiang Mai accidents / bus fires (I think there were two big ones before this one.) These days I am willing to spend the extra money for the plane. That said, are these buses the public ones that are available (for example) on 12go.com? Would it be reasonable to believe that the VIP buses would be well maintained? Even then, there would still be the issues external to the bus and its driver that could be dangerous (such as other drivers on the road), but that would at least reduce the risk.

I am in Chiang Mai. Is there any kind of directory or map of these locations?