Traffic blamed for air quality in Bangkok

[Spectrum2200]

Computerise traffic lights will improve traffic. Leave it to the street police.. to manually operate lights.. the Bangkok infamous jams will continue. The cops can only see one junction. 

[Thian]

1 hour ago, CGW said:

I wasn't aware that there were in fact hardwood species that are fast growing, can you name a few?

 

Not so sure the thousands of Mom & Pop shops would agree with your desire to see them all gone! I would say its the bad side of globalization, better the money goes to the local population than a shareholder in a rich country, most of these stores are incredibly wealthy already, yet they want more!

 

Are noisy motorcycles safer, or is the standard of driving so low that you need to make a lot of noise to be seen, from what I see the average person has a high tolerance to noise, regardless off why it is not healthy! I live in a sparsely populated area, virtually every motorcycle makes illegal levels of noise, there is very little traffic on the roads, safer or plain selfish, I know what my opinion is.

 

I agree Bangkok and many other cities need to stop building, its not going to happen! have you not noticed they like to "herd" people together in confined spaces worldwide, easier to control that way!

 

In the nineties Bangkok had a similar problem, this seems to have been forgotten, probably because they have done nothing since then, no need as the weather patterns have been favorable, they used to check vehicle exhausts for emissions and they made a concerted effort to reduce the number of two-stroke motorcycles, they seem to have forgotten this fact!

You google for Brazilian hardwood, or african hardwood....the pouteria family has many but there are loads of them, also rosewoods and much more...Thailand has a few as well but especially teak is very expensive these days.

 

Noisy bikes are sure safer in BKK, it's not the bikers who can't drive but it's the cardrivers in general. They won't give any space to motobikes and switch lane constantly. Also they are too dumb to use indicators properly.

 

Nobody herds the people together, they all choose to live like that. Now they are building loads of new condo's while the roads are already totally congested...That should be stopped or just force those condo-owners to use public transport by not giving them parkinglots.

 

There are not many 2stroke motors left on the roads but they are still there. It's more big diesels now like 3litre motors for a 4wd that you won't need in BKK except when there's a flooding!

There is no regulation at all and i bet most cars even don't have a catalyst since those things are very expensive to replace.

 

Gardeners all use 2stroke lawnmowers and chainsaws/strimmers...very noisy ones...i live in a nice place but every weekend the neighbours hire those noisy gardeners who start at 8 am, no fun.

 

But Thailand can't regulate anything, not even simple lotterytickets when the general has used article44 on them...The police even let's vehicles drive against traffic every minute again so nope, nothing will change unless they first replace the policeforce.

 

 

[CGW]

20 minutes ago, Thian said:

Nobody herds the people together, they all choose to live like that. Now they are building loads of new condo's while the roads are already totally congested...That should be stopped or just force those condo-owners to use public transport by not giving them parkinglots.

Are you sure about that? look at China as an example where free movement of people is not allowed, people are moved off the land and 'herded' into industrial zones where they can be used for labour, the land is then given over to mass agriculture where "food" is grown for profit not sustenance or nutrition.

 

You pretty well summed up the situation overall "There is no regulation at all"

[Thian]

20 minutes ago, CGW said:

Are you sure about that? look at China as an example where free movement of people is not allowed, people are moved off the land and 'herded' into industrial zones where they can be used for labour, the land is then given over to mass agriculture where "food" is grown for profit not sustenance or nutrition.

 

You pretty well summed up the situation overall "There is no regulation at all"

The only ones that herd the people into BKK are the parents of the youngsters who want money and their kids have to make it in BKK no matter how.

 

I have never heard of Thai being forced to go work in BKK by anybody else than their parents. That even wouldn't work i guess since you can't make a Thai doing something that they don't want to do. Even the police or general can't do it.

[ExpatOilWorker]

Strange headline, I always thought 54% (outdoor burning) was more than 13% (Transportation).

[sqwakvfr]

"He said it was very, very hard to work with local people here as they believed a foreigner couldn't tell them how to organise or build things in 'their' country. " 

 

BobbyL, this sums my experience with Thai's.  The Thai's I have been in contact with have little or no interest on any new ideas or different way of doing things.  Many are Narrow Minded and Stubborn.  It is their country and I keep my opinions to myself or only express them to other foreigners.  

•  

[CGW]

1 hour ago, Thian said:

I have never heard of Thai being forced to go work in BKK by anybody else than their parents. That even wouldn't work i guess since you can't make a Thai doing something that they don't want to do. Even the police or general can't do it.

I wasn't insinuating they were forced to go to work in Bangkok, though to some extent they are if they want to make money, it is "policy" in most countries to herd people together.

 

57 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

this sums my experience with Thai's.  The Thai's I have been in contact with have little or no interest on any new ideas or different way of doing things.  Many are Narrow Minded and Stubborn.  It is their country and I keep my opinions to myself or only express them to other foreigners.

I have lived and worked here for ~30 years, I have worked with well educated Thai people who are able to work for multi-national companies, there thinking is completely different to the majority who are uneducated or have a very poor education.

The basic Thai education system is designed and does keep the peasants in their place, which makes them both stubborn, narrow minded and importantly sub subservient to the rulers! thats my take anyway!

[wgdanson]

7 hours ago, Thian said:

the Mitsubishi sports Fortuners

I thought they were Toyotas.

 

[lvr181]

12 hours ago, Dibbler said:

will end up being passed on to the next "government". 

And the next and the next and the next, ad infinitum.............no one seems to have the 'guts' to tackle the problems nor the intellect to learn from other nations. 

 

LOS no, LOP = Land of Promises. A beautiful country spoilt by 'feudalism'.

[Jonmarleesco]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

“The reason we have to wait that long to implement the fuel switching is because we have to provide enough time for the industrial sector to adapt to the new policy, but if the air pollution problem is still at a critical level, we will discuss again whether this measure can be implemented sooner,” he said.

B____cks! Implement the change, they'd have to follow it. Yet the BMA's  talking of ELEVEN years, its intermediate strategy being: put on a mask to go out. Eleven years to get antiquated air-fouling buses off the roads, put polluting diesels to rest, to 'persuade', rather than order, farmers to cease stubble burning, something that simply exacerbates the problem. 

[Jonmarleesco]

7 hours ago, Thian said:

it's not the bikers who can't drive but it's the cardrivers in general. They won't give any space to motobikes and switch lane constantly. Also they are too dumb to use indicators properly.

I wasn't aware there was another Bangkok on the planet. But there must be; you're evidently not talking of motorcyclists in the one we all know and love. FTR, motorcyclists in general are too dumb to take notice of indicators.

[CLW]

Just look at the major Chinese and developed asian cities (KL and Singapore) and how they managed to get rid of too much cars in their city.

High tolls for highway and very strict regulations for new car registration.

Make driving a car in the city so expensive that you are thinking twice if you take the car or the bus.