Give your opinion in the great driving license debate! DLT wants to know

[Sir Dude]

The problem with many things here is they have done progress on-the-cheap and skipped many vital processes that need to be sorted out to make a decently safe society. The breakneck speed of development in the last 40 years had sidelined so many things that are required for a healthy safe society that many western societies have taken a couple hundred years to sort out. This topic is only a very small microcosm example of the problem and it permeates into the smallest corners of everything really here. 

Regarding this subject for example...how can you have a police force of many tens of thousands that are supposedly dedicated to just road traffic and still be in the situation where you have the worst road safety/death stats in the world and everyone is howling about corruption when a solution is forwarded? Pretty piss-poor performance on behalf of the traffic cops in general imo. People should have licenses and those that scoff at it should go whistle because things do need to change and the safety situation in Thailand for all matter of things is a national embarrassment.

[Amusements]

2 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

It may be pathetic by western standards but both the wife (car) and daughter (bike) were failed on their first practical  test so it certainly made them think.

Is my wife a "good" driver, by Thai standards,yes, as she is a safe driver. By my standards, it is best not to answer.

 

54 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Failed !! Hahaha... You're wife must have got in the back seat of the car and your daughter sat on the bike backwards ? How can you fail the Thai driving "test"....

Obviously there is no national standard, and that is one of the major problems.

 

I took my ex wife for her car test and she passed. She said that the examiner told her to practice her steering, but still passed her anyway. On the way home I let her drive on the B road near our village. She almost smashed the car into the first corner, as she could not turn the wheel properly (arms crossing) and we ended up on the wrong side of the road inches away from the hedge. I then found  out that she had never driven in 2nd gear. BTW.She had been on an intensive Thai driving course prior to this. 

 

After that, I taught her to drive myself.

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, stud858 said:

Do the math.  it is actually cheaper for them to do it my way.

OK, point taken, but these families pretty much survive by the day, where will they get / borrow 10,000Baht?

 

Maybe a 25% by the month loan shark? 

[stud858]

1 minute ago, scorecard said:

OK, point taken, but these families pretty much survive by the day, where will they get / borrow 10,000Baht?

 

Maybe a 25% by the month loan shark? 

18 family guarantee along with vehicle and cash deposits would get a measley 180k from a bank. What a great business project for the kids. These types of things need leaders though.

 

Aksorn college on theprasit used students to run a small cafe as a business experience project. Getting the kids involved in the nitty gritty of business life. 

Anyway. Lets stop the dreaming, snap bang pow back to reality.

 

 

 

 

[wvavin]

Confiscate every vehicle on the road without prove of licensed ownership!

[richard_smith237]

6 hours ago, hotchilli said:

If I wanted to live in Norway I would have emigrated there !!!

I chose to live here and put up with the down sides to life.... my choice to move-in!

It's like the rich "townie" buying a weekend place in the countryside, then complaining  "there's nothing to do"

lets build build build and turn it into a town !!!!

If you don't like it don't come & bugger off back to where you came from if it was so good !!

 

 

Quote: "It's like the rich "townie" buying a weekend place in the countryside, then complaining  "there's nothing to do"...

 

Not its not...to use your flawed analogy... it would be like the  rich "townie" buying a weekend place in the countryside and recognizing along with everyone else from the countryside that there is a big problem which needs dealing with.

 

Your 'go home if you don't like it' comment as with all the 'go home if you don't like it' comments lacks the sound intelligence required of basic critical thinking... speak to any educated Thai and you too will recognize that this is also major issue for them and that Thai's are huge critics of the existing road safety issue... its widely debated on Thai forums, moreso than this forum...   and with the same resignation Thai's too, much like us Westerners recognize there is little they can do until those in positions decision making power care sufficiently to do something....  

 

In a non confrontational and generally acceptant and tolerant culture it's difficult for issues such as this to become as important as we in the West and Thai's on an individual level would like them to be. 

 

So... in response to your 'go home if you don't like it' comment I should really write something equally thoughtless... here you go.. .."if you don't like it, don't read a thread about it"... 

 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

While out for dinner tonight I got a parking ticket... 

... On a wide sub-Soi (Ekammai Soi 12) 3 lanes in one direction 1 lane in the other (and still space to park)... To be honest I thought it was fine to park there, other cars were, no apparent signs or road marking other than it was a road!...etc, didn't appear to be interfering with traffic etc... Still, I got a ticket so there must be some sort of 'no parking regulation in the area'... 

Anyway - thats beside the point... 

 

My point...  I thought about not paying the fine and just 'seeing what happens', whats the big deal (there is no fine amount on the ticket so I'm not sure how much it will be, the car wasn't clamped)... I really didn't care... and to be honest, still don't.

 

Now.. in the UK the fine would be significant, I may get points on my license. I would definitely have been sure I could park there before I did so, I would have looked around and if in doubt move to somewhere else I am sure.

 

Here in Thailand, no one cares about the rules and regulations because ultimately there are no consequences which is why today I rocked up at a spot I figured was fine and just parked - the same could have been said of any traffic regulation broken... crossing a red light, overtaking on a blind bend, drink driving etc etc... there are no consequences...  

 

Thus - the license debate is only valid if licenses are to be used as a control measure because with the current system they are certainly not used as an 'education measure' involving a stringent test...  Thus, the fact that we have a license or not hardly seems relevant until a complete 'phase shift' occurs in the enforcement of Thailands road culture across the board...

[piewarmer]

I have seen a number of very large motorbike graveyards possibly there were police confiscations of years gone by.

 

[GreasyFingers]

14 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Failed !! Hahaha... You're wife must have got in the back seat of the car and your daughter sat on the bike backwards ? How can you fail the Thai driving "test"....

They do have them you know. Go to your local DLT (they have a special test area here, not sure if they all do) and have a laugh at what you see.

[GreasyFingers]

13 hours ago, Amusements said:

After that, I taught her to drive myself.

I wanted to do that but she did not like me telling her she was doing the wrong thing. I now try to show her by example, but she is Thai and I am a farang, so it does not register.

[KiChakayan]

The first question to ask, in my opinion, would be to question if anyone illiterate can be allowed to drive a motor vehicle?

 

After that any driving license should be delivered only after the equivalent of two or three weeks full time training that would include, basic engineering, law and first aid skills. More or less the Swiss model.

[KiChakayan]

14 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

The problem with many things here is they have done progress on-the-cheap and skipped many vital processes that need to be sorted out to make a decently safe society. The breakneck speed of development in the last 40 years had sidelined so many things that are required for a healthy safe society that many western societies have taken a couple hundred years to sort out. This topic is only a very small microcosm example of the problem and it permeates into the smallest corners of everything really here. 

Regarding this subject for example...how can you have a police force of many tens of thousands that are supposedly dedicated to just road traffic and still be in the situation where you have the worst road safety/death stats in the world and everyone is howling about corruption when a solution is forwarded? Pretty piss-poor performance on behalf of the traffic cops in general imo. People should have licenses and those that scoff at it should go whistle because things do need to change and the safety situation in Thailand for all matter of things is a national embarrassment.

I quote your post in full, because I reckon it nails the root cause... There is graphic support of your statement on most roads where Water buffalos, metaphoric or not, share the space with idiots racing at hundred miles per hour.

[balo]

On 8/29/2018 at 11:04 PM, richard_smith237 said:

My point...  I thought about not paying the fine and just 'seeing what happens', whats the big deal (there is no fine amount on the ticket so I'm not sure how much it will be, the car wasn't clamped)... I really didn't care... and to be honest, still don't.

 

Interesting , only times I experienced a fine here my car has been clamped.  Both times it happened in Chiang Mai . Had to get to  the police station first and pay the fine  and then they would remove the clamp . 

 

They can't clamp every vehicle in Bangkok parking illegally so you're safe I guess. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Torrens54]

Guess they don’t want Ferang clomments... the thing is in Thai, which, as this IS Thailand....fair enough !