1 hour ago, Mukdahanman said:

How about enforcing pedestrian priority at the zebra crossing to start with, otherwise why bother putting it there in the first place? Sadly it seems they are treated as a road decoration and roundly ignored.

In fact this has come up several times in my uni classes, mainly raised by the european exchange students: 'Don't vehicles have to stop here when people start to walk?"

 

I throw this open to the Thai students to respond, examples:

 

-  The most typical response from the Thai students is: 'Yes there are markings on the road and traffic lights at some and overhead pedestrian flashing lights at many crossings, but vehicles don't have to stop.'

 

-  A few Thais say 'yes cars do have to stop but they ignore the law'. 

 

- In one such discussion one student called her rtp uncle (?) and asked what the law is. Uncle spoke good English and responded on speaker phone: 'The Thai law is that all vehicles have to stop immediately when a pedestrian starts to cross and must stay stopped until all the pedestrians have reached the other side of the road, but If I see pedestrians stopping the flow of traffic I will punish them.' 

 

6 hours ago, TMNH said:

So does Thailand accept the loss of life as "oh well"?. if so, then more reason to never park my butt in that country.

Read the daily/annual road death statistics... you won't be coming here anytime soon !!

the statistics will answer your "oh well" question as to loss-of-life.

Install bridge..... then install solid barriers between traffic lanes (opposing directions) to physically prevent folk from crossing the road. Done. But it won’t be... so, carry on campers.

must stay stopped until all the pedestrians have reached the other side of the road, but If I see pedestrians stopping the flow of traffic I will punish them.' 

 

Ye Gods, no wonder people here are confused

8 hours ago, Mukdahanman said:

must stay stopped until all the pedestrians have reached the other side of the road, but If I see pedestrians stopping the flow of traffic I will punish them.' 

 

Ye Gods, no wonder people here are confused

Part of the problem is that red lights here don’t always mean stop, unlike most other countries. For example, can turn left against red, also when pedestrians have finished crossing but lights still red, traffic can start again, if lights turn red at junctions, several vehicles will jump the lights.

 

This means there is no inbuilt or educated respect for red lights, no habit of stopping for them, and no enforcement for driving through them. 

 

When using the roads here never assume red means stop.