Yesterday at the traffic lights on 3rd road and Soi 17 a flipping idiot (sorry that should read An exalted member of the RTP) was manually operating the traffic lights. He seemed to be giving priority to 3rd road traffic. The resultant queue on Soi 17 stretched back to the Lion Bar. The only time I have experienced a queue that long there was after an accident.

Today he's back and the the queue is even worse (I didn't think it was possible). It now stretches passed the Lion Bar to about a 100 yds passed the Caddy Shack. The center of Pattaya is running much the same as normal. Why do they let these people operate the lights.

The traffic certainly seems to flow much better in most cases without the BiB "helping"  

many times if the lights are on permanent flashing yellow the traffic flows much better too,but sometimes there is just so much traffic that gridlock occurs ( not helped by "me first" drivers )  then the Bib is the only solution.

It could be worse, they could be doing point duty, that really does delay things. I have to endure it during rush times on the Railway Line Bypass Rd. There you can see the same mentality, namely one direction is kept open for traffic approaching in the distance, while the other minor junctions tail back long distances and frustration sets in. 

They take over many traffic lights around Pattaya and you can always tell by the long wait times. They would be better employed elsewhere, but they like sitting in the little air-conditioned boxes, playing on their phones and forgetting what they are there for.