Pollution Control Department launches ‘No Car Wednesday’ initiative

[webfact]

Pollution Control Department launches ‘No Car Wednesday’ initiative

 

©VisionPic

 

Thailand’s Pollution Control Department’s initiative, to urge its officials to use public transport instead of their own cars every Wednesday, kicked off today.

 

A number of officials, including the department head, Mr. Pralong Damrongthai, did not use their cars today, leaving the parking area almost empty. 

 

Normally, over 160 cars park there during office hours. Mr. Pralong said that, even though only a few hundred people joined the no-car campaign today, he hopes the initiative will encourage officials in other departments and members of the public to join the move.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/pollution-control-department-launches-no-car-wednesday-initiative/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2019-12-19

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[smedly]

To do away with cars you need a huge public transport system expansion 

 

 

money better spent on useless pointless submarines

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s Pollution Control Department’s initiative, to urge its officials to use public transport instead of their own cars every Wednesday, kicked off today.

Every Wednesday? And the other days?

 

Only a few days ago a different department was worrying about the slump in new car sales, and wondering how to encourage an increase.

[colinneil]

WOW no car wednesday, what a fantastic idea.

Total waste of time, as no one will do it, to use public transport, means walking to a bus stop.????

Walking, ha ha, will never happen, Thais leaving the car at home and walking to a bus stop, joke of the year.

[unamazedloso]

no sugar cane burning thursday? 

 

no rubbish burning Friday?

 

no brain everyday?

 

these officials drive tiny eco friendly engined luxury mercs. Wont do a dam thing as their pollution is near zero.

[Destiny1990]

Wednesday E-bike day !

[ChipButty]

No Haircut on a Wednesday not much else to do then

[bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

No Haircut on a Wednesday not much else to do then

Yeah, we have that already.

It's unlucky to cut hair or nails on Wednesdays. A lot of hairstylists closed - out here in the living-in-the-past boonies anyway.

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by bluesofa
grammar

[sammieuk1]

Expect a lot more of out of control sideways buses then????  

[30la]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s Pollution Control Department’s initiative, to urge its officials to use public transport instead of their own cars every Wednesday, kicked off today.

No problem for you if you arrive late, many others cannot afford it!
Make sure that public transport works well before taking such an initiative which is certainly very efficient if it works!

[inactiveposter]

Wait a minute, wasn’t Wednesday Exercise Day? I’m pretty sure I remember someone leading the routines. This will join the various other campaigns on the scrap heap - helmets, no smoking in restaurants, no plastic bags, no convicted persons in public office, etc. ad nauseum.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Normally, over 160 cars park there during office hours. Mr. Pralong said that, even though only a few hundred people joined the no-car campaign today, he hopes the initiative will encourage officials in other departments and members of the public to join the move.

Don't expect the over-weight over-payed hi-so's to join your party, they have an image to keep-up driving along in their red plate latest models... forgo them to sit in a bus next to a sweaty street urchin, not a hope in hell!!

[Searat7]

I live in the middle of the CBD in Silom and the evening traffic is a real nightmare but the worst part is that you rarely see more than one person in a car. 

[RichardColeman]

Sorry, but fume, gut-belching buses are are part of the problem

[Matzzon]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

WOW no car wednesday, what a fantastic idea.

Total waste of time, as no one will do it, to use public transport, means walking to a bus stop.????

Walking, ha ha, will never happen, Thais leaving the car at home and walking to a bus stop, joke of the year.

The thing is that this is not Thai specific. It would be a very good initiative and needed all over the world, but there is no reason at all to look down on Thais for not wanting to walk. That would not happen or work anywhere in the world.

[Moti24]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

A number of officials, including the department head, Mr. Pralong Damrongthai, did not use their cars today, leaving the parking area almost empty.

Unfortunately, 97% of the staff phoned-in for a sick day, so next Wednesday will be back to normal; whatever "Normal" is here.

[Bassosa]

You guys in Bangkok are so lucky! Over there, air pollution seems to be firmly on the agenda.

 

Sure, the proposed measures might lack sophistication and are generally non-sensical, but it's a start.

Where I live, in Chiang Mai, we've only just arrived at the phase where the governor has asked organisation to "monitor closely the air quality" so we're not quite in the "take action" phase, although a few water cannons were procured to spray water, for what it's worth.

You guys are about a decade ahead of us, I reckon. Enjoy your relatively clean air.

[bluesofa]

44 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

WOW no car wednesday, what a fantastic idea.

Total waste of time, as no one will do it, to use public transport, means walking to a bus stop.????

Walking, ha ha, will never happen, Thais leaving the car at home and walking to a bus stop, joke of the year.

The thing is that this is not Thai specific. It would be a very good initiative and needed all over the world, but there is no reason at all to look down on Thais for not wanting to walk. That would not happen or work anywhere in the world.

I disagree with you saying it wouldn't happen anywhere in the world.

 

In the UK I regularly walked to work (two miles) because I felt it was better for my health and not to cause pollution.

On pub-crawls, our group walked between each pub, we didn't need nor want a 'designated driver'.

 

Here in Thailand, my Thai family are reluctant to walk more than a hundred metres and would rather use a motorbike/car.

The first time I walked to the barber (five hundred metres) my mother-in-law was appalled and said I should use the motorbike - she was worried people seeing me walking would think I had no money for my own transport, causing her a loss of face.

 

When the nearest 7 Eleven was 3km away, I sometimes walked there and back for the exercise.

 

The MIL no longer says anything, especially as I cycled 120km (Udon-Nong Khai-Udon) in five hours, a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Matzzon]

4 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I disagree with you saying it wouldn't happen anywhere in the world.

 

In the UK I regularly walked to work (two miles) because I felt it was better for my health and not to cause pollution.

On pub-crawls, our group walked between each pub, we didn't need nor want a 'designated driver'.

 

Here in Thailand, my Thai family are reluctant to walk more than a hundred metres and would rather use a motorbike/car.

The first time I walked to the barber (five hundred metres) my mother-in-law was appalled and said I should use the motorbike - she was worried people seeing me walking would think I had no money for my own transport, causing her a loss of face.

 

When the nearest 7 Eleven was 3km away, I sometimes walked there and back for the exercise.

 

The MIL no longer says anything, especially as I cycled 120km (Udon-Nong Khai-Udon) in five hours, a couple of weeks ago.

 

Ok, you take an example of you and the Thai familiy you live with. Then I take an example of me and the Thai family I live with. I am usually to lazy to walk and take the bike or car even short ways. My mother and father in law, they usually walks to and home from their work that is about 4 km from their home every day.

Still same around the world.

[tabarin]

2 hours ago, Bassosa said:

Where I live, in Chiang Mai, we've only just arrived at the phase where the governor has asked organisation to "monitor closely the air quality" so we're not quite in the "take action" phase, although a few water cannons were procured to spray water, for what it's worth.

Yeah so nice to get dirty moat water sprayed right in my face on the ping river bridge after a 20 minutes ride with air quality levels at 300. 
I almost started to think they are trying to kill all of us intentionally, the air is not bad enough, let's get them a disease from the water.

Edited December 19, 2019 by tabarin

[Number 6]

Many commuters don't need cars or don't need to drive them into Bangkok. It's extremely selfish, they all know it and nothing will change the behavior unless forced. I absolutely guarantee pollution levels will not go down. Bets. Any takers?

 

What the government could do is purchase NGV buses and partner with PTT.

 

In fact, it could require all commercial transportation to run on natural gas. Could be done in one year.

 

But it doesn't care. 1% busy shoveling money out of the country, buying second passports. Nation on itscway to the poverty and desperation of the Philippines.

 

 

[Puccini]

6 hours ago, Searat7 said:

I live in the middle of the CBD in Silom and the evening traffic is a real nightmare but the worst part is that you rarely see more than one person in a car. 

Whay is the CBD in Silom?

[overherebc]

8 hours ago, Matzzon said:

The thing is that this is not Thai specific. It would be a very good initiative and needed all over the world, but there is no reason at all to look down on Thais for not wanting to walk. That would not happen or work anywhere in the world.

You do quite often in UK see senior position people and MP's biking to work.

[overherebc]

2 hours ago, Number 6 said:

Many commuters don't need cars or don't need to drive them into Bangkok. It's extremely selfish, they all know it and nothing will change the behavior unless forced. I absolutely guarantee pollution levels will not go down. Bets. Any takers?

 

What the government could do is purchase NGV buses and partner with PTT.

 

In fact, it could require all commercial transportation to run on natural gas. Could be done in one year.

 

But it doesn't care. 1% busy shoveling money out of the country, buying second passports. Nation on itscway to the poverty and desperation of the Philippines.

 

 

Can't argue with that post.

[sfokevin]

How about a no burning rice field Tuesdays?... 

[Matzzon]

25 minutes ago, overherebc said:

You do quite often in UK see senior position people and MP's biking to work.

Yes, of course you are better, then others. Sometimes I wonder what you people are doing in Thailand, when there is so much to complain about. You have it much better in your home countries.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Matzzon

[richard_smith237]

If this is a 'pollution issue' drop the dumb no car Wednesday and start promoting electric vehicles. 

Remove all Tax on EV's (Tesla etc) and see people start buying and driving these EV's.

 

Improve the Public transport, NGV busses, or even electric busses, electric taxis etc.

 

But... its not just a pollution issue, it's a congestion issue, so measures could / should be taken to improve both at the same time. 

 

Improve the capacity of the sky train and make it more attractive for the borderline sky train use (i.e. the person who prefers to drive to work but would take the sky train if it was more convenient)

 

Increase free parking at Sky train stations (for sky train users) - make taking the sky train and walking a viable alternative (have AC walk ways etc). 

 

The issues in Bangkok is the growing middle class and a combination of.

 

Make more of the Sky Trains AC to attract more users away from their own cars. 

 

 

 

And finally: Do something to improve the traffic flow - improve the lights, improve the road networks. 

Thailands roads are something like 8% of its land area. The land area of other cities; London, New York, are 12-18% (I can't find a link to that stat but remember reading it in an Economist article) - this makes a huge difference. 

 

 

Of course, some of the suggestions involve an increase the use of energy, but this energy can be sourced from clean energy or even petroleum but from outside of the areas a of congestion and high population. 

 

 

 

[overherebc]

10 hours ago, Matzzon said:

Yes, of course you are better, then others. Sometimes I wonder what you people are doing in Thailand, when there is so much to complain about. You have it much better in your home countries.

Is it as in your words 'we are better' or is it that we actually don't do so many anti-social and polluting things like burn our household rubbish every two or three days so our neighbours have to suffer the smoke, fumes and smells from it.

One of the places my wife loves in UK where we holiday has a nice beach where people walk every morning and my wife joins them, walking or jogging and every second day they all collect what little rubbish has appeared with the tide and put it in the bins for collection. ( She's Thai by the way ). 

Of course it isn't possible for everyone who works in Bangkok to walk to work every morning or go to work on public transport as the public transport system can't handle it and one day of no cars won't change a thing.

It's going to require a massive attitude change and massive expenditure to sort it and that's not going to happen in one or two years.

[Prairieboy]

On 12/19/2019 at 4:02 AM, webfact said:

use public transport instead of their own cars every Wednesday,

Good luck with that!

[Prairieboy]

12 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Remove all Tax on EV's (Tesla etc) and see people start buying and driving these EV's.

Just how many coal-fired electric plants would be needed to supply the electricity to charge all these electric vehicles?  Wake up and smell the coffee!