be very careful about the traffic light in chiangmai

[jack1900]

I have just got 3 traffic fine tickets in the past 2 months(all happened before I got the first one).

Very same situation like this:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1096864-driving-the-car-in-violation-of-the-yellow-light-signal

I have been living in chiangmai for over 2 years. This rule seams just came into effort in chiangmai.

If thai government make yellow light equals to red light, this is very rediculous. I hope someone can find the original law about run the yellow light, thanks.

[treetops]

Could you have safely stopped before the line after seeing the amber light?

 

The rule may not have "just came into effort" (or did you mean effect?) but if a camera now enforces it just consider yourself lucky for 2 years of getting away with it before.

[worgeordie]

Must be a good earner for the powers that be,every time the light turns red

you normally see 2 or 3 go through,more if it's in the morning and they are

going to work or take the kids to school.

regards worgeordie

[Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai]

Course you not going to stop on yellow. You would get tailed ended hard by a large black vehicle of some description.

????❤????????

 

 

[jonwilly]

Me too i got caught on a Yellow light, B500 fine, Maya intersection.

I'm British and memory says that Brit Highway code says Amber (Yellow) is STOP unless it is not safe to do so.

Green is not go but you may proceed if safe to do so.

And Red is STOP, end of that story.

Rules of the road in Thailand are based on UK Highway Code.

Agree with Aussie Bruce.

 

john

[Bill97]

1 hour ago, jonwilly said:

Rules of the road in Thailand are based on UK Highway Code.

Finally an answer as to why Thailand has road related problems.  
Thank you Jon.

[MrBrad]

I had one Thai explain it to me like this: Red is stop, Green is go, and Yellow is go faster.

[holy cow cm]

15 hours ago, jack1900 said:

I have just got 3 traffic fine tickets in the past 2 months(all happened before I got the first one).

Very same situation like this:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1096864-driving-the-car-in-violation-of-the-yellow-light-signal

I have been living in chiangmai for over 2 years. This rule seams just came into effort in chiangmai.

If thai government make yellow light equals to red light, this is very rediculous. I hope someone can find the original law about run the yellow light, thanks.

I don't think there is a point system up and running yet, so no big deal. Just pay it. The big problem is really getting hit in the rear-end as Thai have it in their brain to not stop. 

[NanLaew]

It is hard to come up with a universal rule of thumb in Thailand as different police jurisdictions can configure the length of the amber light. When I lived in Pattaya,  one could enter the 'box' of a junction just after the amber had turned on and have completely exited the 'box' before it turned red. On relocating back to Udon Thani, I noticed that amber sequences were a whole lot shorter so I adjusted how I "committed" to amber lights, ie. I am more prepared to stop even if it is a harsher stop. I definitely do not put the boot down if it turns amber on me when I am less than 50 yards back. It is tough luck if anyone was riding my back bumper and eats my towbar. The "you stopped to quick!" doesn't hold much water here... and neither will your radiator after my tow ball has gone through it.

 

My understanding is if you enter the 'box' of a traffic intersection while the light is on amber, you better be out the other side before it turns red. However, with most red-light cameras timed to take a picture A ) when amber turns on and B ) when red turns on, your speed obviously has a lot to do with it too. If it was adjudged that one could not safely stop on the amber but the second picture shows you way, way down the road on the red (as in the traffic ticket pictures in the linked post), then you were probably over the speed limit anyway (just like everyone else).

 

Here's some calculations for reaction + stopping distance in the dry.

 

 

And in the wet:

 

 

I have to go through two major, light-controlled intersections each school day around rush hour. I have no real issues with judging the lights but I am pretty fed up with the impatient drivers that fill up the left-turn filter lanes, making for 3-lanes going ahead on a road designed with 2-lanes. Then they can jump into gaps between slower trucks in the left lane and cut across to the 'fast' lane, making it far slower than it needs to be. Trying to keep the gap between me and the car in front of me too small for the 'push-ins' gets old.

[jak2002003]

OP....you are right. Same happened to us. We have been her 15 years and no traffic fines until last 3 months. 

 

We were confused as to what we did wrong. No speeding or going through red lights. It is as you say....yellow lights. 

 

But, on last occasion, if we had stopped a truck would have gone into the back of us!  

 

Good money earner for someone now. 

[SamSanuk]

As a walker, I journey across my fair share of marked crosswalks in Chiang Mai.

 

Without a traffic light, it can be risky. I notice cars that are zooming towards me rarely let up in speed. You would think a cautionary driver would slightly let up on the gas. Even a tad. I give myself plenty of room of course but one has to wonder about pedestrian rights.

 

With a traffic light, it seems worse. Next to my hotel, you can push the crosswalk button and the traffic light turns red. And still plenty of bikes and cars running right through the red light. I’ve never seen a cop once. They would make a fortune in fines. I tell others not to cross immediately but wait two seconds to see who is zooming and who is slowing up to stop. 

[Dante99]

3 hours ago, SamSanuk said:

one has to wonder about pedestrian rights.

Perhaps in some other country.  Here there is no doubt, you have the right to try to avoid being hit.  Nothing else.

[canthai55]

I learned how to cross the street when I was quite young.

Never forgot how - in any country.

[rumak]

On 11/3/2020 at 1:38 PM, jak2002003 said:

OP....you are right. Same happened to us. We have been her 15 years and no traffic fines until last 3 months. 

 

We were confused as to what we did wrong. No speeding or going through red lights. It is as you say....yellow lights. 

 

i haven't seen the usual money making roadblocks...... think the big man told the cops to stop that.

Sooooo,   it is now the "collect on yellow"  game.     

"necessity is the mother of invention.  ???? "

[Salerno]

4 hours ago, canthai55 said:

I learned how to cross the street when I was quite young.

Never forgot how - in any country.

 

Sad to say on my first day in Saigon I appeared to have forgotten for a while.

 

Out the hotel to the first corner ... nope, not happening. Wander down to the next corner, nope, not happening. Went around the whole block like a total wimp until back to the first corner where luckily some locals had turned up I could use as cover 5555

 

Figuring out how it's done locally can take a couple of attempts.

[Dante99]

5 hours ago, canthai55 said:

I learned how to cross the street when I was quite young.

Never forgot how - in any country.

Not any country.   Not Vietnams big cities.

[Airalee]

15 minutes ago, Dante99 said:

Not any country.   Not Vietnams big cities.

+100.  Without a doubt.  
 

Crossing the road in Hanoi felt like the old video game “Frogger” until I was told to just walk right into the traffic at an even pace and let the cars go around you.

 

I took this video at night after the traffic had died down quite a bit.

[canthai55]

10 hours ago, Dante99 said:

Not any country.   Not Vietnams big cities.

Been there. Rode scooters, motorcycles, drove cars, walked.

Still here.

Want chaos - try India. But I survived there also.

Like I said - I learnt young.

[kwak250]

Need some James bond style plates.

[Asquith Production]

On 11/2/2020 at 10:25 PM, Bill97 said:

Finally an answer as to why Thailand has road related problems.  
Thank you Jon.

Are you for real!. The UK as some of the safest roads in the world with a very low death rate.

[Bill97]

38 minutes ago, Asquith Production said:

Are you for real!. The UK as some of the safest roads in the world with a very low death rate.

Wonderful to know you Brits have something to feel good about.

[Asquith Production]

7 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Wonderful to know you Brits have something to feel good about.

Oh now I see, you are one of the sad people who try to wind up others.

[Bill97]

13 minutes ago, Asquith Production said:

Oh now I see, you are one of the sad people who try to wind up others.

Not winding up anybody but do flush out some already wound up.

[elgenon]

I have always heard to stop on a yellow but beware of getting smashed (a dangerous contradiction). In the States, as long as you enter the intersection before the red, you are legal. But we are not in Kansas anymore.

[Asquith Production]

27 minutes ago, Bill97 said:

Not winding up anybody but do flush out some already wound up.

So you admit you make statements to get reaction. Poor man.

[rwill]

On 11/2/2020 at 5:55 AM, jack1900 said:

I hope someone can find the original law about run the yellow light, thanks.

By Thai law if you have not crossed the line before the light turns yellow you are supposed to stop.

 

It's kind of a silly law because you can be in a postion where it is impossible to stop when the light turns yellow if you are too close to it.  Also stopping on a yellow light will probably result in you getting rear ended.

[Hamus Yaigh]

On 11/3/2020 at 4:21 AM, jonwilly said:

Rules of the road in Thailand are based on UK Highway Code.

I very much doubt UK holds much sway in this, much like anything in the world these days.

 

Most countries, like Thailand, will be signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.

[digger70]

On 11/3/2020 at 12:23 PM, holy cow cm said:

I don't think there is a point system up and running yet, so no big deal. Just pay it. The big problem is really getting hit in the rear-end as Thai have it in their brain to not stop. 

And hope for Satan's sake that that the one Rear ending you has got Insurance, If not make sure that your Insurance is up to date.

[Titan1962]

Well I suppose the tourists aren’t here,so they have to get some money from somewhere. 

[ifmu]

good for the police ... they have been talking about enforcing traffic laws and it seems they may be starting .. of course it will be confusing and chaotic .. for the thais .. but for us .. we know the traffic laws  we know what is safe .. we know how to act in traffic .. so kudos to the thais and hopefully it wont turn into a mess