1,000 baht fines for using the hard shoulder on expressways - cameras now in operation

[webfact]

1,000 baht fines for using the hard shoulder on expressways - cameras now in operation 

 

Picture: INN News

 

It is now illegal to use the left hand hard shoulder on expressways run by the Expressway Authority of Thailand in Bangkok and surrounding areas. 

 

Cameras have been installed on one route and others are to follow.

 

Fines of 1,000 baht will be sent to the homes of motorists that break the law that came in yesterday. 

 

INN News reported that using the hard shoulder was a big cause of accidents on the system.

 

Thirty two cameras are being installed to look out for transgressors - ten are already in place on the Bang Plee - Suksawat section.

 

Others will follow on three other expressways. 

 

Consideration about 500 baht fines for speeding are also underway though law changes are needed. 

 

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[kotsak]

Doubt it will dent the will of the retards who speed down those lanes. Sick and tired having to deal with those bloody bar stuards on daily basis.. 

[Buffy Frobisher]

And so peak hour will now extend an extra couple of hours. That shoulder becomes an extra lane and is very necessary between 7-10am on the Chalong Rat expressway, which, without it, will become a parking lot. If there is an unexpected breakdown traffic moves around it, and emergency vehicles are always given priority by drivers using the shoulder. As always, not very well thought through, though the concept is sound. 

[ezzra]

Someone is looking for a source of revenues and if they fix a problem while making money out of it good luck to them...

[RichardColeman]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Fines of 1,000 baht will be sent to the homes of motorists that break the law that came in yesterday. 

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Consideration about 500 baht fines for speeding are also underway though law changes are needed. 

Think they have their priorities wring  - again. Pretty sure more people die from from speeding accidents than hard shoulder driving accidents

[MRtommyR]

4 hours ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

And so peak hour will now extend an extra couple of hours. That shoulder becomes an extra lane and is very necessary between 7-10am on the Chalong Rat expressway, which, without it, will become a parking lot. If there is an unexpected breakdown traffic moves around it, and emergency vehicles are always given priority by drivers using the shoulder. As always, not very well thought through, though the concept is sound. 

I disagree with this. The main cause of traffic jams is driver behaviour, not traffic volume. Changing lanes suddenly forces drivers behind to break, causing a ripple effect.

 

This is constantly  an issue in Bangkok due to lanes suddenly disappearing, traffic backing up for U-turns in the outside lane, etc. Everyone trying to undercut the traffic by driving up the emergency shoulder ultimately has to move back into the main lanes when they encounter an off-ramp, bridge, concrete block, traffic cop with a whistle etc. Keeping them out in the first place will improve flow. It is well illustrated in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

 

If they would only make drivers study this instead of silly colour blindness tests then things might improve

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Fines of 1,000 baht will be sent to the homes of motorists that break the law that came in yesterday.

How many outstanding fines are there now?

Thousands at the last count.

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, MRtommyR said:

I disagree with this. The main cause of traffic jams is driver behaviour, not traffic volume. Changing lanes suddenly forces drivers behind to break, causing a ripple effect.

 

This is constantly  an issue in Bangkok due to lanes suddenly disappearing, traffic backing up for U-turns in the outside lane, etc. Everyone trying to undercut the traffic by driving up the emergency shoulder ultimately has to move back into the main lanes when they encounter an off-ramp, bridge, concrete block, traffic cop with a whistle etc. Keeping them out in the first place will improve flow. It is well illustrated in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE

 

If they would only make drivers study this instead of silly colour blindness tests then things might improve

Yep, this is absolutely correct.  

And people don't / can't just move out of that lane for an emergency vehicle - it slows them down immensely.  Driving on the hard shoulder is incredibly selfish behaviour.

[ChrisY1]

The cameras, while working , will catch hundreds daily....send out fines maybe if they have the will and again, no-one will pay.

The speeding cameras have shown us how effective they are.....and as usual, it seems an easy way to police these actions.

[thailand49]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

How many outstanding fines are there now?

Thousands at the last count.

Millions!

[Nanaplaza666]

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

Someone is looking for a source of revenues and if they fix a problem while making money out of it good luck to them...

They should put more camera's at the stoplights for people running red light and then having to wait in the middle of the road blocking the others that have green light . This is more of a problem and will make them more money then people using the left lane , this specially is a problem in the morning and afternoon because it will only make the traffic jams worse if people cannot use this lane anymore . People using this lane causing accidents ?? It's the drunks and people with no license(or with a license but just cannot drive) the whole system is crooked ,but if they want to do something to make money, do it the right way . 

[richard_smith237]

These very same hard should lanes which Traffic Police direct road users to use very morning and evening ????????

 

Will be hilarious that along with every other crack down and reenforcement of an already existing law (as if its a new one) when the Policement don’t get the memo and continue to direct traffic into he hard shoulder... 

 

[richard_smith237]

7 hours ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

And so peak hour will now extend an extra couple of hours. That shoulder becomes an extra lane and is very necessary between 7-10am on the Chalong Rat expressway, which, without it, will become a parking lot. If there is an unexpected breakdown traffic moves around it, and emergency vehicles are always given priority by drivers using the shoulder. As always, not very well thought through, though the concept is sound. 

 

Nope... It won’t, the use of the ‘narrow’ hard shoulder forces too many vehicles in lane 1 to slow down further as cars are cm’s apart, additionally, the extra lane just causes more lane changing back and forth as drivers hedge their bets trying to crawl through traffic beleiving they are more important than everyone else and failing to recognise the concept of the greater good where traffic flow is concentred. 

 

Cars do not move for emergency vehicles, they can’t in locked stationary traffic. Things are improving but when traffic is flowing slowly ALL vehicles do not do enough to get out the they way early enough. 

 

 

As always, the existing laws are good and while there are weekly headlines on this and accident issues (road death toll) there is still the elephant in the room which is whacking off happy over the face every official who’s ever made a public announcement on this issue, that elephant is the fact that the policing is simply not effective - it is the which needs to improve before anything else will. 

 

In this case the policing is ineffective because no one pays their fines !! (or many / most don’t).

 

 

[thenewgoo]

Saw 2 cars do this just today. One car must have been doing 140kph at least. Absolute nuthead and a danger to society. 1000 baht not enough 

[jethro69]

8 hours ago, ezzra said:

Someone is looking for a source of revenues and if they fix a problem while making money out of it good luck to them...

Considering the huge amount who just don't pay the fines, I doubt they make enough to recover the price of the cameras.

[connda]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Fines of 1,000 baht will be sent to the homes of motorists that break the law that came in yesterday. 

Of which 80% will not be paid.  Thai motorist don't care one bit.  They know the RTP are essentially toothless when it comes to traffic law enforcement.  Heck.  They don't even operate patrol cars.  Yeah, they have cars with "Highway police" written on them but all they do is escort VIPs.   Never seen one chase someone for a moving violation. 

[connda]

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

These very same hard should lanes which Traffic Police direct road users to use very morning and evening ????????

Ohhh.  They're on to something there.

<BIB waves hand sideways>  "Over to shoulder, drive on shoulder!
<At BIB Central IT HQ>
**Click**   "1000 baht"
**Click**   "2000 baht"

**Click**   "3000 baht"

**Click**   "4000 baht"

**Click**   "5000 baht"

**Click**   "6000 baht".....

[cnx355]

In Bangkok did you notice a lot more people are spray painting the black digit on their plate to make it hard to read.  I live in Chiangmai and since they started operating radar and red light cameras, I see more and more car and pick-up owners doing that.  Everytime I go downtown I notice a minimun  of 10-12 rear plate with the number sprayed white.  I guess there is a fine for modifying the plates too....

[asiasurfer]

Ok. I'm daring to ask the most stupid question in this thread... But what on earth is a "hard shoulder" on an express way?? ????

[Kenneth White]

Cameras don't have the same impact as the presence of police officers. Rush hours are horrendous, make the inside lane the express lane that would require two or more persons inside the vehicle to drive in that lane. This would promote carpooling and cut down commute times during peak rush hours. 

[thailand49]

13 hours ago, Nanaplaza666 said:

They should put more camera's at the stoplights for people running red light and then having to wait in the middle of the road blocking the others that have green light . This is more of a problem and will make them more money then people using the left lane , this specially is a problem in the morning and afternoon because it will only make the traffic jams worse if people cannot use this lane anymore . People using this lane causing accidents ?? It's the drunks and people with no license(or with a license but just cannot drive) the whole system is crooked ,but if they want to do something to make money, do it the right way . 

I would add, many of the problems are self created there are enough driving laws to reduce the problem but they need enforcement / enforcement is also education.

The system currently being used like many other problems is " Honor system "  as you can see we are all humans currently the application just doesn't work and will never work.????

It really is an easy fix but you need to have fortitude to do it at times I think they don't want to if the problem continues you got job security and constant money rolling in?????

[tinca tinca]

On 4/6/2021 at 10:05 PM, asiasurfer said:

Ok. I'm daring to ask the most stupid question in this thread... But what on earth is a "hard shoulder" on an express way?? ????

it is an extra lane that is supposed to be used in an emergency, like if ones vehicle has broken down, or one is changing a flat tyre....not supposed to be used as AN EXTRA lane to drive in/on. I take it your a yank ????!!!

[ttkeric]

In some countries, it is called the "emergency lane". Hard shoulder is mostly used in Britain.

 

Leftmost (or rightmost) lane normally separated by an unbroken white line. Legally, it is only to be used by emergency vehicles. Not even breakdowns but for safety and pragmatic reasons, broken down vehicles are parked there until they can be recovered. 

[KannikaP]

25 minutes ago, ttkeric said:

In some countries, it is called the "emergency lane". Hard shoulder is mostly used in Britain.

 

Leftmost (or rightmost) lane normally separated by an unbroken white line. Legally, it is only to be used by emergency vehicles. Not even breakdowns but for safety and pragmatic reasons, broken down vehicles are parked there until they can be recovered. 

They did start using it as an extra lane in UK on 'Smart' motorways. That has recently been scrapped as being too unsafe.