Thai PBS went to an intersection in Banglamphu, Bangkok, to investigate after yet another accident on a zebra crossing.

 

Just three days after a person was killed by a bus another bus hit a pedestrian at the exact same spot injuring them.

 

Now the BMA and the Chana Songkkram police have put out steel barriers and cones. 

 

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But the locals are advocating more.

 

They said that they wouldn't dare use the zebra; they cross further up the road away from the lights.

 

They think the zebra at this location is a danger for visitors to the area and should be scrapped altogether and moved. 

 

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In Buriram they had to do away with a roundabout because people wouldn't conform to the law. Ended up changing it for traffic lights and even then didn't/don't conform to the laws of the road. It's a monkey see, monkey do world. Hit them in the pocket and see if it makes a difference.

I stopped at a crossing Monday to let someone cross and she was almost hit by a motorbike and minibus who both just ignored all the signs and the red paint . Thai just ignore the road rules and don't care about the concequences of their idiot actions .

Easier and safer to get rid of the zebra crossing than educate a nation to drive properly.

My "favorite" zebra crossing is this one on Ratchadaphisek Road between Sukhumvit and Rama 4. Typical vehicles speed on that section is regularly something like 100km/h. This zebra crossing is just somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Whoever had the idea to put that zebra crossing at that place should be prosecuted.

Clearly these Zebra crossing are all placed in dangerous places, across roads, which encourage pedestrians to use them, so perhaps in order to protect the selfish or not alert drivers they should be removed from the road and placed in public parks.

Edited March 17, 20224 yr by Excel

In Thailand there is confusion regarding types of crossings, just talking about pedestrian crossings.

The crossing in the picture is not a legal Zebra crossing as it has no Belisha beacons that warn drivers of the location of the crossing and should be visible some distance away.

 

In my opinion the crossing at this location should be a Pelican crossing which has its own set of traffic lights linked to the junction traffic lights so no pedestrians should be crossing while any traffic is moving.

 

NB: The Belisha Beacon was introduced in the UK in 1934 and the first ones were installed in Slough High Street. They were named after the Transport Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha.

I stopped for an old lady waiting at a crossing  the other day near Bang Sue Station and she still couldn't cross for another couple of minutes because the other two lanes of traffic refused to stop on the lovely red painted crossing. When finally there was a gap in the traffic she sprinted like a 70 year old Usain Bolt in order to cross. Any misjudgement and your in strife on the crossings. I have seen numerous people after they were hit on the crossing in front of our condo over the last 4 year.

Ethier raise the Pedestrian Crossings up a speed ramp or instal speed ramps ether side of the crossing then vehicles will have to slow down.

Law or not, having the right of way or not, I think pedestrians need to learn how to cross the street, and take a lot of that responsibility themselves.

 

I don't know how anyone, steps into the roadway, without first making sure, your butt ain't going to get run over.  I've done some really stupid things in my life, but not looking, before crossing the street, isn't one of them.  From 6 lane highway, to one way street, simply look both ways, then again before stepping in, then pay attention all the way across.

12 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Law or not, having the right of way or not, I think pedestrians need to learn how to cross the street, and take a lot of that responsibility themselves.

 

I don't know how anyone, steps into the roadway, without first making sure, your butt ain't going to get run over.  I've done some really stupid things in my life, but not looking, before crossing the street, isn't one of them.  From 6 lane highway, to one way street, simply look both ways, then again before stepping in, then pay attention all the way across.

I think one assumes that when the green man is showing it should be safe to cross, does the Thai Driving Test include info about pedestrian crossings 

8 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I think one assumes that when the green man is showing it should be safe to cross,  

At best it might be slightly safer.....but only slightly.

18 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I think one assumes that when the green man is showing it should be safe to cross, does the Thai Driving Test include info about pedestrian crossings 

Don't care how 'green' that man is, not taking advice from someone I've never met.  He says Go, but I don't see him looking to see if it's safe.

 

and if red, and no traffic coming, I'm crossing ... IF ... no PoPO Box on the corner.   Yea, I violate a law every now & than ... living on the edge baby.

The problem is that there are so many zebra crossings that are situated at blind turns.  The driver cannot see that someone has just left the kerb and entered the crossing. Not an excuse for the driver, but still....poor planning of the crossings.

This suggestion shows and confirms the lack of education in regards from driving MOVING is just kicking the can down the road to the next crosswalk guess out of sight problem solved this is the same solution suggested by the RTP for the crosswalk where the Doctor was killed. 

Station a handful of police for starts with a paddy wagon, tow truck, all the Thai T. V.  Station cameras,  Pre fill out tickets for 5000 baht and let the word get out.  Each day enlarge the net to other intersections when doing so start enforcing other laws broken speeding no helmet, reckless maneuver that is just the beginning of the list. 

4 minutes ago, thailand49 said:

This suggestion shows and confirms the lack of education in regards from driving MOVING is just kicking the can down the road to the next crosswalk guess out of sight problem solved this is the same solution suggested by the RTP for the crosswalk where the Doctor was killed. 

Station a handful of police for starts with a paddy wagon, tow truck, all the Thai T. V.  Station cameras,  Pre fill out tickets for 5000 baht and let the word get out.  Each day enlarge the net to other intersections when doing so start enforcing other laws broken speeding no helmet, reckless maneuver that is just the beginning of the list. 

If you decided to prosecute all of them there would be a hue and cry they are taking money from some poor people, life is cheap here, deaths on the road don’t take priority. 

12 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

If you decided to prosecute all of them there would be a hue and cry they are taking money from some poor people, life is cheap here, deaths on the road don’t take priority. 

Correct,  that is exactly why nothing is done the police government think they are doing their people a favor the population is so disensetize to the death they have excepted as karma. 

When. One live in a society what needs to be done is for the greater good at times hard but humans will adjust in time. 

This is the reason I continue to state if it is to be fixed it won't be s Thai! 

Money fines are to be diverted back to help the people and not as earned income! 

Edited March 18, 20224 yr by thailand49

In the UK they have the 'Green Cross Code' which is taught to all young children at school or on the TV. Maybe Thailand needs to do the same?

 

 

Quote

 

How do you use the Green Cross Code?

• Find the safest place to cross. ...
• Stop before you reach the kerb. ...
• Look and listen for traffic. ...
• Let any traffic pass. ...
• Cross the road when it's safe, walking rather than running.

 

•  

 

 

26 minutes ago, IvorBiggun2 said:

In the UK they have the 'Green Cross Code' which is taught to all young children at school or on the TV. Maybe Thailand needs to do the same?

 

 

•  

 

 

It’s not the kids that need to be taught it’s the drivers of vehicles, is there anything in the video or the questionnaire about zebra crossings ?

What I have noticed at traffic light controlled crossings the lights are at high level way above the drivers eye line. 

21 minutes ago, Jumbo1968 said:

It’s not the kids that need to be taught it’s the drivers of vehicles

They all need to be taught, but from an early age, so it becomes a natural reaction when crossing the road or when driving. You have to start somewhere.

Don't blame thai drivers.
If they can't see a zebra crossing, they won't stop.

17 hours ago, Jumbo1968 said:

I think one assumes that when the green man is showing it should be safe to cross

only for green men from Mars as the drivers would say what the F..... and stop to look at him/her

1 hour ago, foreverlomsak said:

only for green men from Mars as the drivers would say what the F..... and stop to look at him/her

Way too intelligent ...

 

 

18 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Don't care how 'green' that man is, not taking advice from someone I've never met.  He says Go, but I don't see him looking to see if it's safe.

 

and if red, and no traffic coming, I'm crossing ... IF ... no PoPO Box on the corner.   Yea, I violate a law every now & than ... living on the edge baby.

We all know how to cross the road... But it can get sketchy in Thailand because drivers hate to slow down for anything until they have to. 

 

On an a busy road (i.e. Sukhumvit / Ekammai etc) we have to be quite assertive and look the drivers in the eye and force them to slow or we’d never end up crossing the road... Its still dangerous and we are left being forced to take a risk otherwise we could find ourselves waiting for a long time for the ‘ideal gap’.

Its the same when driving and trying to pull out into a road, we have to force our way out because no one gives way and no one is willing to slow slightly to allow space. 

 

It leads to one thing - people get in a car and lose any sense of consideration for anyone else... its as if an F.U. Switch is flicked and their inner frustrations surface. 

 

Combine that with a lack of accountability and the pseudo feudal system whereby everyone’s worth is measured against everyone else’s by the first recognisable facet and we have people in cars believing (if only subconsciously) that they are better than the pedestrians around them... 

 

 

As has already been touched upon: The road designs in Thailand are terrible, often dangerous. 

Better consideration needs to be placed on where the crossings are. The Rama IV crossing exampled above is a perfect situation of a very poorly located crossing - at least put in a pedestrian bridge (this doesn’t help disabled people in wheelchairs but Thailands economy and pavement space does not allow for subterranean crossings with ramps etc).

 

Thailand can of course do better regarding road and pedestrian safety.... the underlying root cause - those in positions of decision making power do not care enough. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 3/16/2022 at 11:55 PM, webfact said:

They said that they wouldn't dare use the zebra; they cross further up the road away from the lights.

 

They think the zebra at this location is a danger for visitors to the area and should be scrapped altogether and moved. 

Wow.  And that, after several posters advocating 20 years in prison for the bus driver...

On 3/17/2022 at 12:11 PM, IvorBiggun2 said:

In Buriram they had to do away with a roundabout because people wouldn't conform to the law. Ended up changing it for traffic lights and even then didn't/don't conform to the laws of the road. It's a monkey see, monkey do world. Hit them in the pocket and see if it makes a difference.

Pattaya did it too...... Dolphin roundabout became a junction, or rather a 3/4 roundabout. 

On 3/17/2022 at 12:53 PM, Will B Good said:

Easier and safer to get rid of the zebra crossing than educate a nation to drive properly.

Yes, typical Thai reasoning: the zebra crossing is responsible, not the moronic drivers that fail to stop and not the pedestrians who prefer to cross unprotected a bit further away. TIT.

 Time to have lollipop men ..... with a stop sign and a machine

gun, anyone who does not stop gets plugged , that's the only

way I think Thai drivers will learn to obey the laws of the roads.

a bit extreme I know , but thats what its going to take......????

 

regards Worgeordie