The freedom to move: how Bangkok is improving its sidewalks

[stoner]

20 minutes ago, bizboi said:

Or even “clothesline”!!

yes my follow up was deleted. 

[tandor]

i hope the idea catches on up here in CNX

[digger70]

What Side walks, There's tables, chairs, pots and plants ,coverups for parking cars ,market stands food venders, petitions between houses ,motorbikes etc.

There's No sidewalks, people have to walk on the road and dodge the maniac drivers/riders /mafia tuk tuks and taxis and vans . They never going to stop that in this country.

If they Lucky they can clean a couple streets if the Police them 24/7 .That ain't going to happen

[Guderian]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Bangkok is fully committed to transforming into a ... healthier city

 

Not feasible while seasonal air pollution is so astoundingly high. Experience and some successes in both India and China show that you have to be able to use the sub-continental seasonal air flow patterns, as well as coordinating industrial policy regionally. That's possible in big places like China and India, but in SEA it would mean unprecedentedly close cooperation between the various selfish and self-interested countries in the region. The fact that Malaysia can't even properly control the vast air pollution caused by its own palm oil plantations in North Borneo, which often afflicts peninsular Malaysia, is a good example of why you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for cleaner air in Bangkok, or just about anywhere else in SEA.

[AhFarangJa]

1 hour ago, Dionigi said:

I remember, 30 years ago, police arresting chairs and tables on Pattaya pavements, they were all back within a week. Unless a concerted and prolonged effort is used nothing will ever change. Maybe huge taxes for businesses using the pavements will help the situation.

They do pay taxes to use the sidewalks..........To the local Boys in Brown.

[Bangkok Barry]

As well as repairing what is there, they need to also remove all the street vendors from the path and all the things that block people outside stores. And actually provide somewhere, anywhere, for people to walk other than in the road in countless side Sois where you are in danger of being run down. In that regard, Bangkok is truly a Third World city, because the place is so poorly designed that there is no space in those side Sois to separate traffic and pedestrians.

 

Of course, get rid of the sidewalk vendors and people howl about the character of Bangkok being sanitised, like they did in Singapore. But anyway, whatever they do in that regard is pointless as they are back again within weeks or even days. It's not like it hasn't happened before. Make a law, enforce it for a week, ignore, repeat in a year or two.

[ricklev]

2 hours ago, Stocky said:

Good luck fixing the numerous footbridge 'solutions', this one on Withayu junction with Pleonchit.

 

I often think about everyone responsible for that, especially the designer of that buildings landscape architecture. They've actually created something that forces pedestrians into one of the busiest intersections in the city and will eventually kill someone if it hasn't already. 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, StayinThailand2much said:

 

Yes, not to mention motorbikes everywhere racing on the sidewalks, running one over if one doesn't jump to the side...

 

Sidewalk: what they call a 'pavement' in Britain, and a 'highway' in Thailand...

Because it is Thailand.. that's Thai style.

[CygnusX1]

1 hour ago, geisha said:

I find Bangkok pavements and crossing a road in Bangkok much better /safer than in Pattaya or Phuket for example. The main tourist beach road with the 5* Boathouse Hotel and access to beach and all the restaurants has no pavements at all ! Racing traffic , You take your life in your hands there, and imagine tourists with a stroller or wheelchair, impossible.

Yes, and all of the footbridges in central Bangkok make walking easier and more pleasant than even in the centre of Sydney, Australia, let alone Pattaya.

[Lancelot01]

6 hours ago, stoner said:

 

 

more like goodwhat project. the sidewalks are atrocious in places. 

Or even non-existent. 

[TroubleandGrumpy]

Thailand will become the Hub of safe friendly Sidewalks !!

[thailand49]

This is just another item placed into the budget so they have another avenue to skim and skim off the top like a regular paycheck for the leaders.

 

First, even if that was the case you have to have a plan, the plan needs to have a standard as to how to build the sidewalks, width, etc, and proper use for Utility Easement.  

 

You can't just lay bricks on top of the sand, leave poles in the middle, wires hanging everywhere, and plant trees that will grow far too large damaging the sidewalk. Even if they were to make it happen no one checks off the work or comes back to check. 

 

[orchidfan]

3 hours ago, Mingomania said:

Thailand has never been handicap friendly...

My 40yo daughter, wheelchair  bound since 12 after an accident, visited me once in Thailand (near Bangkok ) but never again.

No problems visiting me in Hong Kong or Singapore, but never Thailand again.

 

Btw, she flies all over Australia and the world with her job, so she's no slacker!

[KhunLA]

The walkways, crowed, blocked, uneven is probably the most negative aspect of Bangkok, and all of Thailand.  IMHO

 

That alone would turn me off of an international holiday here.  That and the open sewer system.  

 

Wheels friendly, that's never going happen IMHO

Edited October 31, 2023 by KhunLA

[Caldera]

I guess they've given up on the wires and moved on to the sidewalks.

 

Maybe they can fix the air pollution next, it's starting to get appalling already. Quite early this year. 🙄

[paulikens]

Wanna do this all over Thailand.  

[dingdongrb]

A lot of well deserved ranting about the lack of/quality of sidewalks in Thailand....... so how about all those left hand lanes in the streets? You know, the ones that everyone double-parks in. Traffic would perhaps move smoother and safer if they cleared all the vendor carts and double parking that occurs in the leftmost lanes of many streets. 

 

Hey, don't get me started on the so-called 'zebra-crossings' (marked pedestrian crosswalks). 

[fondue zoo]

22 hours ago, stoner said:

 

 

more like goodwhat project. the sidewalks are atrocious in places. 

 

My favourite is the paver that looks stable and normal but is in actual fact hiding a small pool of stanky stankwater from a rainstorm 3 days old.

Trip the paver trap, foot and flop gets slimed.

 

[gunner1]

Soi-4 could use a good looking at, also all along sukhumvit road soi-2 to soi-8.

 

[The Theory]

Right, when they seriously act against motorcycles on side walks (not only in certain areas) then that will be a great start. 

[LatPhrao]

On 10/31/2023 at 4:17 PM, Jonathan Swift said:

I dunno where you hide yourself but everywhere I go in Bangkok since last year I see renovation and new tiles being installed on major sidewalks. I was actually quite surprised and impressed. So, yes the sidewalks are bad in places, but the work is being done. Is that not good enough?

The better question - where do you hide yourself?  Your front yard?  I have never seen anyone anywhere repairing or installing sidewalks!  I.e., no work is being done.    With the exception of a stretch along Sukhumvit Soi 14 to 10, it's an obstacle course of the many and varied.  

[Metapod]

they did a great job with sukhumvit sidewalk. so many bitter negative old <deleted> on this forum