Pattaya's Traffic Mayhem Threatens Tourism: City Battles for Solution

[snoop1130]

 

A raucous city council meeting in Pattaya yesterday saw members voicing their concern over the worsening traffic situation in the known Thai beach resort. According to Surin Yimyai, a city council member, disorderly public transport practices are causing disastrous congestion and dampening the city's image as a leading tourist hub. The main culprits appear to be public buses, stopping at any location of choice, disregarding rules and gumming up key routes.

 

This convoluted system has led to severe gridlock on primary arteries including South Pattaya Beach Road, Pattaya Second Road, Third Road, and Na Kluea. The city's infrastructure, overwhelmed by an ever-growing number of vehicles and tourists, seems unable to maintain a traffic-free environment.

 

Addressing this crisis, the city's administration unveiled a scheme aiming to counter the gridlocked predicament. A committee is already in place tasked to untangle this knotty situation. Primary actions entail introducing well-placed, clearly indicated bus stops in major city arteries. However, the city's management concedes the issue remains a formidable challenge due to the sheer number of public vehicles and insufficient driver discipline.

 

 

In a tighter approach, the city plans to join forces with transit officials and law enforcement to enforce rigorous regulations. The ultimate hope is to regulate a slicker, better-organised transport system, alleviating congestive pain points and enhancing the holiday experience for tourists.

 

If successful, Pattaya's leaders hope their rejuvenated thoroughfares will bolster what many view as the city's waning reputation, providing smoother commutes for locals and visitors alike. Much Wall Street, Chicago's Navy Pier, or the sparkle of Paris in the summer, Pattaya's streets just may be key to its thriving future as a premium tourist hot spot.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-11-21

 

 

[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The main culprits appear to be public buses, stopping at any location of choice, disregarding rules and gumming up key routes.

Sort the mess out... 

[jacko45k]

We did the bus-stop thing before, in fact one can still see them dotted around town. A place for drunks to bump themselves and working girls to lean.

How about a 50 baht congestion charge?

[henryford1958]

The main culprit is the City Council digging up the roads every 5 minutes. The small 2nd road route into town is a major bottle neck especially when it is constantly being dug up. Building thousands of new condos with no extra roads doesn't help either. The two new Grand Sole developments alone are nearly 4000 units.

[mikebell]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

law enforcement to enforce rigorous regulations.

When seat belts were first introduced in UK, they weren't universally applauded.  Police action eventually won people over.  IF Pattaya formed a police force that made motor cyclists wear helmets; stopped red-light runners; eradicated drunk driving, then the daily Road Kill (estimated at 48 per day across Thailand) would come down enormously.  Even a minor shunt can bring the whole of central Pattaya to a standstill.

[john donson]

make a electric TRAM track with many stops, no cars allowed or possible

[jcmj]

Pratumnak hill has become a nightmare as well during the weekend or holidays. One lane into Cosy Beach area and One Lane out. With all of the new restaurants and the Fishing Village coming soon it’s only going to bottle next even more. The city doesn’t look into the infrastructure before allowing all of these places. What happens if there’s a big fire or an accident. They need an alternative way out. Plus with no light and loads of busses it just all comes to a halt. They need to put their forces on the streets at least, to try to direct the traffic better. 

[J Branche]

Pattaya 2nd Road between Pattaya 3rd road and South Pattaya Road is always a mess.    One lane each direction, then taxi's stopping making one lane traffic. Delivery trucks, pedestrians in the road, etc.  But what can they do.  Parking both sides is needed.  There's no delivery spots for drivers,  Indian people will always walk in road.

 

Other streets get jammed during rush hour, holidays, etc because the city was Never Designed to move the high volume of cars and motorbikes around the streets at Peak Times.

 

If anyone has a reasonable, constructive, affordable idea I would like to hear it.

[newnative]

     I'm not seeing much 'battle' in the very weak response from the city.  This is the best they can come up with?  Pathetic.  Really just same-o same-o.  More traffic enforcement--as if that will work.  And, as always, no concrete, specific proposals.  Just glittering generalities.  This agency will work with that agency, blah, blah, blah.

    One of the big bottlenecks is in front of Central Festival--both sides.  On the beach side there's a large police station right next to the mall.  Usually just one or two cops out helping beachgoers crossing the street by the crosswalk--while completely ignoring the bad  traffic bottleneck by the mall right next to them.  One immediate help would be to eliminate parking on both sides for stretches at both mall entrances to help thru traffic get by both congested areas--and enforce the no-parking with stiff fines and police presence when the mall is open.

     Going to 'battle' would involve eliminating parking on major roads, opening up an extra lane immediately to allow more cars to get through the extremely long traffic cycles at busy intersections.  

    Going to battle would involve hiring an entirely new traffic ticketing crew to ticket illegal parking with stiff fines--with a percentage of the fines collected going directly to the enforcement staff.   

   Going to battle would involve getting road construction projects done much more quickly, with much more direct supervision and coordination of the work by the city.  How many stories have we read of the deputy mayor or mayor dragging himself out to 'inspect' why a project is 6 months or a year behind schedule?  Some hand-wringing, a few meaningless promises, and, that's that.  

    Going to battle would involve getting massive new projects started to construct either underpasses or overpasses for the major Sukhumvit intersections--as has been done to the south and to the north by Sri Racha.  Only one of the 3 proposed underpasses was ever constructed.  Why?  The city didn't 'battle' for them.

    Going to battle would involve looking at major traffic intersections with an eye to improvement.  For example, the right turn from North Pattaya Road on to Sukhumvit could be re-striped to allow 3 lanes to turn right, rather than just two--cars are already doing that now, taking things into their own hands.  

    Speaking of that intersection, perhaps someone could inform the city that the traffic light on the North Pattaya/Sukhumvit intersection is messed up.  When the North Pattaya light is red, it gives a green left turn arrow--which is wrongly sending the cars turning left directly into the Sukhumvit traffic going north.  There should only be a green arrow if that traffic is stopped.  When the light is green for North Pattaya road drivers to turn right, the left turn arrow turns red, when, of course, it should be green since the north-bound Sukhumvit traffic is stopped.  

    It's been a couple of days since I have been thru the intersection and, perhaps, it has been fixed by now but the fact it has been this way for months and no Pattaya officials have noticed--even though City Hall is on that road--is an indication of how lightly interested they are in traffic safety and improvements.  

[Darksidedude]

4 hours ago, henryford1958 said:

The main culprit is the City Council digging up the roads every 5 minutes. The small 2nd road route into town is a major bottle neck especially when it is constantly being dug up. Building thousands of new condos with no extra roads doesn't help either. The two new Grand Sole developments alone are nearly 4000 units.

yep being going on as long as i remember place is horrible traffic wise

[SAFETY FIRST]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Pattaya's Traffic Mayhem 

I regularly see a traffic issues in Pattaya. Those mobility scooters are the ones to blame, always holding me up. 

 

 

[Guderian]

The tour buses, minibuses and Baht buses don't help, but the problem is simply the sheer volume of traffic, especially at weekends and on holidays, which the roads simply were never meant to handle. Of course, the dummkopfs in City Hall don't help, look at the huge mess they've created on Thepprasit which was once easily the fastest way to get to the beach from Sukhumvit. Long-term, though, I guess they'll watch what happens with the congestion charging scheme soon to be started in Bangkok and, if that's a success, we can probably expect to see something similar here.

[gary tupper]

Traffic police that actually do something might help 

Baht buses major problem on soi bukeow rd 2nd&3rd  beach rd, Pattaya klang

Double parked vehicles ends up single lane traffic 

That's a start .

 

 

[CanadaSam]

The simplest and fastest solution would be to send all the cops out with a mandate to fine every offender 500 baht, on the spot, no receipt required!

 

I mean every offender including baht buses that don't pull to the left and block traffic, motorcyclists who don't wear helmets, people who run lights and break every other rule.

 

They would return to the PS at the end of the shift with about a quarter million in cash each day (assuming 500 fines per shift), making EVERYBODY happy including us, due to permanent resolution of all these traffic problems in about a week, I would guess!

[Mason45]

It's no better in Naklua Road, the major hotels have no parking areas for tour buses. The tour buses are parked opposite double yellow lines on one side and red and white painted kerb sides on their other side. Many times the tour buses are parked on the wrong side of the road forcing the passengers to leave the buses and re enter from the middle of the road. So that forces the tourists to stand in large groups plus the mandatory street vendors totally blocking the footpath. It will only get worse as there appears to be 2 new hotels about to be built next to the new hotel Akara, Around 6.30 am when I leave for my morning walk Naklua Road is very quiet, by 8.00 am it's total bedlam. Of course the main culprits are morons on motor bikes. When a person attempts to cross Naklua Road, their definitely risking their lives. Pedestrian lights at the new Best Super Market would probably help. That can also have it's pit falls as how many times do the cars stop for   the red light only to have motor bikes speed down the left side of the stationary vehicles. Which is a blind spot for pedestrians. I've seen 4-5 accidents that would not have happened if the no parking signs had've been adhered to.

[black tabby12345]

Why they don't deploy more traffic cops to their road?

 

It will be a golden opportunity for them to earn extra money to their pocket while cracking down on the reckless drivers/riders.

 

As well as on those not wearing seat belts/helmets while driving/riding.

[redwood1]

16 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

I regularly see a traffic issues in Pattaya. Those mobility scooters are the ones to blame, always holding me up. 

 

 

 

Solution.......Would you like everyone to just run over the mobility scooters?

[redwood1]

Get real people........Baht Buses DO NOT hold up traffic EVER....They only stop for mere moments before moving again.....

 

 

[redwood1]

This must be the  4th or 5th time they have tried the baht bus stops......100% failure 100%  of the time........So lets do it again.....lol 

[SAFETY FIRST]

1 hour ago, redwood1 said:

 

Solution.......Would you like everyone to just run over the mobility scooters?

No, that's a silly suggestion., just get a roadworthy vehicle, keep up with the traffic. 

 

I see these mobility scooters on Soi Buakhou from time to time, just what that soi needs, another vehicle travelling at a crawl. 

 

 

[henryford1958]

3 hours ago, redwood1 said:

Get real people........Baht Buses DO NOT hold up traffic EVER....They only stop for mere moments before moving again.....

 

 

 

Yes i agree and without the baht buses there would be hundreds more cars/bikes on the road. Good points made by newnative. But parking restrictions are no good if they are not enforced. Cars park all over the place, on red lines, on pedestrian crossings, at the corner of sois, on pavements, double parked blocking whole lanes etc and NOTHING is done about it.

[bkk6060]

On 11/22/2024 at 3:58 PM, redwood1 said:

Get real people........Baht Buses DO NOT hold up traffic EVER....They only stop for mere moments before moving again.....

 

 

Wrong from my experience they drive slowly all over the roadway honking at people walking to solicit rides. Then suddenly stop to let people get on.  Many times fat and slow can barely pull up themselves into the back.  Then, the delays of people getting out and paying often times with incorrect coin needing change.  They are a major hazard especially on Soi Buakhao suddenly stopping in the middle of the road backing up traffic.  In my opinion under the current usage they showed be banned.

[jacko45k]

On 11/23/2024 at 3:58 AM, redwood1 said:

Get real people........Baht Buses DO NOT hold up traffic EVER....They only stop for mere moments before moving again.....

 

 

Are you being ironic? I ask as your comment itself could not be more wrong..... you did say the baht buses stop (usually in the middle of the road and wherever they want to), so of course they hold up traffic. As do delivery trucks for the 7-11, people parking while they go get some noodles...samlors looking for a place to set up. It is what we expect on Buakhao and is Thailand!

Might be time the congestion issue was addressed, in the meantime, planning permission for a another mega condo project can be dealt with. 

[lordgrinz]

RTP enforcement, it's the only solution, start ticketing and towing. The benefit is millions in revenue for the RTP, you would think they would be fully onboard with this idea.

[morrobay]

Awhile back when foreign tourism declined city hall decided to promote domestic tourism: All these happy sh*t events along the beach, beach side parking. So now there are way too many Thais and their vehicles driving around in circles all day. Bang Saen Beach up the coast would have been best place for domestic tourism.  City hall might be learning you can't have it both ways,/ be careful what you ask for- you might get it

[bbi1]

Traffic is getting so much worse this year compared to last year or the year before. What the hell is causing this? Are there so many more tourists coming to Pattaya to seek some punani fun than in the past?

[jacko45k]

16 hours ago, bbi1 said:

Traffic is getting so much worse this year compared to last year or the year before. What the hell is causing this? Are there so many more tourists coming to Pattaya to seek some punani fun than in the past?

We are getting close to pre-Covid (2019) numbers for the first time since it all ended. Flight bookings tell us more to come! Some guys have been waiting since then!

[LennyW]

Dont know why they need a meeting, just order traffic police to do their job - properly!

[CallumWK]

4 hours ago, jacko45k said:

20 hours ago, bbi1 said:

Traffic is getting so much worse this year compared to last year or the year before. What the hell is causing this? Are there so many more tourists coming to Pattaya to seek some punani fun than in the past?

We are getting close to pre-Covid (2019) numbers for the first time since it all ended. Flight bookings tell us more to come! Some guys have been waiting since then!

 

I very much doubt that many international tourists drive a car

[LennyW]

It will be absolute chaos again this weekend, Fireworks festival, massive influx driving from Bangkok!!