Should Motorbikes be allowed to drive on the sidewalk?

[BarBoy]

After nearly being killed by a motorbike as I was walking home from dinner last night on the sidewalk, I decided to make a post about it here. To my amazement many people seem to have shown support for motorbikes driving fast down sidewalks in Thailand, you know, where children and the elderly usually walk..

 

I honestly can't believe that people can be so ignorant, so let's take it to a poll and settle it once and for all...

 

Should Motorbikes be allowed to drive on the sidewalk?

 

Feel free to vote.

[mdr224]

If i were still there id just be grateful for the girls attention and not want to change anything about it. For at least 3 months, then go back home

[Gsxrnz]

That's why tourists from the Asian sub-continent prefer to walk (three abreast and holding hands) on the road - it's safer. 

[jvs]

Do they use the word sidewalk in Devon?

Interesting.

[BarBoy]

3 minutes ago, jvs said:

Do they use the word sidewalk in Devon?

Devon?

 

I'm from Dorset you clown!

 

Pavement then. It's the same thing so stop being facetious.

[Will B Good]

7 minutes ago, Gsxrnz said:

That's why tourists from the Asian sub-continent prefer to walk (three abreast and holding hands) on the road - it's safer. 

 

That drives me mad......even when I'm not actually driving......I'm thinking run the ******s over......which is wrong I know.

[Will B Good]

8 minutes ago, jvs said:

Do they use the word sidewalk in Devon?

Interesting.

 

Bob's from Dorset.....Colin's from Devon.

[bkk6060]

They are terrible and dangerous should be arrested.

[BarBoy]

Just now, bkk6060 said:

They are terrible and dangerous should be arrested.

did you vote buddy?

[1FinickyOne]

Where would people go bowling?

[BarBoy]

For those who are voting yes they should, could you give your reasons as to why?

 

Don't they already have a road to drive on?

[2long]

40 minutes ago, BarBoy said:

 many people seem to have shown support for motorbikes driving fast down sidewalks in

#1 your poll doesn't mention  or specify 'driving fast', to which I feel most people would vote no

#2 I would be surprised if MANY people have shown SUPPORT for motorbikes driving FAST down sidewalks

 

When I'm walking, I get out of their way.

When I'm riding on the pavement (very occasionally) I do so slowly, for as short a distance as possible, and always giving way and showing respect to pedestrians.

[BarBoy]

1 minute ago, 2long said:

#1 your poll doesn't mention  or specify 'driving fast', to which I feel most people would vote no

#2 I would be surprised if MANY people have shown SUPPORT for motorbikes driving FAST down sidewalks

 

When I'm walking, I get out of their way.

When I'm riding on the pavement (very occasionally) I do so slowly, for as short a distance as possible, and always giving way and showing respect to pedestrians.

read my original thread on this topic from last night.

 

the ignorant pig was driving very fast, to which most people have come out in support.

[Will B Good]

4 minutes ago, BarBoy said:

For those who are voting yes they should, could you give your reasons as to why?

 

Don't they already have a road to drive on?

 

But the strength of these polls is their anonymity ...... if voters then give their reasons, that it is up to them.

[BarBoy]

Just now, Will B Good said:

 

But the strength of these polls is their anonymity ...... if they then give their reasons, that it is up to them.

Yes.

 

Agreed.

 

 

[scubascuba3]

I like Ratanakorn market where you can go up and down on a motorbike.

 

I almost hit a young boy monk today, he started crossing the road without looking, beware

[Will B Good]

5 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I like Ratanakorn market where you can go up and down on a motorbike.

 

I almost hit a young boy monk today, he started crossing the road without looking, beware

 

Got amulets.....doesn't need to look.....like almost every single idiot on a motorbike where I live.

 

Turning left onto the main road, not one of them ever looks.

[BarBoy]

1 minute ago, Will B Good said:

Turning left onto the main road, not one of them ever looks.

I see this everyday.

 

No looking when turning onto a busy main road.

 

Beggars belief. 

[seajae]

they do not belong on the foot path and I am sure a few years ago they stopped it or tried. I have been hit by an idiot racing through people that were walking, they should be on the road where they belong but many thais do what is easiest for them and do not give a stuff about anyone else, its the same on the roads, they just ignore the law when it suits them. I do know that the next time some idiot on a motor bike comes close to me on a foot path they will be "accidentily" knocked off their bike when I stretch my arms cause I didnt see them & that I am aware the law says that thewy shouldnt be there

[BarBoy]

Just now, seajae said:

they do not belong on the foot path and I am sure a few years ago they stopped it or tried. I have been hit by an idiot racing through people that were walking, they should be on the road where they belong but many thais do what is easiest for them and do not give a stuff about anyone else, its the same on the roads, they just ignore the law when it suits them. I do know that the next time some idiot on a motor bike comes close to me on a foot path they will be "accidentily" knocked off their bike when I stretch my arms cause I didnt see them & that I am aware the law says that thewy shouldnt be there

Finally a common sense reply!

 

And I am in full agreement with everything that you have said above.

[Will B Good]

1 minute ago, BarBoy said:

I see this everyday.

 

No looking when turning onto a busy main road.

 

Beggars belief. 

 

They seem to think it is the responsibility of the driver of the car already on the main road to avoid them.....weird!!!!

[jvs]

30 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

Bob's from Dorset.....Colin's from Devon.

I just can't keep up with them guys.

Let me rephrase that,is the word sidewalk commonly used in the UK?

 

[BarBoy]

1 minute ago, jvs said:

I just can't keep up with them guys.

Let me rephrase that,is the word sidewalk commonly used in the UK?

 

No, it isn't.

 

But we aren't in the UK, are we?

[Will B Good]

3 minutes ago, jvs said:

I just can't keep up with them guys.

Let me rephrase that,is the word sidewalk commonly used in the UK?

 

 

555.....never....likely to get a smack in the mouth saying that in a bar...(joking).

 

Pavement is the accepted term...555

[novacova]

1 hour ago, BarBoy said:

Should Motorbikes be allowed to drive on the sidewalk?

Depends on where.

[blaze master]

 

Thai allow it to continue showing a lack of common sense. Also indicates huge selfishness in those willing to act in such a way.

[quake]

41 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

They are terrible and dangerous should be arrested.

 

The police are hardly going to arrest themselves,  are they. 

[connda]

In BKK it is against the law - however, like everything else involving the laws and the BIB, the key is:
Enforcement! 
Or the lack thereof. You can put laws on the books until the cows come home, but without enforcement they are meaningless.
After enforcement comes...
Sanctions
In the US for example, in most states if you are caught driving down the road the wrong way you are promptly arrested and jailed.  Driving the wrong way down one-way streets and highways leads to traffic deaths and the sanctions imposed by US authorities are harsh for this infraction as well as a host of others which can lead to injury and death. Here in Thailand, if caught driving the wrong way on a one-way street is a fine similar to driving without a helmet - ฿500 and if you don't pay it, well, no worry.  You can still get your tax-stamp.  Well if you want to.  If you drive without a helmet, or a tax stamp, or a license shame on you - place what you have in a "brown envelop" and be on your way.  And oh, by the way, in order to get caught driving the wrong way you'd need to be caught at a road-block, and considering all the cops have their backs turned to you, you can just turn around and be on your way.

So driving on the sidewalks already is illegal in many cities in Thailand, but hey, who cares...right? 

In the meanwhile in Chiang Mai, business owners park their cars on the side walk in front of their businesses to keep from getting a parking ticket. 
"See - I'm not parked on the street which is illegal, I'm parked on the sidewalk where the cops don't care."

<take a video of farang tourist almost getting hit by cars as they are forced to walk down a busy main road due to cars parked on the sidewalk>

[BarBoy]

7 minutes ago, blaze master said:

 

Thai allow it to continue showing a lack of common sense. Also indicates huge selfishness in those willing to act in such a way.

Well said buddy.

[BarBoy]

9 minutes ago, novacova said:

Depends on where.

How about the bleedin road!!

 

That's what it's there for.

 

The pavement/sidewalk/footpath should be for walking only.

 

Imagine seeing someone in the UK driving down a pavement at full speed, or in Australia, or Switzerland...

Could you imagine it? There would be uproar and rightly so!!