Bangkok Traffic Innovations Cut City Congestion by 25% in Two Years

[snoop1130]

File photo courtesy: wikipedia

 

In a bid to tackle congestion, Bangkok's traffic has seen a noticeable improvement, with travel times reduced by 25% in some of the city's busiest areas.

 

This follows the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's implementation of Area Traffic Control (ATC) technology and other innovations.

 

Since May 2023, the ATC system, which fine-tunes traffic light timings, has boosted vehicle flow during peak hours by 10% and an impressive 30% outside of rush hours, according to BMA spokesperson Aekvarunyoo Amrapala.

 

 

Further technological enhancements include the installation of AI-equipped CCTV cameras to catch traffic offenders, alongside road improvements aimed at enhancing driver comfort. These initiatives have been implemented across 50 strategic locations in the city.

 

Looking ahead, these measures will expand to include over 70 more congested areas throughout the year, promising further improvement.

 

Additionally, the BMA actively encourages residents to use non-motorised and public transport options, promoting sustainable travel solutions and easing road traffic pressures.

 

-- 2025-01-09

 

 

[soi3eddie]

If true, that's quite impressive. I rarely go long distance by car in the city. Normally opt for BTS/MRT or ride my motorcycle. Could the opening of all the new rail lines have something to do with this? What about the economy in the city too? I see a huge number of businesses shuttered and not opening in areas outside the city core (namely Ladprao and environs).

 

[Kiwiken]

Having just travelled from Bk to Khon kaen I am impressed by the speed of the upgrade of Rail lines and stations. Had not been since before Covid so the changes dramatic. Once they invest in better Locomotives and rolling stock the transformation will be amazing

[KCPhuket]

Haha...nothing to see here. Traffic is light.

[hotchilli]

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:18 AM, snoop1130 said:

In a bid to tackle congestion, Bangkok's traffic has seen a noticeable improvement, with travel times reduced by 25% in some of the city's busiest areas.

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laughable if they believe that.... nothing has changed.

[newbee2022]

25% in 2 years means 100% in 8 years. Bravo

[Classic Ray]

Try going from Sukhumvit to Saphan Thaksin by taxi, took my family two hours the other day, we came back by BTS in twenty minutes but a handful with two infants in pushchairs.

[TTSIssues]

That’s a great statistic. Probably used figures from roads that had previously had roadworks on them. When the roadworks are gone, traffic flow speeds up.

 

But on a more serious note, it did always look like a lot of the traffic was created by manual switching of traffic lights by individual police boxes with no automatically coordination with the next set of lights down the road, so any technology to improve this is welcome.

 

London fiddled the statistics with the introduction of the congestion charge by the way. They increased the amount of time given to pedestrians to cross every junction, therefore keeping traffic at red lights for longer, for more than a year before the charge was introduced, which created almost gridlock.

 

”Look at the terrible traffic”

 

then introduce the charge, reset the lights and as if  by magic, traffic improves

 

”Look at the improved traffic flow because of the congestion charge”

 

I don’t trust any of them. 

[SiSePuede419]

Nice. 👍

[mfd101]

At least some evidence for the Thai powers-that-be that it's action rather than announcements that changes the world for the better ...

[Woke to Sounds]

  On 1/9/2025 at 11:55 PM, TTSIssues said:

”Look at the improved traffic flow because of the congestion charge”

Expand  

London is under the auspices of the elitists and the radical left.

 

Endgame: Tax you out of your private automobile.

 

You will own nothin and be chipper my friend.

[lordgrinz]

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:18 AM, snoop1130 said:

Further technological enhancements include the installation of AI-equipped CCTV cameras to catch traffic offenders, alongside road improvements aimed at enhancing driver comfort. These initiatives have been implemented across 50 strategic locations in the city.

Expand  

 

Yes, more CCTV cameras and fines, the Cameras are doing a better job than the RTP in protecting a serving the people.

[Highball]

Only idiots buy depreciating assets to sit in traffic when a reasonable rail structure now exists in BKK.

 

Middle class Thai like the privacy, comfort of driving their vehicles directly into city. Especially if you have an overpriced snob mobile. In the west there are parking lots at metro stations for the burbans to park and ride. Some here too and some even within city limits. Ooooh that's to plebian for the new car snobs.

 

Get the heavily polluting vehicles off the road.

 

Non motorized options. I guess this is newspeak for walking. I walk a lot here. Perhaps 5-10k steps daily.

 

Decrease of 10% lol. This is immeasurable and based on what?? So, you drive cross town and it usually takes 90 minutes - now it allegedly takes 81 minutes.. maybe, sometimes 🤯

 

Thailand is just not a serious place. It can't accomplish much of anything aside from over budget transport projects.

 

How hard can it be to get farmers to stop burning crops? How hard can it be to get old vehicles off the road?

 

Traffic efficiency is great, but BKK has lived with it for 40 years. Timing lights is old technology, old think.

 

Meanwhile.. what's the PM today?

 

Congestion pricing just money grab. It's like we don't want the congestion, but if you pay the extortion.. it's ok.

[kingstonkid]

  On 1/10/2025 at 1:07 AM, Woke to Sounds of Horking said:

London is under the auspices of the elitists and the radical left.

 

Endgame: Tax you out of your private automobile.

 

You will own nothin and be chipper my friend.

Expand  

Ontario came up with a better traffic control system although now it's back to where it was.  I durance companies almost doubled car Insurance if you drive into Toronto and parking was way over expensive.

 

Looking at NYC which just did the congestion tax I am not sure it will work. Sending a bill that can be ignored doesn't make sense.  

[AustinRacing]

How about fixing traffic lights that have been flashing  yellow or red for years. 

[10baht]

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:18 AM, snoop1130 said:

road improvements aimed at enhancing driver comfort.

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WHAT??? Free foot massages while waiting on 15 minute lights to turn green?

[spidermike007]

How about creating some Innovation on Rama 2, the infamous highway which is over a decade behind schedule, and probably has 20 years to go. The progress seems unbelievably slow, considering the fact that they're only at kilometer 36.

 

I would replace the construction company with a Chinese company, who would probably complete the highway in 2 years. 

[black tabby12345]

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:52 PM, newbee2022 said:

25% in 2 years means 100% in 8 years. Bravo

Expand  

 

Another Fantasy from Thai bureaucrats.

The planer might have been in the state of Drug High 

when he prepared the press release draft.

[black tabby12345]

  On 1/9/2025 at 10:09 PM, hotchilli said:

laughable if they believe that.... nothing has changed.

Expand  

 

Another case of Talking, But Not Happening...

[Reddavy]

  On 1/10/2025 at 1:55 AM, Highball said:

Only idiots buy depreciating assets to sit in traffic when a reasonable rail structure now exists in BKK.

 

Middle class Thai like the privacy, comfort of driving their vehicles directly into city. Especially if you have an overpriced snob mobile. In the west there are parking lots at metro stations for the burbans to park and ride. Some here too and some even within city limits. Ooooh that's to plebian for the new car snobs.

 

Get the heavily polluting vehicles off the road.

 

Non motorized options. I guess this is newspeak for walking. I walk a lot here. Perhaps 5-10k steps daily.

 

Decrease of 10% lol. This is immeasurable and based on what?? So, you drive cross town and it usually takes 90 minutes - now it allegedly takes 81 minutes.. maybe, sometimes 🤯

 

Thailand is just not a serious place. It can't accomplish much of anything aside from over budget transport projects.

 

How hard can it be to get farmers to stop burning crops? How hard can it be to get old vehicles off the road?

 

Traffic efficiency is great, but BKK has lived with it for 40 years. Timing lights is old technology, old think.

 

Meanwhile.. what's the PM today?

 

Congestion pricing just money grab. It's like we don't want the congestion, but if you pay the extortion.. it's ok.

Expand  

You must have university education to come with BS. Complete 💩

[hotchilli]

  On 1/10/2025 at 4:25 AM, black tabby12345 said:

 

Another case of Talking, But Not Happening...

Expand  

It's the only thing that does happen

[newnative]

    I haven't seen any improvement in the area where we have our condo near the Phetchaburi MRT station.  If anything, the traffic is worse with all the new condos that have recently been built, and are still being built in the area, including the huge twin towers of One 9 Five condo, among others.  

[richard_smith237]

Optimising the flow of existing Traffic is of course going to offer results improving congestion. 

As would 'shifting' the culture so that people don't enter a blocked box junction when the light is yellow - there is no concept of the greater good - Bangkok traffic really is 'dog eat dog'... 

 

But, the underlying issue is simply the pure volume of traffic on the roads. 

 

More and more Condo's, more and more shopping malls - more and more area's of huge population density and so many people getting to and from these area's in cars. 

 

The Mayor of Bogata; Gustavo Petro, is famed for his quote:  'A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation.'

 

When public transport in Thailand is 'good enough' to encourage the wealthy and middle classes to use it, only then will we see significant improvements.

 

The BTS / MRT network is excellent, however, it is still unusable for most of the city:  We use our car 99% of the time, because we don't live within walking distance of a station. 

In many cases, using a car is still quicker than getting a taxi to the BTS, taking the BTS, then using a taxi on the other side (and waiting at each juncture)....   

But, at times of peak traffic, if needing to get somewhere thats on a BTS / MRT line we often drive 'out a little' and park up at Lotus OnNut and then take the BTS.

 

The other factor is the heat - its hot and sweating walking 100 or 200m to a BTS station - thats a lot more uncomfortable than sitting in Air-conditioning, with cooled leather seats.

 

Thus: I think the only way to truly reduce congestion is to 'price people out' of using their cars - this is the only way it worked in London - Congestion charges... 

 

 

 

[brfsa2]

  On 1/10/2025 at 1:55 AM, Highball said:

Only idiots buy depreciating assets to sit in traffic when a reasonable rail structure now exists in BKK.

 

Middle class Thai like the privacy, comfort of driving their vehicles directly into city. Especially if you have an overpriced snob mobile. In the west there are parking lots at metro stations for the burbans to park and ride. Some here too and some even within city limits. Ooooh that's to plebian for the new car snobs.

 

Get the heavily polluting vehicles off the road.

 

Non motorized options. I guess this is newspeak for walking. I walk a lot here. Perhaps 5-10k steps daily.

 

Decrease of 10% lol. This is immeasurable and based on what?? So, you drive cross town and it usually takes 90 minutes - now it allegedly takes 81 minutes.. maybe, sometimes 🤯

 

Thailand is just not a serious place. It can't accomplish much of anything aside from over budget transport projects.

 

How hard can it be to get farmers to stop burning crops? How hard can it be to get old vehicles off the road?

 

Traffic efficiency is great, but BKK has lived with it for 40 years. Timing lights is old technology, old think.

 

Meanwhile.. what's the PM today?

 

Congestion pricing just money grab. It's like we don't want the congestion, but if you pay the extortion.. it's ok.

Expand  

 

The public transportation is ok for the crucial parts of the city, but it's far from ideal, because it's only near the major roads.

I I need to go to our office in Sukhumvit, it is 3 lines, going over about 40 stations, taking 1.5 hours (plus 15 min drive to the station

If by car, 1 hour exactly total drive. I still take public since I know it doesnt have unknowns and no risk of heavily getting stuck.

 

in this city many still need to take their cars out somehow to somewhere, either a parking station or to work directly.

 

 

[DualSportBiker]

Back in 1994 there was a French consortium that proposed a trial of automated lights right downtown. I can't remember which area it covered, but it was large. Let's say Asoke to Rama 6 and Rama 4 to New Petchaburi. They got approval to install and show that automated lights that coordinated with each other offered a path to improvement. 

 

The system was installed and operated for a few months. Not only did the Police manually override its control of the lights, they said that gecko poop was shorting out the system and it was a fire hazard and unreliable. End of project!

 

It might happen, it might help, but unless the footprint is big enough it will not be as effective because the areas outside of its control will back up cars into it.

 

Hope springs eternal!

[TTSIssues]

  On 1/10/2025 at 1:07 AM, Woke to Sounds of Horking said:

London is under the auspices of the elitists and the radical left.

 

Endgame: Tax you out of your private automobile.

 

You will own nothin and be chipper my friend.

Expand  

absolutely agree. We have left the uk already ! 

[Highball]

  On 1/10/2025 at 10:14 AM, brfsa2 said:

 

The public transportation is ok for the crucial parts of the city, but it's far from ideal, because it's only near the major roads.

I I need to go to our office in Sukhumvit, it is 3 lines, going over about 40 stations, taking 1.5 hours (plus 15 min drive to the station

If by car, 1 hour exactly total drive. I still take public since I know it doesnt have unknowns and no risk of heavily getting stuck.

 

in this city many still need to take their cars out somehow to somewhere, either a parking station or to work directly.

 

 

Expand  

 

This is everyone's excuse.

 

Move closer.

 

Move your office

 

I live on the blue line. I held a series of fairly decent jobs at five different locations over 10 yrs. I took the BTS and the MRT to all of them. The walk to work varied between 600 m and 2 km - on top of the 600 m from my condo to the MRT station. I very often walked that 2K both there and back just for the good exercise of it all and even in the heat.

 

Well, I love the outdoors. I don't even consider myself an environmentalist more do the right thing kind of guy

 

TBH I'm not so much concerned with the spanking brand new commuter vehicles. It's all the crap vehicles including the public buses that spew never ending blackness into the atmosphere. I seen it for better part of 35 years and it's not any better. Back in those days I really didn't spend a whole lot of time in Bangkok I'm sure I probably have a hole in my lung by now.

[brfsa2]

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:44 PM, Highball said:

 

This is everyone's excuse.

 

Move closer.

 

Move your office

 

TBH I'm not so much concerned with the spanking brand new commuter vehicles. It's all the crap vehicles including the public buses that spew never ending blackness into the atmosphere. I seen it for better part of 35 years and it's not any better. Back in those days I really didn't spend a whole lot of time in Bangkok I'm sure I probably have a hole in my lung by now.

Expand  

I'm doing the exact opposite dude 😄 moving out of Bangkok to a nice house sitting in a 4-Rai plot with a natural flowing river at the back and surrounded by mountains. 

I work fully remote 😉 

[richard_smith237]

  On 1/10/2025 at 12:24 PM, TTSIssues said:

  On 1/10/2025 at 1:07 AM, Woke to Sounds of Horking said:

London is under the auspices of the elitists and the radical left.

 

Endgame: Tax you out of your private automobile.

 

You will own nothin and be chipper my friend.

Expand  

absolutely agree. We have left the uk already ! 

Expand  

 

I think the 'underlying' point is - if you can't get anywhere in your automobile because of gridlock, then there has to be some sort of filter - usually, this is a price point (as unfair as it may seem).

 

With huge numbers of condo's in Bangkok, the masses of office buildings, and vast array of shopping malls the population density in Bangkok is as huge as other major cities, but there are other key factors - amount of roads and amount of cars. 

 

Comparing the surface area that is road between Bangkok and other major cities and we see the issue.

 

London: 13-15% 

New York City: 28-30% 

Tokyo: 15-20% 

Bangkok: 7-10% 

 

Then look at Population density of each City vs Car usage:

 

London: Population Density: ~5,700 people/km²  / Car Usage: ~36% 

New York City: Population Density: ~10,700 people/km²  / Car Usage: ~22%

Tokyo: Population Density: ~6,300 people/km²  / Car Usage: ~12% 

Population Density: ~6,100 people/km² / Car Usage: ~45-50%

 

The population density in Bangkok is not significantly higher than a couple of other major cities.

However the car usage is a lot higher, and the road area is significantly less.

 

In its most simple metric - there are too many cars, for the amount of people and amount of roads.

 

More automated AI assisted traffic models may make a dent - but I don't think a vast improvement can be made... 

 

The only way to reduce congestion is simply is to reduce the amount of cars and the only way to do that is to 'force' people onto public transport through a) making public transport more convenience and b) pricing people out of car use.