Bangkok Cycle Lanes

[1Lucky]

I was somewhat puzzled the other week when I saw white lines being painted along the pavements of Sukhumvit road (during the middle of the busy day with people stepping in the unprotected wet paint and littering the pavements with white foot/paw prints). I thought the most obvious explanation must be that it was to stop stallholders encroaching too far into the middle of the pavement to ensure that people can actually walk on them between the stalls, trees, phone cabins, bins, motosai stands, etc.

A few days later I was surprised to find some new marks being stenciled in between the new lines - particularly when I saw that it was a picture of a bicycle - surely no-one was suggesting that this could in some way be a cycle lane? Whilst the only two-wheeled transport I have seen making its way between the aforementioned lines of late has been the odd errant motorsai - from recent articles in the papers it appears that it is indeed meant to be a cycle way.

I'm sure much clever people than I must have been on the panel to agree this approach, with town planning, transport administration degrees, etc. And so to those more intelligence and experienced than I, I just wanted to ask a question. Where are the pedestrians mean to go if stalls, trees, etc crowd the sides of the pavements and cycles tear up and down the middle?

A subsidiary question would be have they found anyone mad enough to try using this great new facility?

The stretch I'm thinking of is near Phom Phrong BTS station - though the coverage is bit patchy - it seems to start and stop when intersections, driveways, access-roads, and shop-fronts get in the way.

Cracking idea.

[onethailand]

I have no idea what they are up to - and you gotta laugh, particularly as the area from Phrompong all the way down past Ekamai station was dug up for a HUGE pipe to be put in, presumably for water drainage - and the sidewalk is not the least bit level any more.

While I kind of like the idea of a bicycle path, methinks someone didn't put their thinking cap on.

[keithk2007]

Does anyone expect thai people to abide by these bike lanes? Firstly there is not enough room for them on the footpath and then thai people will ignore the bike lane lines and walk on them. If anything they will encourage more motorbike taxis to use the footpath more than they already do which is always annoying.

[Bonio]

It's not very often I walk in Bangkok but I noticed these run at least down to Soi3 on Sukhumvit. Absolutely pointless exercise in traffic engineering!

When I was walking from Asoke to Emporium on a very quiet morning the pavement was chock full of food stalls. There were also several permanent structures that were either directly on the cycle path (badly fitting manhole covers) or too close for safe clearance (fire hydrants, lampposts etc).

If they had just left the two parallel lines then we could applaud them for trying to define a pedestrian walking route (putting a positive spin on the situation). When I saw the little cycle stencilled on the pavement I must admit it made me laugh somewhat.

The only thing I can think of is that someone in the Bkk Public Works Dept. has seen them in Europe and progressive Asian cities and decided that Bkk should have them as a sign to the world that it too is a progressive, forward-thinking modern city.

TBH it's just another example of the "silk purse-no knickers" approach that is symptomatic of so much of Thai society.

[PadThaiGuy]

Pretty bizzare. Next, you're gonna tell me they are microchipping all the dogs....

What they need to do is get rid of a couple car lanes, extend the sidewalks, charge fees to single car drivers and provide a new fleet of electric busses with professional drivers.

Add more green space.

This would make it much more pleasant for pedestrians and bikers.

Bogota Colombia did it.

12 minute version here:

http://homepage.mac.com/trorb/TOPP/iMovieTheater144.html

[ignis]

Watched a programme on TV the other week about the new approach in Sweden…

They have taken away all the pavements, and all the road marking and traffic signals, now everyone uses the same space = far fewer accidents..

The sceptics all said is was asking for trouble and many more accidents, which has not happened.