More Buses Best Solution To Phuket's Transport Woes

[LivinginKata]

Friday, July 17, 2009

Readers' Poll: More buses best solution to Phuket's transport woes

One of the 10-baht "green buses" operated by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization. Gazette file photo.

PHUKET CITY: Gazette readers think an expanded public bus network is the single best solution to Phuket's transport woes, last month's readers' poll has determined.

Over 400 readers cast votes in the poll, which is now closed.

We asked readers to tell us what they thought was the single best solution to Phuket's transport problems.

The most popular solution, with 22.3% of the vote, was an expanded public bus network.

This option was the favorite among Thai nationals, expats and tourists alike.

The second-most popular option was to have more metered taxis (18.0%), followed by an elevated mass transit system (15.8%), a railway network (15.5%), more songtaews (14.4%) and an orbital hovercraft service (14.0%).

The current poll, launched today, seeks to gauge the effect on Phuket residents of the stepped-up security measures for the Asean Ministers Meeting, now in progress.

Some motorists say that traffic tailbacks have been daunting; others, particularly those who live in or near the venue of the meetings, report little-to-no effect on the island's roads. Click here to record your experience to date.

-- Phuket Gazette 2009-07-17

[Valentine]

It is long overdue for Phuket to have a centrally coordinated public transport system as there are far too many modes of public transport all seemingly operating under their own laws. The suggestion for an extra 300 plus tuks tuks is horrifyng. The tuks tuks would be better served to come up with a more efficient system to ensure both the public & the operators get fair treatment before calling for more. The present transport system seems to serve vested interests rather than the public but one way to improve the system would be to persuade all the controllers they can still get their share of the cake even with major changes.