Thai-french Group To Tackle Bangkok Traffic Jams

[EvilDrSomkid]

Aside from all the crap about corruption and the BIB not being effective, I must say that I enjoy driving in BKK and Thailand.

A software system to regulate traffic BKK. Yeah right. There are a few easy to see things that MUST be changed in order for traffic to flow better.

I have driven a fair amount in BKK and some of the things I notice which seriously hamper traffic flow:

-Pile ups of vans, taxis busses and what not at markets, malls, BTS and MRT entrances. This is one of the most idiotic things. BKK has plenty of wide roads. But when you have all this stupidness with huge busses and vans pulling in and out of traffic everywhere, it reduces the effective number of lanes by 2 or 3. You can see this on Lad Phrao, Phahon Yothin, Viphavadi Rangsit etc every day. Cars have to sqeeze together into the remaining lanes. <deleted>, man?

-The U-turn system. They have already closed off permanently many of these spots because even the locals see that they cause insanely dangerous situations, not to mention the blocking of oncoming traffic.

-Taxis. These are a pet peeve of mine too. There are too many of them and most of the drivers are morons. That is not a Thai bashing thing, they are just morons. The curb crawling thing does not help, of course. And when you need one, they are not around.

-Irrational/unnecessary braking. This is more of an international thing, but it does cause a lot of the backup here. I see this all the time. Some moron thinks that he/she should tap the brake a little because he/she sees some one in front slow down a fraction or someone wants to cut in or sometimes for no reason at all. No one in front, no side street or anything.

Even my wife sees this, who has only had her license a few months, and it drives her nuts, too. It causes higher fuel consumption and is not a safer way to drive. What it does do, is cause the other idiots behind the braker to brake, too. You get a concertina effect and if it goes on further it causes traffic to stop! Just because some one does not have any self-confidence. All you need to do is take your foot of the gas. That's it. The problem is everybody does it here.

-Motosais. Oh boy, where to start. I know that motosais are the only affordable mode of transport for millions. However, what I do see all the time is that the riders, especially women, do not look where they are going, pull into a large street from a soi without looking, except straight ahead. Honk all you want, they don't look or give a flying f***. I have seen riders TURN AROUND on top of the fly over bridges on Ratchada when they see P'Tamruat on the other side collecting. Insane.

Of course, getting smeared by a car or van or bus does tend to clog up things, as well. In the country side they want to go right, they just go. Slowly, no looking behind them or anything.

-Tuk-tuks and songtheaws. <deleted> me, these are the worst. I loathe tuk-tuks. Worse than taxis and buses, well, except maybe the green ones. I don't know if any of you have ever driven in Chok Chai 4 or thereabouts, but you have rows of these Diahatsu minivans converted into tuktuks. They block the streets, drive very slow and are a general nuisance.

I know, these ...people... are trying to make a living. For some reason, at the cost of others.

-Another thing is that driving education is a joke here. People are not taught the basic skills and traffic insight. So when they have their license, they are unsure of themselves and are intimidated. This causes many to drive too slowly and all the unnecessary braking and swerving. Thai people are shitscared (justified) of trucks so they more over HALF a lane when passing them on the highway. Why? Just pass them QUICKLY. You can blast past them usually. If you need to move over, use the indicator. Oh silly me, that would show consideration of others!

What is needed is a change of mentality, but that is near impossible. Critizising anyone will cause loss of face and blablabla. People have no sense of danger here, they just don't see it.

I love Thailand and I like being there. Part of the reason we like coming here is because they way they are. Almost anything is possible.

So yeah, let the government invest a few surplus billion THB in something that will be useless. Someone will be making an obscne eamount of cash of the deal. Not the French is my guess.

Chohk dee khap

[ianwuk]

This won't work. People forget where they are in the world.

It is just a brain child of some go-getter in government that has come up with a way to improve his lot, make him look good, get free travel to France, opportunity for family business to install equipment (that will fall into dis-repair and dis-use).

And of course the real spanner in the works is the cops because it will take away one of the main reasons that they use to justify their collective, worthless existence.

The resistance to change will be just far to great on all the players, including the drivers, who it's designed to help.

And as for pedestrians, oh please....., they do not even rate a mention or a thought by anybody. The mindset is, only the plebs and low life walk.

A far better idea would be to increase the number of mannequin cops they have standing around thesedays as I am certain they are far more useful than the human kind

Completely agree on the police mannequins

Ian

[flemmie]

*chuckle*

I just came from Moscow, and there the traffic is really bad... Bangkok has a number of advantages in comparison to Moscow

*drivers actually follow the rules-I know you think they don't, but believe me they do

*police actually regulates some traffic-in Moscow they do not

*buildings have parking spaces-in Moscow all cars are on the street and sidewalks

*you have no snow-Russian cars (mostly Volga and Lada's) still try to drive without snow tires

*you have regular U-turns-Moscow hardly has any at all and a left turn is rare, therefore there is a lot of circular driving (traffic goes around the Kremlin)

I am happy to be in Bangkok!

[flemmie]

-continued-

And you move the car after an accident. In Russia, insurance companies need the police report or they do not cover, and police cannot make a report if the cars have been moved, everything needs to be measured. Any accident leaves you stranded with your car for hours, blocking the road as the cars cannot be moved. Considering that there are more and more cars in Moscow (I believe they are approaching the 2 million mark), this makes for a messy time.

And you do not have a Putin or Medvedev or any other minister clearing out the road when they need to pass, it is not unusual to stand in front of a red light for up to 20 minutes until the cars have passed...

[bkkjames]

-continued-

And you move the car after an accident. In Russia, insurance companies need the police report or they do not cover, and police cannot make a report if the cars have been moved, everything needs to be measured. Any accident leaves you stranded with your car for hours, blocking the road as the cars cannot be moved. Considering that there are more and more cars in Moscow (I believe they are approaching the 2 million mark), this makes for a messy time.

And you do not have a Putin or Medvedev or any other minister clearing out the road when they need to pass, it is not unusual to stand in front of a red light for up to 20 minutes until the cars have passed...

Are you sure about the last point as it relates to Bangkok - trust me - this kind of thing happens here all the time.

[gvallee2]

they should put that in phuket..

Main road has many many huge Cross like intersections always packed because instead of having 2 lanes going in the oposite direction at all time, they have 1 lane going straight/left and right while the other 3 wait 3mins for each light

I mean, i was building better road systems when i was a 11year old retard w/ leggos

[sibeymai]

The French are already making a positive contribution to reducing traffic by making Peugeots, Renaults and Citroens.

Edited August 29, 2009 by sibeymai

[SnS]

Software wont help until they stop funnelling traffic into bottlenecks

[chivo]

i read thru most of this quickly, but i didn't see anything about the singapore system.

i think its worth looking into. charge people a fee/toll for driving in the most congested areas/cbd, etc. this may force SOME to consider public transport.

i think thailand could learn a lot from singapore on a great many things. this country needs a lee kwan yoo (sp.) a benevolent dictator- uncorrupted (slight nepotism permitted if the overall effect is great progress!) to iron things out.