Traffic Cameras Start On April 1 (no Joke)

[NaiGreg]

Traffic cameras are being installed at a number of major intersections. Rim Kham, Chotana, and others to start.

The warning leaflet says (I am paraphrasing)

"We are warning honorable citizens .. we don't like arresting (you) ... we don't like fining (you) ...

We ask that you follow the traffic laws ...

We will start arresting and fining from April 1 2553"

They are specifically looking for red-light runners and helmet-dodgers.

Since they can track down vehicle owners, but not the particular driver, using these cameras, think twice about lending you car to anyone.

-NG

[Donnyboy]

good date to start

[Slaps]

good date to start

The only date to start

[Scrubber]

If this is true, then it's going to look like at disco at the Rincome junction at night with all the flashing lights...

[uptheos]

At least they will have pictures of the multiple pile up caused because someone stopped!

I've known about Toyota's stuck accelerator for ages.

[StevieH]

wonder if the cameras will actually have film in them?

[uptheos]

wonder if the cameras will actually have film in them?

Nah, they will have the very latest high tech digital equipment, which is foolproof just like the G200 bomb detector.

[MESmith]

Will they be able to see through the smog?

[Donnyboy]

but seriously, if they started a campaign with the use of cameras, as well as proper traffic enforcement, it will be a good start. But theres no point having a half assed campaign with red light cameras.

[Phil Conners]

We've had traffic cameras in Pattaya for years. Never made any difference here.

[Thaihog]

They will enforce it for the first couple of weeks and then it will fade away....

Driving whilst speaking on your mobile phone is probably one of the biggest causes of car accidents in Thailand but the BIB don't give a <deleted>. The BIB are not into preventative policing, they are reactive not proactive.... TIT...

[uptheos]

They will enforce it for the first couple of weeks and then it will fade away....

Driving whilst speaking on your mobile phone is probably one of the biggest causes of car accidents in Thailand but the BIB don't give a <deleted>. The BIB are not into preventative policing, they are reactive not proactive.... TIT...

In Thailand the mobile phone is God......I wonder how many deaths are caused, because someone wants to know if dinner is getting cold?

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

extra income for BIB. They can upload crash videos to the net and collect adsense etc bahts.

[ManilaLover]

Chiangmai Traffic CCTV

[Sao Jiang Mai]

This is odd as over the past two months two of my staff have received letters from the police with a picture of them in their car speeding and they have had to go and pay 1000 baht fine, so it has already started. Caused all sorts of giggling at work and quite a brouhaha. And is being well enforced by all accounts. One girl was going 110 km/h at Sarn Dek intersectoin and a guy was doing about 100 on the superhighway.

[MESmith]

This is odd as over the past two months two of my staff have received letters from the police with a picture of them in their car speeding and they have had to go and pay 1000 baht fine, so it has already started. Caused all sorts of giggling at work and quite a brouhaha. And is being well enforced by all accounts. One girl was going 110 km/h at Sarn Dek intersectoin and a guy was doing about 100 on the superhighway.

They often have a speed trap under one of the flyovers on hwy 11, just south of Big C.  Then a couple of km further south, there'll be the checkpoint set up to hand out tickets.  Usually in the afternoon.

[Sao Jiang Mai]

But these were really professional letters by registerd mail, with photos, arrows, numbers and all sorts very impressive things!

[SeanMoran]

Motorbikes don't have front number plates - for safety reasons.

[zippydedodah]

don't forget, almost EVERY law or regulation passed in thailand is done so .... in order to provide another opportunity for "tea money".... since polite people don't often like the word corruption

[Bearnagh]

Well I reckon most people would have to agree that something needs to be done with the traffic... it's chaotic.

The complete lack of respect for even the most common-sense traffic rules makes driving in this city very dangerous. That is 'de facto'. So perhaps we shouldn't be quite so cynical and see if the authorities actually do make a serious attempt to bring some real deterrent into the frame. Regardless of the possibly flawed bureaucracies behind it, if the camera scheme saves a few lives (or ruined lives) then it has got to be good - yes?

[mcgriffith]

I agree.

[zippydedodah]

rules and regs are only as good as enforcement, and as i expressed my opinion that most are just there to provide opportunities for tea money....

well, that leaves me with the general perception that said rules and regs are merely advisories, AND, in the case of a REAL problem, they are a strategic way to lay blame on someone else.

This ain't the first country i lived in like this.... hel_l, Rio Brasil 35 yrs ago was a cakewalk compared to this.... again, the predominate theme being the payoff. In Mexico, they remove your license plates, which are then offered back to you at a "discount" price to save paperwork and hassle....

i guess it depends on where you come from and what you are used to, as to how 'offensive" you find thai driving

[Loaded]

We had our water meter stolen last year and now it has a locked cage around it. these cameras are worth more than my old water meter.

[MESmith]

We had our water meter stolen last year and now it has a locked cage around it. these cameras are worth more than my old water meter.

They'll probably mount the cameras at intersections, where there are already manned police cabins.  Heaven knows why the police can't look out their window once in a while to note down license plate details of red light jumpers.  It's happening right in front of them.

[db1tau]

There are cameras for a long time at intersections like rincome (look at the black domes overhead) and they enable the police in the cabin to see the roads in all four directions without getting up and looking out of the window.

They use it to switch the traffic lights by hand e.g. turn them red if noone is coming from that direction anymore or turn them green if there are a lot of cars waiting or an ambulance is stuck in front of the lights.

Most of the time the lights work in automatic mode though and there are different automatic modes for daytime and nighttime (faster switches at night).

But I doubt that the resolution of the cameras is high enough to read license plates.

Red light cameras as known back in europe usually flash and take a high resolution picture necessary to read the plate and identify the driver. They are automatically triggered when a car passes a red light and usually take at least two pictures to show that the car really passed the light and not only stopped a bit too late. The camera also has to be synchronized with the lights to show the state and the time passed since the last state change.

The left lane hast to be exempt, because left turns are always free but there has to be a sensor preventing motorists going on straight in the "turn left" lane.

Installing and calibrating all these devices requires a lot of skilled work, so I think if they wanted to go live with it on 1st april, they should already be working on it (can't see anything about that till now).

Concerning the speed checks on the superhighway, I never saw anything like that. I don't even know what the speed limit is there, I guess the default 90km/h in thailand? Sometimes on the second ring you can see ridiculous signs showing 30km/h or 50km/h, I guess they forgot to remove them after a construction.

But the speed itself is not the dangerous part. It is the big speed difference on cars using the road. there are walking pedastrians or old people with wheelchairs at 5kmh, then cyclists at 20kmh, motorbikes and slow cars at 40-60 kmh the normal traffic at about 100kmh and of course the really fast ones at usually 120-160kmh.

Back in europe of course a road like that wouldn't exists, but if it did, there were hundreds of speed limit signs everywhere and maybe even a minimum speed for the use of the highway.

[zippydedodah]

a few months ago, on HWY 11, i saw a MONK in a motorized wheel chair using the road! one hand on prayer beads, the other hand on the speed/direction control ... only in thailand.

and of course, the occasional water buffalo (i have photos of ones on overpass to Central Airport Plaza) and cows, not that unusual on 121 or 1317

wonder how cameras would handle those?

but one of my favorite pet peeves is when you have a green light (including a right turn green) and some guy, 10 cars back, crosses OVER the median barrier and speeds up so he can be sure to make the green light... and sometimes he does not.... seen a couple of accidents on 1317/121 for just that reason

[heybruce]

I wear a helmet, stop at red lights, and try not to kill myself or anyone else. How will this cameras affect me?

[MESmith]

I wear a helmet, stop at red lights, and try not to kill myself or anyone else. How will this cameras affect me?

They may deter red light jumpers who may otherwise have run straight through you.

[dmax]

nothing to do with health and safety , just another money spinner just like the uk, watch out for gatso,s next

[Patriciachas]

I wear a helmet, stop at red lights, and try not to kill myself or anyone else. How will this cameras affect me?

They may deter red light jumpers who may otherwise have run straight through you.

It still wont stop the stupid <deleted>* who turn straight in front of you when the lighrts are on green ,and if that happens dont expect any help from the BIBs the one we had was worse than usless.