New Idea To Solve Bangkok's Traffic Problems

[taxexile]

the communists kept traffic volumes low by building the worst cars ever , they were broken down and unusable most of the time.

[Heng]

There's Thai Rung and Kia dealerships in town for that.

[MrWizard]

There is only one way, that's extending the subway-train over every major road .

Keep it cheap and air-conditioned.

You will see that this makes a huge impact on local traffic in BKK.

Make transferiums (huge parking space with smooth access to public transport) and this will bring jams back to minimum.

Nobody can really stop these traffic jams, only make them smaller !

[AlexLah]

Hi all,

I think basically the idea of Minister Newin Chidchobb is not too bad.

Same like in Singapore and other parts of the world.

Very convenient for people that look for a taxi and indeed most of them do not have to drive around all day looking for customers and so will save on fuel and there will be less polution.

KR,

Alex

[sharpone]

BANGKOK: -- PM’s Office Minister Newin Chidchobb has come up with a new idea to solve the capital’s traffic problem: having government offices, hotels and shopping malls give free-of-charge parking space for taxis to pick up customers.

That has got to be the stupidest idea they have had in quite some time.

Cordially,

Hunter

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hunter,

Why do you think it is stupid ? Surely any idea to assist in solving a problem is worth

considering ? What suggestions do you have ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thais cannot drive full stop, What they need is a two part driving test like the UK That will ease the congestion.

[Martin]

I haven't managed to reconcile sharpone's:

"Thais cannot drive full stop, What they need is a two part driving test like the UK That will ease the congestion."

with my observation of far less 'rear ending' in Thailand (both rural and city) than I see in UK, US and OZ.

For my first couple of years in Thailand, I felt I was having to work hard to add to my defensive-driving techniques. But now, I feel most relaxed here and only tensed up during my first few days when I visit and drive in those countries.

[Erwin1011]

Whatever kind of measures you try to implement, all will have to start off with a serious traffic flow study on different point in the day. (density and direction)

You overlay that with existing public transport routes + planned extensions to see how well they cover traffic patterns.

Next you start setting up one way circles peeling off the main traffic axes. Major traffic axes crossings by flyovers or tunnels.

Tax car ownership based on the number of cars owned, combined with cc-size. (city car type of vehicles (Electric, dual power etc get tax rebate) Any car above 1250 cc is to be considered a non-city car. basic tax is levied on LPG cars, diesel get's double levvy, petrol get's tripple taxed.

Synchronize trafic flows with sensors that will regulate traffic lights.

Create special through lanes for public transport (busses) with off-lane bus stops, large enough to hold 3 busses). Attached to it off-lane taxi stands for minimum 3 taxis. (make sure Bus stops and taxi stands are covered)

Remove food stalls from side walks and concentrate them around bustops and taxistands where space is available. ( create space where not available through a systematic buying up program by the city, vice versa create the stops where that space is still available.)

Use a similar buy up program to create green zones and interconnect them.

Use the green zones and links for bicycle traffic lanes, with parking possiblities at point where they interconnect with public transport. Park & Ride

Do the same for cars.

Add all the other good ideas posted here.

Use existing canal ways and add new ones ( re-open where possible) for boat busses. (not the roaring ones they have now, but with with decent sound proofing)

Time frame 20 yrs western time, 50 yrs Bkk time.

For once, don't worry about graft and corruption and collution to get it done. just get it done.

See you in 2055.

[zakk9]

Acouple of weeks ago, I went for a trip east of Bangkok, direction Chachoengsao, to see if that would be an interesting place to settle down and avoid the polluted, noisy city-center. I mean: they have double track railway and all out there.

Everything looked nice until I saw the time-table for the trains: Three trains in the morning that would bring me to Asok before nine, one of them with air. On train leaving Asok after six o clock in the evening (6.50 from Asok), no air, and that's the last train for the day.

So I found out I would just become another one of those idiots spending hours in the car every day. idea shelved.

This is a city with well over 10 million people, and they don't even use the railroad tracks they have to transport people. No wonder there are traffic jams

[spencerdharmagrafix]

You mean Chit chorb ชิดชอบ has sat and had a beer with a load of Taxidrivers, they conned him into thinking that if the taxis have free parking there wont be millions of cars on the road.

sounds normal to me..that someone as highly qualified as Chit chorp needs the opinion of a bunch of taxi drivers as to how one should solve a Traffic problem as complex as that in bangkok.

Simple solution for a complex problem..I reckon that Thaksin's new petrol prices will help a lot more , if the Folk don't lynch him before the effects are noticed, that is

[spencerdharmagrafix]

Acouple of weeks ago, I went for a trip east of Bangkok, direction Chachoengsao, to see if that would be an interesting place to settle down and avoid the polluted, noisy city-center. I mean: they have double track railway and all out there.

Everything looked nice until I saw the time-table for the trains: Three trains in the morning that would bring me to Asok before nine, one of them with air. On train leaving Asok after six o clock in the evening (6.50 from Asok), no air, and that's the last train for the day.

So I found out I would just become another one of those idiots spending hours in the car every day. idea shelved.

This is a city with well over 10 million people, and they don't even use the railroad tracks they have to transport people. No wonder there are traffic jams

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probablybetter though, as if there were more trains there would be a massive increase in the amount of splattered pedestrians on the rail tracks..at least one death a day on the BKK Surat line, and there are also only 3 or 4 trains a day i think!

[spencerdharmagrafix]

I haven't managed to reconcile sharpone's:

"Thais cannot drive full stop, What they need is a two part driving test like the UK That will ease the congestion."

with my observation of far less 'rear ending' in Thailand (both rural and city) than I see in UK, US and OZ.

For my first couple of years in Thailand, I felt I was having to work hard to add to my defensive-driving techniques. But now, I feel most relaxed here and only tensed up during my first few days when I visit and drive in those countries.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, i used to drive every day on a 100 cc motorbike from Bang Na Thrat to Sukhumvit, and that was enough to get me used to anything that one may encounter on a road in Thailand! I must admit i did kind of enjoy risking my life weaving through all the buses and trucks to get first place at the traffic lights!

it's like Moto cross riding- every man 4 himself

[OZONE]

Drivers were, in the main, considerate to other drivers and did not adopt the "me first" attitude.

Have you forgotten where you are?.. Its standard in Thailand. As long as I can remember its always has been "me first". I love Thailand but this is one of many flaws. (same as many other other places I've been to though)

[Martin]

But once you get out among the rice and sugarcane, it all becomes so calm and considerate.

Locally, they are really sweet about waiting for the vehicle that is approaching them to negotiate the stretch of potholes before they come forward for their go.

Some of us have a theory that it is a cultural difference.

In the West, all are strangers, but are bound by a rigidly defined set of rules and rights-of-way and so on.

Here when you are driving amongst the little farms, you are among your neighbours and will, of course, behave politely.

But out on the highway, and in the cities, the other vehicles are being driven by strangers to whom no politeness is owed.

To experience driving amongst drivers with probably the highest driving standards in the world, come up this way and see the standard of driving of the drivers of the big trucks on Highway 2. Especially the ones who bring the newspapers up from Bangkok. Imagine doing the Monte Carlo rally (but without the snow and ice, of course!) in a specially high-powered ten ton truck. They cope with all sorts of hazards from roaming buffalos, to 'boy-racer' motorbikes, to tractors without lights, to little old farmers who may not have driven for more than an hour a week for the past twenty years wandering out off a farm track, to beef cattle grazing the central reservation....the list is endless... And, as you come up to pass them, the way they use their rear trafficators to tell you when they are going to have to 'borrow' a slice of your lane and when you can safely overtake is excellent (once you have been here long enough to become familiar with it).

What I don't like is the prospect of Western tourists flying in and taking hire cars from Budget and Herz at the provincial airports. That is a recipe for disaster, as they will be launching themselves straight out into a completely different sort of traffic behaviours than they have ever experienced before. When I collect Westerners from the airport, if they are here for the first time, I have learnt to give them a little forewarning that some of the things they are going to see happening on the road in front of them will seem very unusual to them, but that's the way its done here and we all know and expect it and can cope with it, no problem!

[Plus+]

There was a letter in Bangkok Post with basically the same idea - force people out of cars, as if there are too many of them.

Have you considered for a moment that Thailand is a third world country with half the population living near poverty line but that cars cost more than in the West. HOW POSSIBLY there could be too many of them? Mercedes Benz sells more cars than Ford here!

Malaysia is three times smaller but the car sales are on the same level.

What Thailand doesn't have enough is roads. Downtown Bangkok is doomed, you can't do much there (only shift taxi stands here and there) but if they don't build the roads fast enough traffic jams will spread farther and farther and no amount of orange and blue lines will help in the slightest.

They've got only three roads leading into the city from the North - three roads for 10 mil people. They've got only two coming from the West and only one from the East. You can drive for ten km and there won't be any feeder roads - every one has to pass through the one and the same intersection. Very often these intersections aren't intersections at all - the roads don't converge in the same place, so instead of driving through you have to turn right and then left, or make two u-turns, and pass through two or three sets of traffic lights. No wonder it sometimes take hours.

[mai_reuh]

maybe i am just a moron (believe it or not, I have been called that), but I think the taxi-rank idea is quite a good one.

I don't know about you, but every time I go shopping at Big C Rajdamri, opposite World Trade, there is always a queue of people waiting for bl**dy ages for a taxi. I'm talking about an average 20 minute wait. Yeah, there are always the usual dodgy tuk-tuks there in full force, which no-one wants, but where are the frickin taxis ?

It's not like they wouldn't get a job, even if they had to wait a few minutes.

They could have a nap, and let the customers come to them, but I guess it's smarter to cruise around looking for tricks, given that petrol is so cheap and driving around in BKK traffic is so much fun...

(there I go using logic again - sorry, my fault...)

[sajal]

maybe i am just a moron (believe it or not, I have been called that)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i believe you...

the taxis here all run on CNG which hasnt been affected by the oil price hike.....

[mai_reuh]

hey DD, be gentle with us morons will ya ?

I have heard that the gas prices haven't been affected, whilst some say that they have.

either way, doesn't stop the taxi drivers still complain about the petrol price increases...

[sajal]

hey DD, be gentle with us morons will ya ?

I have heard that the gas prices haven't been affected, whilst some say that they have.

either way, doesn't stop the taxi drivers still complain about the petrol price increases...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

if i were the person selling the gas then id definately increase the rates.,....but as to what ive heard is that the taxis who are benifiting fur to the increase in petrol prises...

just try to drive on sukhumvit road after midnight...(specially on weekends) it is soo crowded with slow moving/parked empty taxis.....asif Khun toxin announced freebies to every taxi driver on the road.....

i dont think their plan to make parking spots for 3 ot 4 taxi would help....they would need atleast 50 on sukhumvit......another 50 near RCA, another 50 near rachada soi 4.....