5000Baht Fine For Riding On Pavements

[MaiChai]

Girlfriend tells me announced today: 5000baht fine for riding on pavements with a motorbike. Not more details at the moment. Thus dont become a victim of gready police.

[guzzi850m2]

Thats sounds extremely steep, are you sure its not 500 ??

I seen signs in Patts that say 3 pers on a motorbike = 500 bath fine

Edited March 25, 2011 by guzzi850m2

[Lancelot]

Umm, Thai government tax receipts will surely rise!

[Garry]

@ MaiChai: define 'pavement'...footpath?

[bifftastic]

Well, I have to say, that one seems reasonably easy to avoid. Just don't ride on the pavement, why would you want to do that anyway? Dangerous and stupid!

[bifftastic]

@ MaiChai: define 'pavement'...footpath?

sidewalk footpath

[Richard-BKK]

My girlfriend, who has the habit to ride around with Japanese license plates on her legally Thai registered motorcycle, informed met today that she needed to pay 50 THB more for riding around without a official required Thai license plate.

Not get me wrong, here motorcycle is officially registered, she has Thai license plates, but apparently it's more cool to ride around with a Japanese plate on your bike.... (normally the fine is 400 THB, but she needed to pay 450 THB, so surely some fines changed)

But 5,000 THB for riding on the foot path, how will they describe that, in the Thai traffic Act the footpath is just part of the road. Same if you get a ticket for moving into another lane, which is what 200 THB...

Edited March 25, 2011 by Richard-BKK

[MaiChai]

We can try and confirm it tomorrow? Gf is normally right on these types of things. She wanted to warn me and i am passing on the info.

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

[bazmlb]

We can try and confirm it tomorrow? Gf is normally right on these types of things. She wanted to warn me and i am passing on the info.

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

Get some bail bond insurance for incidents like this, 200,000 bail bond only 2,600 baht p.a. http://insurance.thaivisa.com/our-products/bail-bond.html

[appropriate]

Well, I have to say, that one seems reasonably easy to avoid. Just don't ride on the pavement, why would you want to do that anyway? Dangerous and stupid!

I was riding down Silom in rush hour traffic, cop on his bike behind me. Only option was to go up along along the pavement. I decided I better not with the cop right behind.

He wasn't too pleased with me stopping and beeped until I mounted the footpath and led the way.

[champken]

Ive heard of many girlfriends dipping their farang keepers at every opportunity they get and i also take with a pinch of salt some of the things i hear or read on forums but you are taking the proverbial with this post, do you expect anyone to believe that a Thai would be fined 5000 baht for riding on a pavement? get real chum

[LeCharivari]

But 5,000 THB for riding on the foot path, how will they describe that, in the Thai traffic Act the footpath is just part of the road. Same if you get a ticket for moving into another lane, which is what 200 THB...

The footpath is a pedestrian route not beside a road - for example a footpath in a park, a nature trail, etc.

The pavement (if you are English or speak English English) or the sidewalk (if you are American or speak American English) is a raised pedestrian route beside a road, usually only in urban areas.

The hard shoulder is the surfaced area beside the road on the outside of the lane markings, to the left in countries that drive on the left, such as Thailand and the UK, or right in countries that drive on the right such as Europe and the US; on motorways/highways/expressways its supposed only to be used by emergency vehicles or to stop on in an emergency and on country ( roads its for use by pedestrians, cyclists, etc.

I was particularly amused by this as when I took my bike and car tests (pre-computer days) I remember one of the questions being where you were allowed to ride your bike: (a) on the right hand side of the road ( on either side of the road © on the expressway (d) on the pavement. I looked baffled (I thought they were either all correct, in practice, or all wrong, in theory) until the examiner smiled, pointed at (d) "on the pavement" and whispered "short time OK" inmy ear. Presuming that she was giving me the answer rather than an invitation I put (d) and passed.

[Garry]

But 5,000 THB for riding on the foot path, how will they describe that, in the Thai traffic Act the footpath is just part of the road. Same if you get a ticket for moving into another lane, which is what 200 THB...

The footpath is a pedestrian route not beside a road - for example a footpath in a park, a nature trail, etc.

The pavement (if you are English or speak English English) or the sidewalk (if you are American or speak American English) is a raised pedestrian route beside a road, usually only in urban areas.

The hard shoulder is the surfaced area beside the road on the outside of the lane markings, to the left in countries that drive on the left, such as Thailand and the UK, or right in countries that drive on the right such as Europe and the US; on motorways/highways/expressways its supposed only to be used by emergency vehicles or to stop on in an emergency and on country ( roads its for use by pedestrians, cyclists, etc.

I was particularly amused by this as when I took my bike and car tests (pre-computer days) I remember one of the questions being where you were allowed to ride your bike: (a) on the right hand side of the road ( on either side of the road © on the expressway (d) on the pavement. I looked baffled (I thought they were either all correct, in practice, or all wrong, in theory) until the examiner smiled, pointed at (d) "on the pavement" and whispered "short time OK" inmy ear. Presuming that she was giving me the answer rather than an invitation I put (d) and passed.

You assume / generalise too much. In Australia, the footpath is beside the road or street and it can also be a path in a park as well. 0 for 2

[ScubaBuddha]

But 5,000 THB for riding on the foot path, how will they describe that, in the Thai traffic Act the footpath is just part of the road. Same if you get a ticket for moving into another lane, which is what 200 THB...

The footpath is a pedestrian route not beside a road - for example a footpath in a park, a nature trail, etc.

The pavement (if you are English or speak English English) or the sidewalk (if you are American or speak American English) is a raised pedestrian route beside a road, usually only in urban areas.

The hard shoulder is the surfaced area beside the road on the outside of the lane markings, to the left in countries that drive on the left, such as Thailand and the UK, or right in countries that drive on the right such as Europe and the US; on motorways/highways/expressways its supposed only to be used by emergency vehicles or to stop on in an emergency and on country ( roads its for use by pedestrians, cyclists, etc.

I was particularly amused by this as when I took my bike and car tests (pre-computer days) I remember one of the questions being where you were allowed to ride your bike: (a) on the right hand side of the road ( on either side of the road © on the expressway (d) on the pavement. I looked baffled (I thought they were either all correct, in practice, or all wrong, in theory) until the examiner smiled, pointed at (d) "on the pavement" and whispered "short time OK" inmy ear. Presuming that she was giving me the answer rather than an invitation I put (d) and passed.

You assume / generalise too much. In Australia, the footpath is beside the road or street and it can also be a path in a park as well. 0 for 2

Add to that, the word "pavement" in America is pretty much synonymous with "asphalt" which is where the cars drive. Sidewalks in the states are usually concrete, which is not considered "pavement" (In the states, or at least where I grew up in California, you would say they are "paving the road" when laying asphalt.) The OP's comment baffled me too but with the context I assumed the Brits must call the sidewalk "pavement".

Definition of PAVEMENT from Merriam Webster free dictionary.

1: a paved surface: as

a : the artificially covered surface of a public thoroughfare

b chiefly British : sidewalk

2: the material with which something is paved

3: something that suggests a pavement (as in flatness, hardness, and extent of surface)

And FYI, tea money issues aside, traffic fines in the LOS come in ranges and the fine which must come between those ranges is actually decided by traffic officers either at the time of citation or when being paid at the cop shop. It's possible a new law has passed which has the maximum fine for driving on the "pavement" as 5000 baht. Thai's will still likely get the 200 or so fine.

Edited March 25, 2011 by ScubaBuddha

[pauljones]

Well, I have to say, that one seems reasonably easy to avoid. Just don't ride on the pavement, why would you want to do that anyway? Dangerous and stupid!

...and happens thousands of times a day.

[pauljones]

Counting the bribes

[pauljones]

We can try and confirm it tomorrow? Gf is normally right on these types of things. She wanted to warn me and i am passing on the info.

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

20,000 to avoid a breathalyzer after a crash.

[Phatcharanan]

You posters can generalise all you like.......quote this that and the other as to what defines a 'footpath'.

Fact is............it is legal to ride a bike on the footpaths here.

Talk of 5,000 baht fine is just plain ridiculous and is a scam.........probably by the GF.

Why the heck do you think every pathway here has the sloped ramps at every little junction? For shopping trolleys?

Look up the traffic laws for goodness sakes.

Edited March 25, 2011 by Phatcharanan

[Phatcharanan]

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

Yeah. Of course you know a Thai done 4 times. Same as you probably know the local Big Boss Police Chief, the Mayor, the local head of Mafia.

And where the hell does that 10,000 baht come from?

Simple remedy...........don't drink and drive. Anyone that does deserves to die............ quite frankly.....before innocents do.

Edited March 25, 2011 by Phatcharanan

[guzzi850m2]

We can try and confirm it tomorrow? Gf is normally right on these types of things. She wanted to warn me and i am passing on the info.

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

Get some bail bond insurance for incidents like this, 200,000 bail bond only 2,600 baht p.a. http://insurance.tha.../bail-bond.html

I think it will be very diffucult to get bail bond insurance for driving when pissed.

[H2oDunc]

We can try and confirm it tomorrow? Gf is normally right on these types of things. She wanted to warn me and i am passing on the info.

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

I don't suppose for a second it has occurred to you that

A Don't ride on the pavements as it is against the LAW

B Don't drink and drive as it is against the LAW

That way the " Greedy police " cannot fine you for breaking the law.

Only in Thailand can the police be seen as greedy and corrupt for upholding the law ?

[andrew55]

Is it against the law? If yes, I'm guilty.

It's certainly no problem here. I ride down my little soi then turn right onto the pavement/footpath/side-walk (thought the comments on definitions a bit academic and a lot pedantic) for a hundred metres to avoid 2kms of busy road and crossing a bunch of lanes for each of 2 dangerous u-turns.It seems quite accepted by Thai pedestrians and police. I've seen police at a 'no helmet sting' at Dao Khanong ignore those riding on the footpath without a brain bucket and stop offenders only on the roadway (carriageway/ vehicle thoroughfare...) I don't wear a lid for this ride to the market. If I did I did it the long way around I would.

In the 'outback' here in LOS I've even been known to drive the pick-up (ute to fellow jing joe's) a km on the verge on the wrong side of the road with a dozen locals in the back - not counting babies or pigs. Next they'll wanna stop that!!

Using the footpath courteously for short distances seems accepted and moves traffic pretty well I reckon.

[MaiChai]

Here you go. Gf is out working at the moment; I will try translating it. Sorry for the late reply, been ill in bed most of the day.

I saw this outside Huay Kwang MRT on the corner of exit 1 (Ratchada/Pratcharatbampen Road). Just where the motorbike taxi rank is.

Here is my basic Thai translation (was always too lazy to learn more):

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dont!

Park vechical or drive vechical and motorbike on the pavement (sidewalk for you Americans).

Disobay this and you have to pay fine of 5000 baht.

Bill/Act: some kind of security bill?

and some order to keep the city tidy? 2535.

Huay Kwang District office (local government).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thus its something being enforced in Huay Kwang I assume. Maybe there was a accident or something. Anyway, no bikes on the pavement there! Well apart from the bicycle.

Edited March 26, 2011 by MaiChai

[MaiChai]

We can try and confirm it tomorrow? Gf is normally right on these types of things. She wanted to warn me and i am passing on the info.

Did you know that being 50mg over the alcohol limit will get you in the local police cell until they can get you in front of a judge next working day? To get out of this (eg dont spend the night in a cell) its 10,000 for a bike as a bribe and 20,000 if you were driving a car. I know a Thai who has been caught 4 times and his mother is fed up with bailing him out!

I don't suppose for a second it has occurred to you that

A Don't ride on the pavements as it is against the LAW

B Don't drink and drive as it is against the LAW

That way the " Greedy police " cannot fine you for breaking the law.

Only in Thailand can the police be seen as greedy and corrupt for upholding the law ?

Since the money they collect does not go to the government, but goes into the policemans pocket, I can conclude that they are incentivised by money to get you for whatever they can, so yes they are greedy. If the money goes to the government then I would conclude that they are enforcing the law, for the greater good of all and to a fair extent on good moral grounds too. Personally I don't think we should be allowed to bike on the pavement, but since its allowed here, we do? Sometimes I am a pedestrian and nothing more frightening than a bike wizzing past you, especially if the rider doesn't give a hoot about safety and is too close for comfort? Fortunatly most Thais are quite considerate when biking on the pavement.

The reason for posting the info was to share info. Before you could get away with a 500baht tip for drink driving, now its straight to jail. Hopefully it will help someone out there not drink drive and stop them going to jail plus make the roads safer by having less drunks driving around. Are you against sharing information?

One thing that astounded me once was at the lights at Latprao/Ratchada. We were stopped at the lights and a policeman pulls up on his Tiger police bike. He is all kitted up as a traffic policeman and he has a young boy (his son?) as a passenger. The young lad has no helmet, but is holding a helmet! Obviously for the young lad its not cool to wear a helmet so his policeman father does not insist on him wearing it!

Edited March 26, 2011 by MaiChai

[Velocette]

My girlfriend, who has the habit to ride around with Japanese license plates on her legally Thai registered motorcycle, informed met today that she needed to pay 50 THB more for riding around without a official required Thai license plate.

Not get me wrong, here motorcycle is officially registered, she has Thai license plates, but apparently it's more cool to ride around with a Japanese plate on your bike.... (normally the fine is 400 THB, but she needed to pay 450 THB, so surely some fines changed)

But 5,000 THB for riding on the foot path, how will they describe that, in the Thai traffic Act the footpath is just part of the road. Same if you get a ticket for moving into another lane, which is what 200 THB...

Oooh, young trendy girlfriend sir, riding her cool scooter, just out of school is she , suits you sir

[andrew55]

My girlfriend, who has the habit to ride around with Japanese license plates on her legally Thai registered motorcycle, informed met today that she needed to pay 50 THB more for riding around without a official required Thai license plate.

Not get me wrong, here motorcycle is officially registered, she has Thai license plates, but apparently it's more cool to ride around with a Japanese plate on your bike.... (normally the fine is 400 THB, but she needed to pay 450 THB, so surely some fines changed)

But 5,000 THB for riding on the foot path, how will they describe that, in the Thai traffic Act the footpath is just part of the road. Same if you get a ticket for moving into another lane, which is what 200 THB...

Oooh, young trendy girlfriend sir, riding her cool scooter, just out of school is she , suits you sir

Young trendy girlfriend on cool scooter, just out of school suits me too.

Just don't tell my wife.

[Zzinged]

Disobay this and you have to pay fine of 5000 baht.

It actually says the fine will be not more than 5000 baht.

[Timthai]

<br />Counting the bribes<br /><br /><a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB4-hsknqPI' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>http://www.youtube.c...h?v=rB4-hsknqPI</a><br />

<br /><br /><br />

Only reason he's hiding behind the station, is that he's come up short on his quota and trying to work out how to tell his boss!

[PepeLePew]

Well, I have to say, that one seems reasonably easy to avoid. Just don't ride on the pavement, why would you want to do that anyway? Dangerous and stupid!

It cuts down on road accidents!

[Newguy70]

Hi All,

I see guys/gals of all nationalities doing this....Why is this so hard for some to comprehend. Who cares if it were 50,000 Baht, It's obviously the wrong thing to do. It's really not that hard to do the right thing.

Try a little patience while sitting in traffic, be a leader, not a follower.