What Do Zebra Crossings Painted On The Road Mean In Bkk?

[cooked]

One of the best pieces of advice I received after I arrived to Thailand:

When you want to cross a street, follow a soi dog, the older and mangier the better.

I agree, and am proud that I discovered this for myself. In fact I started looking for the same dog every time I was near Asok.

[farang000999]

hk/macau they always stop and let you cross in my experience.

[Geekfreaklover]

Picture the scene. It's late at night. Not much traffic. You step onto the zebra crossing. A car comes out of nowhere sends you flying. You land on your arse and begin to shout and wave your hands at the car. The car stops. The reverse lights flash on. The car comes hurtling back towards you.

People complain about the traffic in Bangkok. I'm glad that its usually grid-locked. Just think how many pedistrians would be killed if the traffic was free-flowing and the motorists could travel as fast as they liked all day.

[Langsuan Man]

What Do Zebra Crossings Painted On The Road Mean In Bkk?

in the Army, we called them aiming stakes........

[Kilgore Trout]

the fact that Thai drivers totally ignore humans including there own countrymen trying to use zebra crossing.

So are you saying that if they only ignored foreigners then that would somehow be better?

[Quickmill]

pedestrians should to cross the road jumping on the zebra crossing lines without touch the white stripes, this will speed the process and fit yourself too

[cooked]

Getting back to the OP, what do pedestrian crossings mean? Like many other potentially useful innovations, maybe things went like this:

somewhere a politician + police chief got themselves profiled in the news about this project.

Funds were then allocated, some of which mysteriously disappeared, a con-tractor/friend of somebody then carried out work under spec. Maybe funds were allocated for maintenance, most of this disappeared also. That's what they mean, or meant: they have now fulfilled their function so nobody maintains or supervises them.

I don't really know this of course, but old cynical fart that I am, this is the kind of explanation that works for me when trying to understand things. There are many good people here also of course, please don't accuse me of Thai bashing, you find this to some extent more or less everywhere. The Thais however don't seem to care that it is obvious what is going on.

[phuturatica]

Get your lucky cricket out, hold it out in front of you, close your eyes and walk!

I haven't quite come to understand the point in zebra crossings in Thailand because no one actually abides by the rules here. However I have found that being confident and a little aggressive helps. They will stop for you if you boldly walk out. If that doesn't happen try and follow a Thai person crossing. They seem to have got the hang of it.

Another thing, I always notice cars still turning even though it says the green man so I try and cross just as the lights are changing from green to red and there seems to be a small gap in which you can safely cross.

[jinjinswing]

Its worse out in the burbs....but i now take the middle ground, after a week at the beach i came back relaxed, and as one poster claimed....be assertive when you cross the road and it works, Thais being somewhat submissive on first interaction will most often slow or stop, i throw a dirty look if there bonnet edges to close to my legs...

The zebra crossings will have faded into memory in a few years, there in desperate need of a touch up but like everything else around here......

Ho and the Cambodian mentality prevales in Lad Phrao.....walking around and dogging several rather large holes in the footpath for the past 5 mths they have finally been filled in with concrete, noticed 6 work men...yes 6 one night around 11 am while going home in a taxi working there sweet little butts off...well most were just watching...next morning walking along i noticed new footprints, bicycle and motorbike tyre marks in these rather long patch ups, kinda find it amazing why they even bothered..