Phuket Governor Calls For Public Transport To Resolve Traffic Jams

[Lite Beer]

Phuket Governor calls for public transport to resolve traffic jams

Phuket Gazette -

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut has called for officials to ramp up efforts to develop Phuket’s pitiful public transport options as the top way of beating the island’s ever-increasing traffic congestion.

Speaking at a public seminar at the Pearl Hotel in Phuket Town last Saturday, held by the Phuket Real Estate Association specifically to discuss Phuket’s growing traffic jams, Governor Maitri pointed out that the number of cars on Phuket’s roads was spiralling critically upwards.

“Phuket has traffic jams simply because we have too many cars and not enough roads. According to figures from the Phuket Land Transportation office, from January 1 to September 30 this year more than 7,000 sedan cars were registered in Phuket. This number does not include other kinds of vehicles,” Gov Maitri said.

“If we lined up all the cars in Phuket end to end, they could make a line more than 200 kilometers long,” he added.

The national government’s first-time car buyer’s initiative – offering tax rebates to young people as an incentive to buy their first car – was not helping, Gov Maitri explained.

“Following the first-car purchase policy launched by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Phuket might have more than 10,000 new cars on our roads next year,” he added.

Building new roads or upgrading existing thoroughfares was not the solution, he said.

“Even if we did build more roads, it is not a permanent solution to reducing traffic congestion. The only way to fix this problem permanently is to promote the use of mass transportation,” he said.

Regardless, Lert Padchawee, the deputy director of the Highways Department regional office in Krabi, which oversees the Phuket Highways Office operations, said his department had a raft of plans drawn up to alleviate Phuket’s traffic woes.

But those plans would cost 30 billion baht to carry out, he said.

Mr Lert explained that his office had plans to expand the airport spur road linking Phuket International Airport to Thepkrasattri Road, and hence to all the resort destinations in the south of the island, from two lanes to four lanes.

Other plans included much-reported underpasses at Central Festival Phuket, currently under construction, and at Samkong Intersection next to Tesco-Lotus and Bang Khu Intersection at the eastern end of the bypass road.

Also on the “shopping list” on road development projects were plans to expand the road joining Sakoo at the north of the island to Koh Kaew, upgrading the road linking Kathu to Kamala, and long-awaited road from Chalong to Patong, which has stalled as the proposed route passes through protected national forest.

“These plans will help fix the traffic problem in Phuket and the Department of Highways is now trying to propose all these projects to the government as urgent,” Mr Lert explained.

However, Kasem Chujarukul of the Department of Rural Roads disagreed. He sided with the governor in that public transportation was the only viable long-term solution.

“Traffic is a problem for many big cities around the world. Even developed countries that have the latest technology to monitor traffic flow still have difficulty in dealing with traffic congestion,” Mr Kasem said.

“Only mass public transportation can help fix traffic problems in the long run,” he added.

“The Department of Rural Roads commissioned Chulalongkorn University to conduct a research study into road safety and the traffic problem in Phuket. The results of that study showed that Phuket is now facing severe traffic congestion, problems with traffic signs, poor-quality roads and bad driving and motorcycle-riding habits,” Mr Kasem explained.

However, Mr Kasem added that there was light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the light-rail project.

“Phuket is planning to build a light-rail system that will be able to support the transport demands of the local people and tourists in the future,” he added.

Last year, many international construction companies sent teams of engineers to Phuket last year to assess the island’s need for a light-rail system and to formally offer their “expression of interest” to to build a light-rail in Phuket the then Phuket Governor, Tri Augkaradacha.

However, at last report, officials in Bangkok decided to ignore all such actions until a government agency had completed its own feasibility study.

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...jams-19795.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-12-25

[CWMcMurray]

I believe the problem in Phuket is that there is NO reliable public transpiration in many areas ...

From what I have heard, this is the specific plan of the Tuk Tuk and Taxi mafias...

Given these thugs, it is not surprising that nearly every resident must have their own vehicle and why even tourists prefer to either drive down or rent cars/motor bikes while in Phuket

It's probably the only place in Thailand where it is cheaper to buy a car than to take Taxi / Tuk Tuk around town every day...

[hansgruber]

Same headline, different decade.

[JetsetBkk]

Build a railway line from Surat to Phuket town to get rid of most of the buses to Bangkok.

Bring in the army to run a proper bus transport system covering all of the island.

Line up various mafia bosses and shoot them.

Bring in metered taxis from Bangkok at the same rate.

Shoot any tuk-tuk driver or owner who complains.

Get rid of the current governor and administration and bring in the army.

Disband all taxi federations, cooperatives and collectives and tell them to go back to the freakin' rice field.

[sawati]

Get rid of the mafia.Or are you talking for the gallery??...Mister Governor/.Over my dead body you are goin to implement a public transportation in your mafia infected island.

[belg]

i call for a rail road from the airport to all major cities .... and the taxi, tuk tuk and jetski maffia can help build it , loooooooooooooooooool

[JulesMad]

Quote main article: “Phuket is planning to build a light-rail system that will be able to support the transport demands of the local people and tourists in the future,” he added.

Last year, many international construction companies sent teams of engineers to Phuket last year to assess the island’s need for a light-rail system and to formally offer their “expression of interest” to to build a light-rail in Phuket the then Phuket Governor, Tri Augkaradacha.

However, at last report, officials in Bangkok decided to ignore all such actions until a government agency had completed its own feasibility study.

All present readers of TV will be dead and burried, if and when that happens Why not give everyone a private helicopter, same nonsense solution...

Mark my words: NOTHING will happen!

[Payboy]

But those plans would cost 30 billion baht to carry out, he said.

Sounds like a plan to me.

[steelepulse]

But those plans would cost 30 billion baht to carry out, he said.

Sounds like a plan to me.

1 billion USD, AUD and CAD just doesn't go very far these days when infrastructure work is involved in Phuket.

[Valentine]

As long as there is top down control from central government plus all the vested interests who want a slice of the action projects will always be implemented at snail's pace in Phuket & the rest of the country. The underpass is a classic example of how long it took to be approved & the funding put in place & now it is going to take two years to build. <deleted> it is only several hundred metres long, the MRT in Bangkok, nearly all underground, was built in 7 years under much worse conditions.

There are these various roads such as the Chalong - Patong & the extension through to Saphan Hin which are crying out to be finished but have been going through various procedures & studies for years. There are plenty of roads which need to be widened but are the authorities buying the necessary land? I certainly don't know but if they aren't then absolutely, 100% sure, there is no such thing as being proactive.

I was at the recently opened bus station this morning & already it can barely cope. The car park is a disgrace, there is some extra land & a used car dealer at the front which should have been retained for expansion, spare space where the buses park have been given over to commercial operators to open shops.

How many calls have we had for better public transport yet the only visible improvement has been the pink buses & the airport bus. The fact that nearly every man & his dog has a yellow sticker on the side of their car is not going to help alleviate the congestion but will most likely usher in a new breed of arrogant drivers & legitimize the corrupt taxi cooperatives.

[blackthorn2005]

I believe the problem in Phuket is that there is NO reliable public transpiration in many areas ...

From what I have heard, this is the specific plan of the Tuk Tuk and Taxi mafias...

Given these thugs, it is not surprising that nearly every resident must have their own vehicle and why even tourists prefer to either drive down or rent cars/motor bikes while in Phuket

It's probably the only place in Thailand where it is cheaper to buy a car than to take Taxi / Tuk Tuk around town every day...

Totally agree, put in a good public transport system, especially form the airport and you can cut down on the thousands of dangerous tuk tuk, taxis and mini buses that speed around the island every day, creating yet another hazard for tourists.