Ten Challenges For Next Bangkok Governor

[webfact]

Ten challenges for next city governor

The Nation

Traffic, flood fears, lack of parks, masses of garbage top list of most urgent priorities

BANGKOK: -- In February or March, the governor of Bangkok - the vast metropolis with complex problems - will be elected under a shadow of deep national division and amid urgent challenges for the new governor, including deteriorating traffic congestion, possible severe flooding and unruly city planning.

Hard-core supporters of the Democrat and Pheu Thai parties will definitely cast an "ideology vote" or choose a candidate from the party they support, regardless of his or her qualifications. The red shirts will certainly not vote for the Democrat candidate.

If incumbent Governor Sukkhumbhand Paribatra resigns before completing his term on Friday, the gubernatorial race will take place on March 3 - but if he completes his term, the election will be held on February 17.

Despite the partisan divide, there are still a lot of undecided voters who may be swayed by individual candidates or parties' policies on how to handle the top ten urgent challenges.

The Nation newsroom has interviewed Bangkok residents, academics and concerned people and identified these top ten urgent challenges the next BMA governor will face. They are: traffic woes, flood prevention, solving unruly city planning, increasing parks to enhance quality of life, tackling increasing garbage, putting street vendors in order, preparation for the Asean Economic Community, tackling crime, dealing with interference by the central government, and preparation for a greater influx of foreign tourists.

Traffic woes are expected to be the top priority challenge for the next governor. Late last year, a lot of city residents started complaining about worsening traffic snarls and most blamed the situation on the Pheu Thai government's policy on tax rebate for first-time car buyers.

There are now more than 7.4 million registered vehicles in Bangkok, which in fact can accommodate just 1.6 million vehicles on its roads.

Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning's director Chula Sukmanop said Bangkok could no longer expand its road surface because the land price was too high for expropriation.

"[All] we can do to improve traffic flows in the capital's road networks is to create shortcuts, tunnels and overpasses," he said.

Chavalit Chanthornrat, an engineer in water resource management and an executive of Team Group Co Ltd, sees the next governor having to rush to integrate all drainage systems to increase drainage efficiency and to dredge all the canals and drainage pipes in preparation for heavy rains.

Bangkok is notorious for untidy city plans and zonings. A freelance academic, Paranee Sawasdirak, sees the zones that should have been preserved for cultural or environment purposes as being exploited for commercial purpose.

"For example, the area from Bang Sue railway station to Makkasan railway station should have been used for parks, but it is being taken over for commercial purposes," Paranee said.

She said the new governor should conduct public hearings on how to improve the zoning.

The next challenge, related to city planning and zoning, is to improve the quality of life for Bangkok residents by increasing the number of parks in the metropolis.

Dr Jamnien Woraratchaiphan, secretary-general of the Arts and Environment Conservation Association, said the ratio has increased to 5 square metres per resident--but it is still far below the ratio of 32 square metres per resident in New Delhi. City residents should be able to reach a park within 15 to 20 minutes, he added.

The BMA has to dispose some 8,700 to 9,700 tonnes of garbage each day, according to BMA spokesman Wasant Meewong, and the amount is rising.

Chatree Watanakhechorn, acting director of the Garbage Disposal Division of the BMA's Environment Department, believes the next governor's challenge will be to convince city residents to cooperate in separating garbage for easier and more efficient disposal.

Scenes of street vendors blocking sidewalks are common in Bangkok. So far, the BMA has allocated 700 spots for street vendors to sell legally and 100 of them are in Ratchathewi district.

When street vendors were found selling outside the permitted zones, crackdowns occurred - but were often followed with allegations that BMA officials extorted money from the vendors. Sophan Wongduangphu, a patrol head of the City Law Enforcement Department of the BMA, said this problem was a chronic one and a major challenge for the next governor.

Bangkok is under pressure to internationalise itself after Thailand integrates into the AEC in 2015 because it is a major Asean capital.

Manaswee Srisodaphol, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, believes the next BMA governor should develop Bangkok to be economic and a business hub of Asean by providing English training to all people from walks of life.

To reduce the crime rate in the capital is also a top challenge for the next governor. Pol Lt General Theeradej Rodphothong, a former Special Branch Police commander, foresees the Bangkok governor and BMA playing a key role in crime prevention. The BMA could provide infrastructure and enforce social order regulations against crime. Forexample, the BMA should provide sufficient light poles at remote or isolated alleys, or organise zonings for night entertainment venues.

Good governance is seen as a major challenge for the next governor. If he or she is a Pheu Thai member, the governor could be under pressure from politicians of the same party to compromise the public interest, said Wicha Mahakhun, a member of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

The BMA is also supervised by the interior minister, which makes it difficult for the BMA to run its office independently, he added.

Bangkok has become one of the world's top tourist destinations, so Piyamarn Techapaibul, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, says measures for welcoming tourists could be a challenge for the next governor. One possible improvement would be for museums to be promoted more interestingly, not a place to keep only ancient objects, Piyamarn said.

-- The Nation 2013-01-07

[Chao Lao Beach]

All you have to do is list 10 Scams !!!!!!!!

[Nisa]

Traffic woes are expected to be the top priority challenge for the next governor. Late last year, a lot of city residents started complaining about worsening traffic snarls and most blamed the situation on the Pheu Thai government's policy on tax rebate for first-time car buyers.

If it gets bad enough the situation will take care of itself and people will realize it makes no sense to live in Bangkok and own a car. Other than that they need to start making builders pay the city for street upgrades in areas where they build structures that will increase traffic. They also need, through court order, buy private land at a reasonable price and connect all the dead-end Sois and make alternate each one to be one way (in / out). Somebody also need to come up with a device that will allow people to walk safely on the sidewalk while flattening the tires of motorbikes that ride on the sidewalk encouraging and making safe for more people to walk. Lastly they need to have days where the police pour out into the city with boots and flat bed truck and collect every car double parked and make owners page a very significant fine and fee to collect their car back. Oh and they also need to have numerous public messaging campaigns to educate people on some simple things like how to make a U-Turn on the street. It kills me watching 99% of the people wait for traffic to clear to make a U-Turn 2 or 3 lanes over when many of the U-Turn lanes have dedicate lanes where no oncoming traffic can enter until after the U-Turn spot and the vast majority of the cars are small and can make the turn no problem without entering the lanes with traffic..

[007]

On the weekend I went to Ratchada. Looking out of the window from a high-rise building, I had a look at the cars: about 1 out of three was a taxi! Why does Bangkok need so many taxis, especially as they often don't stop when you need one (carrying a suitcase), while honking at you when you don't need one.

If they reduced the number of taxis by half, they would already have 1.2 million vehicles less on the congested roads.

[Nisa]

On the weekend I went to Ratchada. Looking out of the window from a high-rise building, I had a look at the cars: about 1 out of three was a taxi! Why does Bangkok need so many taxis, especially as they often don't stop when you need one (carrying a suitcase), while honking at you when you don't need one.

If they reduced the number of taxis by half, they would already have 1.2 million vehicles less on the congested roads.

Almost the opposite in my opinion. They need to get rid of non-commercial vehicles by having heavy fees and taxes if one wants to own a private car in Bangkok.

[crazydrummerpauly]

"[All] we can do to improve traffic flows in the capital's road networks is to create shortcuts, tunnels and overpasses," he said.

That's just feeble. Get out of your local mind-set and look around the world to see how capitals have improved traffic-flows...London for example - not exactly a cheap place for land-acquisition either - so the only option was to challenge car-users to think again about whether they really needed to make that trip into the city by car - Pricing done via cameras focused in on number-plates for example. Or only being allowed to bring a private vehicle into the city on alternate days, or between rush-hours and so on...

[khunken]

Traffic woes are expected to be the top priority challenge for the next governor. Late last year, a lot of city residents started complaining about worsening traffic snarls and most blamed the situation on the Pheu Thai government's policy on tax rebate for first-time car buyers.

If it gets bad enough the situation will take care of itself and people will realize it makes no sense to live in Bangkok and own a car. Other than that they need to start making builders pay the city for street upgrades in areas where they build structures that will increase traffic. They also need, through court order, buy private land at a reasonable price and connect all the dead-end Sois and make alternate each one to be one way (in / out). Somebody also need to come up with a device that will allow people to walk safely on the sidewalk while flattening the tires of motorbikes that ride on the sidewalk encouraging and making safe for more people to walk. Lastly they need to have days where the police pour out into the city with boots and flat bed truck and collect every car double parked and make owners page a very significant fine and fee to collect their car back. Oh and they also need to have numerous public messaging campaigns to educate people on some simple things like how to make a U-Turn on the street. It kills me watching 99% of the people wait for traffic to clear to make a U-Turn 2 or 3 lanes over when many of the U-Turn lanes have dedicate lanes where no oncoming traffic can enter until after the U-Turn spot and the vast majority of the cars are small and can make the turn no problem without entering the lanes with traffic..

I agree with what you say with one exception. Leave the dead-end sois alone. If you start connecting them to main roads or other sois, this will only increase traffic therein as they will become short-cuts for both cars & motorcycles.

[bhakta]

First is I agree that the traffic, and lack of parks are two of the serious, if not grave, problems facing Bangkok. The traffic was bad 30 years ago when I arrived, but today it is so far beyond bad I do not know what words to use. The jams are in every direction and extend for many KM from the city center. The BTS is also over crowded and why they do not add more cars to those trains is beyond me.

Lack of parks is a glaring deficiency which can only be attributed to the greed of the property developers and the lack of powerful leaders willing to stand up to them and say no.

I do not see BKK getting any better in the coming ten years, hence I intend to relocate to a distant province where the air is still breathable and there is little traffic.

[huahinjoe]

I'm not an expert but its pretty obvious if they get rid the old, smoky, unsafe cars, trucks, buses they not just make the air better but they could achieve 20-30% less traffic as well.

[Nisa]

Traffic woes are expected to be the top priority challenge for the next governor. Late last year, a lot of city residents started complaining about worsening traffic snarls and most blamed the situation on the Pheu Thai government's policy on tax rebate for first-time car buyers.

If it gets bad enough the situation will take care of itself and people will realize it makes no sense to live in Bangkok and own a car. Other than that they need to start making builders pay the city for street upgrades in areas where they build structures that will increase traffic. They also need, through court order, buy private land at a reasonable price and connect all the dead-end Sois and make alternate each one to be one way (in / out). Somebody also need to come up with a device that will allow people to walk safely on the sidewalk while flattening the tires of motorbikes that ride on the sidewalk encouraging and making safe for more people to walk. Lastly they need to have days where the police pour out into the city with boots and flat bed truck and collect every car double parked and make owners page a very significant fine and fee to collect their car back. Oh and they also need to have numerous public messaging campaigns to educate people on some simple things like how to make a U-Turn on the street. It kills me watching 99% of the people wait for traffic to clear to make a U-Turn 2 or 3 lanes over when many of the U-Turn lanes have dedicate lanes where no oncoming traffic can enter until after the U-Turn spot and the vast majority of the cars are small and can make the turn no problem without entering the lanes with traffic..

I agree with what you say with one exception. Leave the dead-end sois alone. If you start connecting them to main roads or other sois, this will only increase traffic therein as they will become short-cuts for both cars & motorcycles.

The Soi comment is really based on my area and wasn't really thinking about everywhere. The Sois where I am are just too narrow for two way traffic and just a pain in the a@@ to walk because you are constantly needing to watch for traffic. They allow alternate side of the street parking (which they have to allow as there are business' there) and when a cars are parked and traffic going in both ways it is a nightmare and creates a horrible traffic jam even though there are few cars. All the Sois in the area are the same. So, instead of continuing to build more condos down at the end, they should take some of the space and connect the Sois making one Soi in and the next Soi out. This may create more traffic (or not) but it would all be one way and only one lane would be needed and people could once again walk up the Soi without stopping and moving and worrying because they are occupying the same area the cars want to ... as well all the cars would move freely and no need to also create problems of people making u-turns to get out. So, you may be right that it is not a good idea in general but there seems to be no other option in my area.

[Thai at Heart]

They've tried everything. Fires, armed insurrection, even mass floods, and the buggars still don't get it. Throw in the traffic jams, lack of greenery, crappy air you would think people would get it by now.

What next? Living in giant trailer caravans so you can eat, live sleep and commute all at the same time?