Thailand To Change From Left To Right Hand Driving

[tropo]

Guess some people didn't check the date when they were reading this .....

It was so obvious that the heading may as well have read "This is an April Fool's Day joke"

[stocchi]

"However busses, trucks and taxis will be exempted as they are driven by professional drivers who can handle their vehicle safely."

That is one of the better jokes in the article!!!

agree ! that s absolutly incredible !!!! professional best bad drivers who try to handle their vehicle without any car of safety or respect of others !!!! professional killers maybee !!!

BTW bus , slow pick up and minibus and mores drive already on right side , without care noboby and causing lot of accidents . they sould maybee care this problem first ... and instore a real licence test :-)

it wiil be , better to try only withs car first and after ine year all vehicle , more fun also !!!

[Ripple]

Haha! That was a good one, you guys at TVForums!

One thing I wish would happen though, is that Thais figure out which side you are supposed to WALK on. They have yet to pick an official side. It's a solid pain in the arse to walk down the sidewalks when no one knows which side you are supposed to be on. And factor in that the way Thai people often walk. It's like they are not fully committed to the act of walking....they almost go in reverse. They sprawl all over what little space is available and become virtual roadblocks and only really move when they see you coming...that's when they walk straight into you! They look so offended when you ask them if they walked before. Amazing Thailand...

[KimoMax]

Happy April Fools Day. But what if it were true ?

Transportation Infrastructure already in place with Roads, Intersections, Traffic Controls. Highways and Interchanges already Geared to Right hand side Driving. A very Expensive undertaking to even contemplate such a Change.

Ooops .......... as the Bus Driver of a right hand drive Bus unloads a bus load of passengers onto a High speed Highway or traffic lane ...................

AS long as Thailand has Geniouses like this that want to change Driving side rules overnight, or enforce No Water Throwing during Songkran from Pick up Trucks; It will be Only Talk and Blowing Smoke.

Will never happen. Too Illogical and poorly thought out.

Too late to change driving sides now. If they wanted to do it, should have been done when most Thai's were not behind the wheels of a car in the 60's, 70's or early 80's.

If they did change sides; I can just imagine all the Head On Collisions

[wildorchid]

This is just plain DUMB!!!

• Unfair to the people who have bought a NEW car that now has to be (REFITTED), people should have been told this BEFORE they spent money on a new car they can not sell untill MORE money is spent for the refit.
• Will this have to be done by factory qulified staff??? how many days will it take to do? because I nor my husband would trust any of the LOCAL MECHANIC just around the corner with this stuff.
• Will this VOID the cars warrenty? as it is a RETRO FIT???
• Unfair to those with older cars as they will have to pay the FULL price!!!for the refit.
• Will the (refit) include the instroment panel? so the driver can see the speed, fuel gauge, temp, etc,
• I'd like to see the numbers of accidents, injurys, and deaths for the last three years and compaire them to the next years numbers.
• I SAY AGIAN THIS JUST PLAIN DUMB!!!

[marquis22]

And on April 1 2014 they change back again.

[Ricardo]

Will this mean switching to Right-Hand-Drive petrol/diesel, too ?

[thaibear]

mmmmmm are people forgetting what today's date is? April 1st!!!! Besides what difference does it make they drive on whatever side they want to :-)

[geuda]

The main reason is that they will have their left hand available to fish April fool fishes as we call them in French

[harada]

I hope this is not an April Fools Day joke Ive allready made plans to open a coffin factory,should make a fortune.

[personchester]

What about the headlights, they have to be changed as well :-) - this will never happen...

Yes, the headlights will cause problems, but there are existing plastic devises that can be put in front of the headlights to restrict the light outflow in the wrong direction, I used those plastic devices when I was driving in Europe (from the UK)

Prior to using those plastics, on-coming cars used to flash their lights at me because my headlights blocked their view and that was dangerous all round.

I do not think Thailand will carry out such a massive traffic change, and the above report appears to be an April fools day outline.

Anyway, lets hope so because it would initially be a disaster driving-wise.

[Songhua]

Guess some people didn't check the date when they were reading this .....

Yeah, I've been having a good chuckle at all the people that got sucked in .

LOL .................. when all they had to do was check the source.

[Soutpeel]

This is just plain DUMB!!!

• Unfair to the people who have bought a NEW car that now has to be (REFITTED), people should have been told this BEFORE they spent money on a new car they can not sell untill MORE money is spent for the refit.
• Will this have to be done by factory qulified staff??? how many days will it take to do? because I nor my husband would trust any of the LOCAL MECHANIC just around the corner with this stuff.
• Will this VOID the cars warrenty? as it is a RETRO FIT???
• Unfair to those with older cars as they will have to pay the FULL price!!!for the refit.
• Will the (refit) include the instroment panel? so the driver can see the speed, fuel gauge, temp, etc,
• I'd like to see the numbers of accidents, injurys, and deaths for the last three years and compaire them to the next years numbers.
• I SAY AGIAN THIS JUST PLAIN DUMB!!!

....but you got it right..this is just plain dumb..

[Mosha]

IIRC Sweden had a referendum on changing. The people voted against, but the government changed it anyway.

[hansnl43]

I like this joke ;-)

[zyphodb]

Wow... how meny people took this April fools day post seriously....

Of course as we're in "amazing Thailand" any stupidity is possible but given the fact that most Thais can't drive as it is this would've killed millions...

[Smee]

This is an April Fool's day gag.... right?

[Aforek]

This was my day...... It needs 5 pages of comments before someone got the joke....

A bad result of an IQ test, folks. You drink to much. Not good for the "grey cells".

Many, included me, have seen the joke from the first page, but every post we wrote to say "april fools " was instantely deleted, to let the joke go on

don't think we are all stupid

[ginjag]

FOOLS Actually the thread is correct--FACT in thailand when using the mobile they change all the time from left hand drive to right hand

[frankold]

To be fair to anyone who got sucked in. Theres plenty 'out of touch with reality' real news posted on this forum. There seems to be at least 1 artice per month that would be assumed an april fools joke in the west.

[trainman34014]

I love it when so many people get sucked in by what is so obvious a monkey could spot it. Feel sad for all those chappies who want us all to drive on the opposite side because in their minds it's the 'correct' side; tough luck lads.

Lets face it; they find it almost impossible to change anything in eight years here let alone eight months so what realistic chance would there ever be?

[MagicMax]

Haha April fools!!!!

[Rancid]

I only got to the end of page 1 and still no one had caught on yet. Mind you they already drive on both sides anyway.

[wired]

[IAMSOBAD]

Was funny for about 2 seconds.

Star World being cancelled turned out not to be an April Fools Joke.

Blame ALL Typos on Spell Check!

[davyalan]

Thais already drive on the left, with left side steering wheels....

[wimsikkes]

Today April 1 .........

[Westaurel]

LOL the nice April Fool's Day joke !

[bunta71]

I would make this law retroactive back to last year

[SchuetzRob]

One cannot believe the madness of this suggestion !!!

Because lorries might be going to neighbouring countries and lefthand drive lorries may be comming to Thailand , is No Excuse .

This is all about ASEAN , trying like the European Union to create an area where everything is the same . The EU is a failure and so will be ASEAN , if they follow the example .

Thais are noteably Not Good Drivers on the left hand side of the road ; lack attention , ingore the rules of the road , how are they ever going to change to the right hand side of the road .

Thailand already has an unusually high accident rate and death toll on the roads ; switching sides and to left had drive will increase the accidents tenfold .

Perhaps the government should hold a referendum , ask the people , before embarking on such a risky scheme which may be emensely unpopular and cause the death of many people .

the authorities have realized that thais are noteably not good drivers on the left hand side of the road. that is why they want to test if thais become better drivers when driving on the right hand side....