Bangkok Administration warns vendors: keep streets clean or face ban

[webfact]

BMA warns vendors: keep streets clean or face ban
Tanatpong Kongsai
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) spokesperson Tridao Apaiwong yesterday warned that although the city allowed street vendors to sell goods on the footpath every other Monday, it reserved the right to implement the street stall ban every Monday if the vendors failed to keep the area clean.

Tridao said that, according to Bangkok deputy governor Asawin Kwanmuang's order to shift from the previous rule, to the current cleaning day on every other Monday, the city assigned district offices to supervise this matter and change the cleaning day schedule as appropriate.

She warned that BMA would inspect all district areas and if vendors failed to keep the areas clean, BMA would use the old regulation again -- which saved Monday as a footpath cleaning day and banned street vendors' stalls on that day.

Tridao also announced the city had progressed to installing a total of 39 elevators at 12 BTS stations to facilitate physically-challenged persons - from a target of 111 elevators at 34 stations by December 2014.

The city also planned to add another 31 bicycle lanes by the end of this year to its current 31 bicycle lanes covering 200 kilometers. The new route selection will prioritise the safety of bicycle users and people, she added. She said the city would this week consult with the Expressway Authority of Thailand about a plan to build bicycle lanes under the Chaeng Wattana-Ngam Wong Wan Expressway.

-- The Nation 2013-07-09

[laurentbkk]

I didnt know there were bicycle lanes ....... where are they ?

[kurnell]

I didnt know there were bicycle lanes ....... where are they ?

Under the grease

[jpp2bkk]

Under the street vendors stalls

[lee b]

I didnt know there were bicycle lanes ....... where are they ?

Under the grease

you could have a point there

[upena]

Street vendors on the footpaths are against the law

[GaryLK]

My idea is to have blind cops with night sticks as walking canes go down the path and make sure it is clear. Maybe they would need a guide dog to detect the center, but this should work, be fast and effective.

[kingstonkid]

Why not get a few of the larger ladies in Bangkok to just walk down the foot paths lol Talk about vendors moving carts

[tinom]

Ddouble post sorry

Edited July 9, 2013 by tinom

[tinom]

Thailand: The Hub of Bans ! 555

[Pikeybkk]

bicycle lanes my arse, the thais have no knowledge of road rules and they would see a bike lane as an additional lane for them to use....

[vijer]

Christ, the vendors are a small problem, it's the Thai people themselves that dump garbage everywhere. The government trimmed back the trees on both sides of the road out to BangNa-Trad and there is easily 30 large garbage bags worth of plastic in the ditches. I often see people throw bottles from their motor bikes and from cars.

[ricku]

Compared to other big asian cities like Singapore, Tokyo and even Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok is a big joke when it comes to footpaths, and open public areas like squares and parks.

Cycle lanes? Forget it.

Walking in Bangkok is a nightmare. Bicycling?? Don't even try it. You will just end up face down in a wok pan.

Edited July 10, 2013 by ricku

[TackyToo]

Street vendors on the footpaths are against the law

There are many laws here that only serve one purpose: extract money from those who can't effort or simply are too greedy to obey them.

[jayceenik]

Some years back cycle lanes, parallel solid white lines, were painted in the middle of the sidewalks on both sides of Sukhumvit - all the way to BangNa.

They had to be kept clear. No motocy parking, no store extended ware displays, no vendors (I guess at least at certain times of the day).

If you walk Sukhumvit look down and at some places you can still see the remnants of those lines.

One BKK Uni had received a 600k baht grant to make the BKK cycle lanes feasability study ...

Edited July 10, 2013 by jayceenik

[Jasun]

Some years back cycle lanes, parallel solid white lines, were painted in the middle of the sidewalks on both sides of Sukhumvit - all the way to BangNa.

They had to be kept clear. No motocy parking, no store extended ware displays, no vendors (I guess at least at certain times of the day).

If you walk Sukhumvit look down and at some places you can still see the remnants of those lines.

One BKK Uni had received a 600k baht grant to make the BKK cycle lanes feasability study ...

A lot of motorbike taxi guys still use these lines.

[captspectre]

Street vendors on the footpaths are against the law

in your dreams! just look at sukhumvit soi-4! you have to walk in the stgreet and dodge taxi's to get anywhere and there is a police air conditioned box right on the corner! haven't seen those pot bellies come out of that booth in six years!

[Freedomfighter]

Ban the f----g vendors! the whole inconsiderate greedy lot of them! They and their greedy masters make the footpaths impossible to navigate, being forced to walk on Sukhumvit or wherever, it's an eyesore not to mention hazardous and an easy target for anyone wishing to cause massive bodily harm.

Remember the Iranian bomber on Ramkamheang Road last year?

When the insurgency from down south makes it to Bkk, they'll know where to go

[GreenSnapper]

I didnt know there were bicycle lanes ....... where are they ?

Where all the motorbikes run.

[Tomtomtom69]

Compared to other big asian cities like Singapore, Tokyo and even Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok is a big joke when it comes to footpaths, and open public areas like squares and parks.

Cycle lanes? Forget it.

Walking in Bangkok is a nightmare. Bicycling?? Don't even try it. You will just end up face down in a wok pan.

No wonder those places in central Bangkok where you can rent a bike are under utilised. I usually see a frustrated attendant sitting out in the heat and smog, breathing in traffic fumes playing on their iPhones, wishing they had a better job. I do credit that as being a good idea, but there are so many obstacles to riding a bike safely in Bangkok that it would have been better to sort out the issue of bike lanes etc. first then implemented the whole bike rental thing.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

So they used to ban sidewalk vendors on all Mondays for city cleaning... Now they only do it every other Monday.... What progress!!!

Before, Mondays were the only day of the week that you could actually walk on the sidewalks in my neighborhood....

Then it really gets fun when the street motorcycle taxi guys start driving on the sidewalks between the crowded rows of sidewalk vendors.

[jayceenik]

When the Uni study (@ 600k baht !!) about the feasability of cycle lanes sharing the Sukhumvit sidewalks was announced in the BKK Post I remember tongue-in-cheek farang Letters to the Editor proposing that those cycle lanes could be built elevated along Suk, Skytrain-like, to stay away from vendors and pedestrians. LOL

As for the paucity of public squares and parks in Metro BKK mentioned by BM ricku earlier I remember that, in the early financial struggling days of the BTS, a couple bright politicos had suggested that part of the Queen Sirikit Park (Suk, between 22 and 24) be transformed in a car park to attract suburban car commuters who'd then drive and park there and then get on the BTS at nearby Prompong station to reach their final urban destination.

No, I'm not making this up.