Thai Traffic Lights.

[klubex99]

Just had to bring this one up.

My wife was driving through town today (Korat). She said that there was an accident at a set of traffic lights. A pickup was approaching the lights when they were on green and accelerated to make sure he got through them before they changed to red. An impatient motorcyclist on the pickup' left junction jumped the gun, as we see all the time here in LOS. The pickup smashed straight into the side of him and the rider was killed instantly.

Technically this was not the fault of the pickup driver, because I myself tend to speed up to make a green light, and once you are 50 or so yards away from the lights, you are somewhat committed. It was clearly the fault of the motorcyclist who jumped the light in the first place because his would still have been on red.

I have seen so many accidents involving mostly motorcycles at traffic lights here in Thailand. I have lost count.

Anyway. Later we drove to the other side of town to renew my visa at immigration. There is a section of about 5KM that has lots of busy junctions and so lots of traffic lights and it is not unusual to spend about 20 to 30 minutes to clear that stretch. (It was around 4.45PM rush hour) However, we had rather a lot of heavy rain while I was in immigration and the water seems to have knocked out all the traffic lights.

I can tell you, I got through that stretch in well under 10 minutes, with all the vehicles just being cautious and courteous to one another. The traffic was a dream. The same happened in the UK back in 98 when floods hit our town and the lights went off for about 2 weeks, and it was a pleasure to drive through the town, everyone was talking about it, and then they fixed the lights and the town went back to gridlock. Then everyone was moaning about it. Not a single accident in those 2 weeks.

It was the same here today. People seem to just know what to do when the lights are down. The traffic looks after itself.

Then I started thinking about the irony of it all.

Both these incidents are related in a way. Because traffic lights are supposed to be there to make the busy junctions safe, and yet this motorcyclist was killed because of traffic lights. After all, if these lights had not been down, then this pickup would not need to accelerate towards the junction, and everyone would have been a lot more alert and aware of what was happening around them.

Just my take on this sad situation. I think that traffic lights and Thai driver/rider attitude can produce a volatile mix.

Edited July 31, 2013 by klubex99

[andrewrooney]

I think part of the problem is how LONG the traffic lights here can be. Of course you're going to speed up to catch the light if you're looking at a ten minute wait. Cycling the lights faster would ease a lot of problems.

[yourauntbob]

Agreed, sometimes the safety nets give us a false sense of security. From the moment i got here i could see that traffic cops create more traffic than they relieve.

[Gsxrnz]

I agree with your summations. They've installed a dozen new sets of lights around Jomtien and I feel a lot less safe now than when they were uncontrolled intersections. And now the traffic is slower and builds up much more to a congested level because of poor flow.

[udonthani1]

The north Pattaya roundabout was recently closed because Thais cannot be courteous to each other and a cement mixer ran over a mother of 2 children's head.

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/81046/go-go-dancer-killed-road-crash-north-pattaya-dolphin-roundabout/

[klubex99]

The north Pattaya roundabout was recently closed because Thais cannot be courteous to each other and a cement mixer ran over a mother of 2 children's head.

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/81046/go-go-dancer-killed-road-crash-north-pattaya-dolphin-roundabout/

Yes.

That is one thing my wife remarked on when we were in England. the amount of roundabouts and how fast it was to get through them. I pointed out that they would never work in Thailand. People going around the wrong way plus, nobody would ever observe the 'give way to the right' courtesy rule.

I am also not a supporter of U-turns on high speed roads. That is another accident blackspot. I don't mind them on lower rated urban roads, but on major inter town roadways, they are dangerous as hell. Anther place where you will see a lot of silver paint on the road.

[Gsxrnz]

The north Pattaya roundabout was recently closed because Thais cannot be courteous to each other and a cement mixer ran over a mother of 2 children's head.

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/81046/go-go-dancer-killed-road-crash-north-pattaya-dolphin-roundabout/

Thanks for the link, I'd missed that story. Very sad situation. It does seem that drivers of concrete trucks have a particular attitude, they often come steaming into controlled or uncontrolled intersections with their horns blaring to force their way through. They are to be avoided at all costs whether you're a pedestrian, motorcyclist, or driver.

As for roundabouts - that's one of the shortcomings of Thai drivers. There aren't very many of them to get experience on, and I believe that the rules are a bit obscure, something along the lines of the vehicle entering the roundabout has the right of way or something - maybe somebody else can clarify.

EDIT: I was wrong about the right of way on a roundabout, traffic on the right has priority. Here's a cool link about Thai driving styles that's written a little tongue in cheek, but a few home truths. http://freebeerforyorky.com/driving.html

Edited July 31, 2013 by Gsxrnz

[robblok]

I don't agree they had installed a few light here and traffic was better for the guys that wanted to come onto the road. I absolutely loved it not having to force my way onto a fast moving road, unfortunately they disconnected the lights and traffic was hell again.

Lights are a necessity here in Thailand problem is that sometimes you just have to wait too long for them, that is just wrong use.

[robblok]

The north Pattaya roundabout was recently closed because Thais cannot be courteous to each other and a cement mixer ran over a mother of 2 children's head.

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/81046/go-go-dancer-killed-road-crash-north-pattaya-dolphin-roundabout/

Yes.

That is one thing my wife remarked on when we were in England. the amount of roundabouts and how fast it was to get through them. I pointed out that they would never work in Thailand. People going around the wrong way plus, nobody would ever observe the 'give way to the right' courtesy rule.

I am also not a supporter of U-turns on high speed roads. That is another accident blackspot. I don't mind them on lower rated urban roads, but on major inter town roadways, they are dangerous as hell. Anther place where you will see a lot of silver paint on the road.

agreed about the u turns on major roadways. They are just accidents waiting to happen with people turning onto the main road. If there were some traffic lights it might have helped but much better would be if they just made U turn bridges and let them go to the slow part of the road but I guess that is too expensive. If they did not have corruption it would not be a problem that 30 % stolen would have taken care of it.

[klubex99]

I don't agree they had installed a few light here and traffic was better for the guys that wanted to come onto the road. I absolutely loved it not having to force my way onto a fast moving road, unfortunately they disconnected the lights and traffic was hell again.

Lights are a necessity here in Thailand problem is that sometimes you just have to wait too long for them, that is just wrong use.

I suppose it depends where you are. I agree that they are necessary in some places, Especially BKK, but there is a marked overuse of them and it seems to be where most accidents happen aside from u-turns.

Another thing, when I first came to Thailand and was driving on the roads within a couple of days. I noticed that flashing headlights meant the exact opposite of what it means in the UK. There it means 'go on mate, you can go... I'm letting you out'... Here it means 'go and you are dead'. I learned that one rather quickly.

[kannot]

The north Pattaya roundabout was recently closed because Thais cannot be courteous to each other and a cement mixer ran over a mother of 2 children's head.

http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/81046/go-go-dancer-killed-road-crash-north-pattaya-dolphin-roundabout/

Theses drivers are the most selfish f***ers I have ever seen and will put YOUR life and your families at risk to be what??? 1 minute early.

Notice in Thailand there is NO signal to actually let a person"go" in traffic here, lights flashing means IM COMING THRU REGARDLESS of you or anyone else life.

I often let Thais go and they really dont know what to do, maybe disbelief.

[evadgib]

I'm baffled as to why lights that face traffic in my neck of the woods are placed after the junction instead of before it! Unsuspecting new arrivals stopping at the foot of the lights (ie the normal place) find themselves in the path of traffic coming from left or right; as witnessed several times this week...

[pattayadingo]

There is madness at the set of lights at the intersection of Khao Talo and Sukhumvit road in Pattaya constantly.

The Suk road light are green, next to go is Khao Talo onto Suk road. BUT those turning from Suk road onto Khao Talo go 3rd yet there are always some m/c and the odd car that will jump the intersection between the red on Suk road and the green on Khao Talo.

They are too impatient to wait for their green light.

Often there are near misses here. Quite a few accidents too, sadly. But they will not wait their turn

[Huayrat]

Even worse when the policeman decides to stand in the road and direct traffic... Tailbacks everywhere they make it worse

[kannot]

I don't agree they had installed a few light here and traffic was better for the guys that wanted to come onto the road. I absolutely loved it not having to force my way onto a fast moving road, unfortunately they disconnected the lights and traffic was hell again.

Lights are a necessity here in Thailand problem is that sometimes you just have to wait too long for them, that is just wrong use.

I suppose it depends where you are. I agree that they are necessary in some places, Especially BKK, but there is a marked overuse of them and it seems to be where most accidents happen aside from u-turns.

Another thing, when I first came to Thailand and was driving on the roads within a couple of days. I noticed that flashing headlights meant the exact opposite of what it means in the UK. There it means 'go on mate, you can go... I'm letting you out'... Here it means 'go and you are dead'. I learned that one rather quickly.

It means Im coming thru and <deleted> you and your safety, its the most selfish downright dangerous thing.

[thequietman]

I have it from a reliable source about the times having to wait at lights.

The lights are set by police in order that they can stop traffic more easily to give tickets. That is why the lights don't seem to follow any continuity here. If a bike or truck is spotted breaking a road rule or something then the cop knows the lights following it will keep the law breaker at the other lights while he catches up. Similarly, if the lights stay red for longer then that gives the officer ample time to have a good look and see who he wants to give tickets to.

Makes sense now doesn't it.

[Payboy]

Thai Traffic Lights

Think of them as mere suggestions.

[jbrain]

The wonderful thing about traffic lights in Thailand is that they seem to have 4 colors

Green

Amber

Red little bit

Red

Edited August 1, 2013 by jbrain