Pattaya Klang & Sukhumvit Disaster !

[JSixpack]

When I used to live in Pattaya I unfortunately witnessed a couple of people killed there, both on their bikes by large speeding trucks.

Life is cheap here. Deal with it or go home.

Or leave Pattaya as you did.

I'll have to disagree with the OP calling this intersection one of the most dangerous in Pattaya. There are literally hundreds of intersections as dangerous or worse. At least at this intersection if you keep your eyes open you'll be ok, unlike at the hundreds of blind intersections obscured by trees and buildings.

+1.

Having that left lane flow thru is kinda nice if you're traveling south on Suk; helps avoid a backup there. Even if left lane traffic were required to stop, drivers making a right from Suk would still have to exercise due caution against drivers who run lights, esp immediately after the light has changed. This lady unfortunately forgot to do so--as many Thais do, often blindly turning into busy streets. You have the feeling she'd have had an accident somewhere else if not here. "Expect the unexpected." Lesson learned, I hope; glad it wasn't worse.

Edited August 11, 2013 by JSixpack

[craigt3365]

I've recently been dealing with this intersection, but as a U-Turn coming from the south. It's incredibly dangerous. Impossible to do the turn and get over quickly. If you wait for the light to turn red on the south bound side, then it's green on Klang and all the crazy scooters are going around you on both sides. If you do it before that, cars are screaming by in all lanes at 60km or faster.

Trying to get over is done with a prayer. Luckily, I'm in a car. My friend tried it on his electric bike a few weeks ago. Took him an hour to recover from the fright.

Simple way is not to U turn there - carry on through the lights and do the U turn at the next (SCC) lights

Excellent recommendation. I've only done this 2 times now and both times were very scary. I'll take your advice! Thanks!

[tropo]

I've recently been dealing with this intersection, but as a U-Turn coming from the south. It's incredibly dangerous. Impossible to do the turn and get over quickly. If you wait for the light to turn red on the south bound side, then it's green on Klang and all the crazy scooters are going around you on both sides. If you do it before that, cars are screaming by in all lanes at 60km or faster.

Trying to get over is done with a prayer. Luckily, I'm in a car. My friend tried it on his electric bike a few weeks ago. Took him an hour to recover from the fright.

One of the main reasons why I don't want to live on the dark side (as a motorcycle rider). I wouldn't like to have to deal with Sukhumvit Road on a daily basis. Back in 2006 I lived over there for 3 months, but it wasn't nearly so bad back then.

I would guess traffic has way more than doubled since 2006. Seems to have doubled just in the past year or two!!

Yeah, I came to the conclusion that I'd need a car to live over there. The problems don't end at Sukhumvit. It's the impatient cars on the single lane roads a bit further out that worried me too.

[craigt3365]

I had to take a run up one of those sois the other day. Can't remember which one, but it was crazy. Very fast scooters passing me on the left, on the right, coming at me in my lane from the other direction, cutting into the road without looking. And of course there's that game of playing "chicken" at the RR crossing road. I don't like driving on them either!

[brummiebob]

If they want to keep the left lane 'free' they should put (back) the barriers to prevent traffic from Central road merging too soon, forcing the myriad motorcycles that want to cross to the dark side sois to cut across northbound traffic while the light on Sukhumvit is green to use the u-turn at Soi Siam Country club instead.

Which will proves so popular that the barrier will be taken away and the locals will knows to look out for traffic from Central road that basically want to treat the T-junction as a big-4 way intersection to soi Wat Boon, and the cycles repeats ad-infinitum until the city hall decides to implement an underpass, which is probably the answer that you're going to get, yes, we are aware of the problem, the underpass is coming when the next mayor gets voted in blah, blah blah.

By the way, what would be the best wording to describe the situation of the 'free left lane' for the left turn one taking cue from the American's 'Free left turn' seems appropriate, but for a T junction where the left most lane can ignore the red light, I have never seen this situation in western country? what should the sign say? Left lane ignore red light is probably confusing to put on a traffic sign.

Edited August 11, 2013 by brummiebob

[somtampet]

When I used to live in Pattaya I unfortunately witnessed a couple of people killed there, both on their bikes by large speeding trucks.

Life is cheap here. Deal with it or go home.

Been a bad train crash recently in France?????

do the french have to deal with that too.I here there are bad floods in japan recently,do they have to deal with it.

I here some pakistanis have been blown up recently, get my drift ????

[simple1]

If they want to keep the left lane 'free' they should put (back) the barriers to prevent traffic from Central road merging too soon, forcing the myriad motorcycles that want to cross to the dark side sois to cut across northbound traffic while the light on Sukhumvit is green to use the u-turn at Soi Siam Country club instead.

Which will proves so popular that the barrier will be taken away and the locals will knows to look out for traffic from Central road that basically want to treat the T-junction as a big-4 way intersection to soi Wat Boon, and the cycles repeats ad-infinitum until the city hall decides to implement an underpass, which is probably the answer that you're going to get, yes, we are aware of the problem, the underpass is coming when the next mayor gets voted in blah, blah blah.

By the way, what would be the best wording to describe the situation of the 'free left lane' for the left turn one taking cue from the American's 'Free left turn' seems appropriate, but for a T junction where the left most lane can ignore the red light, I have never seen this situation in western country? what should the sign say? Left lane ignore red light is probably confusing to put on a traffic sign.

The underpass project has now been cancelled & now considering a Pattaya bypass. With the two major tourist venues near to Bang Saray, coming on stream in the coming year or so, the traffic problems are going to get a lot worse

[Gone]

When I saw the accident I was also turning from Kland right onto Sukhumvit South-bouns so I've always got all my eyes peeled yet what many here don't get is when the Southbound traffic uses this flow-through lane, most of them are doing so at the last second to about buses and traffic taking up the 3 south lanes to actually turn Right onto klang.

So most of the time traffic uses the flow-through lane yet half way through the intersection they are already pulling into the other 3 South-bound lanes and don't give the people turning right off of Klang a chance to get into the left lane.

I am not putting Thais down BUT they don't really know the art or "merging". All they think is they need to turn right then an immediate turn into 7-11 or the Bus station.

The girl I saw get hit hadn't even made it to the left Sukhumvit lane yet and was hit in the second lane like I explained from a truck who decided to cut right in the middle of the intersection and not "merge" over past the solid white line.

It happened very fast but i saw exactly what happened. The trucker did stop and help but it took him quite a distance to m

"merge" back to the left lane and was about 100 meters past the show-room already.

And for all the people as in the very first post to my OP said, (swissie), well I know people in City hall and instead of me coming on TV and just bickering and complaining i decide to at least make a complaint at city Hall. Yes I forgot Monday is a holiday so of course it will be Tuesday. Also your statement about "how long have you been here, 2 days or 2 weeks/" is irrelevant but if you must know it has been 13 strait years, YOU?

Edited August 11, 2013 by Gone

[joepattaya1961]

They will be thrilled to see you on Monday at City-Hall (Queens Birthday) to file a complaint!

Following this Farangs complaint, they will surely re-do the whole intersection without further delay.

How long have you been living here? 2 days or 2 weeks ???

Cheers.

I think this complaint deserves a tunnel!

[brummiebob]

Whenever something new is trialled on this intersection, the barriers gets removed by the local and normal arrangement resumed by lunchtime

like closing the right turn into and out of Central road from Sukhumvit, in effect, closing the whole intersection and making the whole thing a big roundabout forcing the traffic from the north to make a u-turn at McDonald's,

which seems decent in idea, meaning the queue can be longer without disrupting the traffic flow,

only problem with this arrangement is that it makes the two right lanes on Sukhumvit a slow/waiting lane(Already is) which is counter-intuitive for out-of towners who'd get stuck in right-turn/u-turn traffic, easily solved with clear signposting on the footbridge or a gantry

At least with closed intersection the boys in brown can't mess up the traffic light sequence,

However u-turn traffic have to merge at the mercy of northbound traffic. But thing could get messy as the traffic that's just made a u-turn now have to cut across to the left lane to enter central road.

So to solve that mess, either make a horse-shoe bridge to make a u-turn somewhere between central and south intersection, or why not just make a bridge that right-turn in and out of Central road, probably cheaper than an underpass,

but I'm sure even after the bridge has been completed, the motorcycle horde would make an illegal-u-turn after they have crossed the bridge to come back against the traffic flow to get into the sois opposite central road again.

[poanoi]

If you drive slow enough, you can react to anything defensively, a big truck, at the very least.

I came to the opposite conclusion: on the big bike, i can accelerate myself ot of trouble,

as to not interfere with other trafficants,

and this ability on sukumvit is the sole reason i keep my big bike

Edited August 12, 2013 by poanoi

[Spoonman]

Wow I do this intersection daily and have never feared for my life.

[blackman]

me neither

[jbrain]

Whenever something new is trialled on this intersection, the barriers gets removed by the local and normal arrangement resumed by lunchtime

like closing the right turn into and out of Central road from Sukhumvit, in effect, closing the whole intersection and making the whole thing a big roundabout forcing the traffic from the north to make a u-turn at McDonald's,

which seems decent in idea, meaning the queue can be longer without disrupting the traffic flow,

only problem with this arrangement is that it makes the two right lanes on Sukhumvit a slow/waiting lane(Already is) which is counter-intuitive for out-of towners who'd get stuck in right-turn/u-turn traffic, easily solved with clear signposting on the footbridge or a gantry

At least with closed intersection the boys in brown can't mess up the traffic light sequence,

However u-turn traffic have to merge at the mercy of northbound traffic. But thing could get messy as the traffic that's just made a u-turn now have to cut across to the left lane to enter central road.

So to solve that mess, either make a horse-shoe bridge to make a u-turn somewhere between central and south intersection, or why not just make a bridge that right-turn in and out of Central road, probably cheaper than an underpass,

but I'm sure even after the bridge has been completed, the motorcycle horde would make an illegal-u-turn after they have crossed the bridge to come back against the traffic flow to get into the sois opposite central road again.

You think a bridge is the solution?

Have you noticed that every Sunday evening there is a traffic jam at the entrance to the highway going Northbound, and this while the other lanes of Sukhumvit have free flow.

Enforcing " real" driving tests before handing out a driving license would be a good start.

[Spoonman]

When is the Central-Sukhumvit junction bypass construction going to start ?

[bkkjames]

I used this intersection yesterday. As you hit Suk coming from P. Klang there are two lanes marked to turn right which most people use.

For some brilliant reason - yesterday you could still use both these lanes - however as soon as you start rounding the corner they have put up a cone or 2 basically funnelling people into one lane I think (i say i think cause there was only 2 cones). It was total chaos of the most dangerous variety.

As we turned right on our green light - it's not uncommon to expect cars on the far left lane of southbound sukhumit to ignore the red light and drive through. Yesterday however - 2 to 3 lanes of traffic at full speed were either ignoring the red light / our green light or the man switching the lights was in a chaotic mood.

I hate this intersection on the best of days (insane van + bus drivers mixed with bangkokians coming to pattaya to go to the mall + assorted motorbikes with no sense of direction). Can someone lobby foodland to move their store to somewhere less convenient?

[simple1]

When is the Central-Sukhumvit junction bypass construction going to start ?

It has been cancelled & now considering a Pattaya bypass at some time in the future

[jbrain]

I used this intersection yesterday. As you hit Suk coming from P. Klang there are two lanes marked to turn right which most people use.

For some brilliant reason - yesterday you could still use both these lanes - however as soon as you start rounding the corner they have put up a cone or 2 basically funnelling people into one lane I think (i say i think cause there was only 2 cones). It was total chaos of the most dangerous variety.

As we turned right on our green light - it's not uncommon to expect cars on the far left lane of southbound sukhumit to ignore the red light and drive through. Yesterday however - 2 to 3 lanes of traffic at full speed were either ignoring the red light / our green light or the man switching the lights was in a chaotic mood.

I hate this intersection on the best of days (insane van + bus drivers mixed with bangkokians coming to pattaya to go to the mall + assorted motorbikes with no sense of direction). Can someone lobby foodland to move their store to somewhere less convenient?

You will know that the major purpose of the MIB, especially on weekends and holidays, is to create chaos and traffic jams by overriding traffic light cycles and placing unannounced obstructions on the roads.

[jbrain]

When is the Central-Sukhumvit junction bypass construction going to start ?

It has been cancelled & now considering a Pattaya bypass at some time in the future

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

[Turkleton]

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

This bypass is far away from "working well", especially in the afternoon and weekends when the Bangkokian idiots hordes invade into Pattaya.

Accidents happen almost every day at the four main intersections (SSC to Kaotalo), caused by absolutely ruthlessness.

One of the roads, I try to avoid if possible.

But that's not easy if you live on the Darkside..

[Gone]

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

This bypass is far away from "working well", especially in the afternoon and weekends when the Bangkokian idiots hordes invade into Pattaya.

Accidents happen almost every day at the four main intersections (SSC to Kaotalo), caused by absolutely ruthlessness.

One of the roads, I try to avoid if possible.

But that's not easy if you live on the Darkside..

Strangely enough, I have NEVER seen an accident where you say on soi Railway in all the years it has been here and i use it almost daily to avoid Sukhumvit. With traffic jams everywhere these days in Pattaya it seems that the railway bi-pass is very slow going and........well......I have just never seen an accident anywhere along that road. Seen many many police stops though.

[craigt3365]

When is the Central-Sukhumvit junction bypass construction going to start ?

It has been cancelled & now considering a Pattaya bypass at some time in the future

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

I've heard rumors they are doing a bypass that's going to run somewhere from highway 7 towards Maprachan then north of Phoenix and on from there. I'm trying to find a source for this.

[gmac]

If you drive slow enough, you can react to anything defensively, a big truck, at the very least.

I came to the opposite conclusion: on the big bike, i can accelerate myself ot of trouble,

as to not interfere with other trafficants,

and this ability on sukumvit is the sole reason i keep my big bike

Doesn't need to be a big bike, just accelerate quickly away from the junction and keep a bit to the right away from the through traffic then check your mirror and merge to the left. Easy on a PCX and my wife survives the same way on her Scoopy.

[Spoonman]

When is the Central-Sukhumvit junction bypass construction going to start ?

It has been cancelled & now considering a Pattaya bypass at some time in the future

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

I travel the bypass daily both to and from work and it is absolutely garbage due to horrendous traffic, it would be marginally better if they banned trucks and buses from using it during peak hours.

[Turkleton]

The best solution for the bypass would be to turn on the (existing) traffic lights.

But since there are so many <deleted> around, which ignore them completely, that would make it even more worse....

[LennyW]

When is the Central-Sukhumvit junction bypass construction going to start ?

It has been cancelled & now considering a Pattaya bypass at some time in the future

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

I've heard rumors they are doing a bypass that's going to run somewhere from highway 7 towards Maprachan then north of Phoenix and on from there. I'm trying to find a source for this.

http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/work-on-bangkok-ban-chang-highway-extension-to-begin-in-2015-28520

[simple1]

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

I've heard rumors they are doing a bypass that's going to run somewhere from highway 7 towards Maprachan then north of Phoenix and on from there. I'm trying to find a source for this.

http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/work-on-bangkok-ban-chang-highway-extension-to-begin-in-2015-28520

How is this extension going to relieve traffic congestion in Pattaya? The road parallel to the railway lines is already a nightmare during peak times and public holidays. As far as I know there is no planning for overpasses/underpasses to assist the traffic flow at the main intersections.

[ThaiBob]

As far as I'm aware there is a Pattaya bypass for years already e.g. the railway roads, which functions very well as long as they don't turn on the traffic lights or the MIB start " helping" traffic flow.

I've heard rumors they are doing a bypass that's going to run somewhere from highway 7 towards Maprachan then north of Phoenix and on from there. I'm trying to find a source for this.

http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/work-on-bangkok-ban-chang-highway-extension-to-begin-in-2015-28520

How is this extension going to relieve traffic congestion in Pattaya? The road parallel to the railway lines is already a nightmare during peak times and public holidays. As far as I know there is no planning for overpasses/underpasses to assist the traffic flow at the main intersections.

The mayor's underpass/tunnel design was scrapped and rightly so, expensive and subject to flooding. But, the overpass or flyover design has merit. Anyone familiar with the Rama 4 / Sathorn intersection in Bangkok knows what I mean.