Experts in Phuket discuss ways to tackle Southern road accident toll

[NamKangMan]

Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT."

Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet.

As I post, 10 threads out of 29 threads on the front news page of the Phuket forum are roads and/or traffic and/or accident related. That's 35% of the front page threads.

The lack of public transport on Phuket continues to be the number one negative issue here, day after day, week after week - as people continue to lose their lives or be maimed on the roads here, and the best they can do is have a few experts have a meeting while only 1000kms away, in Pattaya, a baht bus system transports thousands of people evreyday, all over the tourist city.

You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS.

Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark

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Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS..

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/577559-chiang-mai-ranks-3rd-in-the-nation-for-road-accident-deaths/

People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice, and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work.

Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport' combined with LOS terrible driving standards, encouraged and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing/rules,starting from initially obtaining a drivers license, right through to road conditions ,poor signage,non stringent enforcement of traffic laws[tea money instead of heavy fines eg] which i believe ,if rectified would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here.The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of license soon gets through, even to the most dense minds.

But consider that , no matter what is done re; lowering the road toll, worldwide people will still have crashes and many will still die..sadly, thats just the way it is!

EDIT..aussiebrian..i was writing my post whilst you had posted yours, and i may have said some things similar to you..Your post is spot on in every detail..

I couldn't disagree with you more, and I will give my reasons.

"You really need to get off this ;Two words: "PUBLIC TRANSPORT BS." - as mentioned, 10 out of the 29 front page news threads are transport, roads, traffic and accident related. That's 35%. That's 1 in every 3 Phuket forum news threads, started by Thaivisa, are negative land transport related threads. In my opinion, the roads, traffic and accident threads are all connected, and related to the lack of transportation on Phuket.

There's no denying that transport is a big issue on Phuket. I don't start the threads, I only post on them.

"Your frequent posting of things like this on this thread eg :"Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet".is flawed IMO..maybe, just maybe a couple of lives may be saved [which in itself is great] but to say the stats will plummet is way off the mark." - what if one of those lives were your own, or a family member or friend???? So, don't give me the usual, "I'm an expat so the transport issue doesn't effect me" rubbish. You could be wiped out by a drunk tourist in a hire car coming back from Bangla Road just like anyone else.

You may know how to ride/drive, and may be sober, but that doesn't mean the person coming the other way is experienced and sober. Let's be honest, they are riding/driving because it's cheaper than getting ripped off by a tuk-tuk and there are no taxis or baht buses. Nothing new about that. In any case, you have contradicted yourself. Even if it saves two lives - it has saved lives. In my opinion, it would save a lot more than two lives.

For example, picture Pattaya without their baht bus system. All the locals, expats and tourists would ride or drive - of course their accident, and therefore death toll, would skyrocket.

"Chiang Mai has affordable tuk tuks, taxis,songtaews by the hundreds @20 baht,a few buses,great modern ringroads, underpasses,overpasses super highways.roads in very,very good repair in general and leave Phuket in the dust in all regards of "ease and apparent safety of getting around" and yet Chiang Mai has the 3rd highest road toll in LOS." - you do know Chiang Mai is Thailand's second biggest city behind Bangkok, don't you????

Nowhere did you mention PER-CAPITA in your comparision. If you are going to compare Chiang Mai's road toll to Phuket's road toll - it should be done on a per-capita basis. If not, why not compare Chiang Mai to Shanghai - China or Mubai - India> I think you will find, on a per-capita basis, Phuket has one of the highest road tolls in South East Asia.

"People on holidays want to have the freedom of choice," - where's the choice????

200 baht minimum journey in a tuk-tuk or 250 baht a day to rent a bike. How about adding a hop on - hop -off baht bus system as a choice and some proper metered taxis like in Bangkok???? It exists in Phuket's biggest competitor destination, Pattaya, why not here????

"and if their choice is to rent a bike or car and drive in a country that's known worldwide for its attrocious road behaviour= 3rd highest death rate in the world..thats what they do now and will continue to do in future..thats human nature[and a bit of darwinism] at work." - REALLY???? I didn't think "Darwinism" involved the killing of an innocent law abiding road user.

"Visitors 'leaving the brain at the airport'" - to be fair, they probably had no idea just how much they were going to get ripped off by tuk-tuks until they got here.

"and allowed by a total lack of pro active and active policing" - so, tell me, how do you get home after a big night out drinking????

"road conditions, poor signage, non stringent enforcement of traffic laws (tea money instead of heavy fines eg) which I believe, if rectified, would have the most effect in lowering the road toll here" - if they ever did seriously enforce the road laws here, particularly in relation to drink driving/riding, in my opinion, Phuket would lose what little it has left of it's western tourist market. Could you imagine the rise in tuk-tuk prices if the BiB did not take bribes and properly enforce the drink driving laws? We would be seeing 1000 baht tuk-tuk fares - it's pay, or risk going to gaol. Tourists would not come here.

"The thought of having to pay big fines/loss of licence soon gets through, even to the most dense minds." REALLY? Thailand has lengthy gaol terms, and even the death penalty, for drugs, yet, the drug use on Phuket keeps growing. Once again, with NO viable/affordable transport option, people will continue to break the road laws.

"people will still have crashes, and many will still die....sadly, that's just the way it is" - true. I have NEVER stated proper public transport would eradicate all accidents, but it would certainly save many lives on Phuket, which currently has no real public transport.

So, I will leave you with a question. In all major tourist destinations, all over the world, one can ring, or wave a taxi over, enter the vehcile, and in general, have the meter turned on, and get from Point A to Point B - WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS ON PHUKET, considering the TAT are advertising Phuket as a "World Class tourist desination?"

I've got no intention of feeding your trolling rave on tuk tuks ..you have tunnel vision on this issue and you twist and turn every comment to suit your sad wee agenda and compare all to the tuk tuk evils.

My point was simply show that even tho' CM has all manner of public transport available, the road toll is still very, very high..everything you have regurgitated in your reply above skirts around this fact!

You said "Have a baht bus system between the beaches on Phuket and watch the fatal road statisics plummet. "

I have pointed out with full explanation to you that this line is a fallacy...

The rest of your post is just your usual ad nauseum rave...

It was hardly a troll post.

Your point on Chiang Mai is statistically flawed, and I pointed out why.

You agreed that having a baht bus system on Phuket may save "a couple of lives" - so, it would save lives. All we are discussing is the amount of lives it would save. You say a few, I say a lot.

As for the rest of my post, well, it's pretty obvious that everyone needs access to a vehicle on Phuket, because of the lack of affordable public transport here, and that fact has a direct influence on the road conditions, the traffic, parling, the accidents and therefore the death toll.

How is that an "ad nauseum rave?"

[eezergood]

NO policing + lack of social responsibility = ongoing situation