Chula academic calls for enforcement of Thai traffic laws

[hobz]

Lingbar, I'm not a racist, but I do consider myself a student of cultures and behaviors, and some behaviors associated with Thai culture is plain stupid. So is some behaviors with every culture that I have encountered.

Now, I try not to be a pessimist, but I do like improvement. I do believe that a good way to improve something ( a society for example), is by identifying and understanding the worst parts and fixing them. So, when thinking about how to improve Thailand I will naturally look at the worst stuff in Thailand, and it may make me look like a pessimist and a racist.

Oh and I'm personally invested in this, because it's not all unlikely that I die on a road in Thailand, and I'd rather not. But I would even more try to avoid going back to my boring and cold hone country, just because Thailand is nicer than my home country doesn't mean it's flawless and just because I'm not Thai doesn't mean I have given up my right to criticize Thailand.

[wiesner]

they have lights at the crossings in pattaya, but they don't care what color it is, they don't stop.

[lingbar]

Lingbar, I'm not a racist, but I do consider myself a student of cultures and behaviors, and some behaviors associated with Thai culture is plain stupid. So is some behaviors with every culture that I have encountered.

Now, I try not to be a pessimist, but I do like improvement. I do believe that a good way to improve something ( a society for example), is by identifying and understanding the worst parts and fixing them. So, when thinking about how to improve Thailand I will naturally look at the worst stuff in Thailand, and it may make me look like a pessimist and a racist.

Oh and I'm personally invested in this, because it's not all unlikely that I die on a road in Thailand, and I'd rather not. But I would even more try to avoid going back to my boring and cold hone country, just because Thailand is nicer than my home country doesn't mean it's flawless and just because I'm not Thai doesn't mean I have given up my right to criticize Thailand.

I was just reacting to a couple of the comments. I agree constructive criticism of behaviours that are dangerous etc. is a good thing. But to declare an entire people 'braindead' is just wrong. I get tired of reading and listening to people moan, whinge and complain about the people around them in ways that are, let's face it, racist. Calling all people of any kind stupid is grossly unfair and bigoted.

As to what you say about improving things by identifying aspects that are less than ideal, I agree and applaud such action. I disagree with the trolls who have used this guy standing up and calling for some change, as an opportunity for yet more insults. Let's all hope that things can get better on the roads and in all people's lives.

[ldnguy]

As my nickname says, I travel a lot.

Have been to almost 100 countries.

By far, is Thailand the worst offender in this regards.

Never any other place (maybe some city here and there), is the total disregard for the traffic regulations so universal, as it is in Thailand.

There is not total disregard of traffic regulations. Go to any city and stand near traffic lights. The cast majority stop when the lights are red. The vast majority drive within speed limits. There are many people that ignore certain traffic laws, but it's plain ridiculous to say there is total disregard for them. I know plenty of Thais that follow almost all traffic laws. In every country, many traffic laws are broken daily.

[Felt 35]

Great to see that its hope but how to achieve law enforcement in a society based on relationship.... and not the law, which is the main reason to why law enforcement in Thailand hardly works. If it does, it is selectively enforced on those who are either nobody or do not know anybody, or who have no money to ease their wrong-doings or buy their way out of problems!

[RickBradford]

Enforce trafic laws? What traffic laws?

Traffic laws do actually exist in Thailand, believe it or not. They are on a par with British laws and standards.

However, it is much easier not to employ or enforce such and, as a result, dectuple your monthly income if you wear a brown uniform.

Edit: My apologies: 'centuple'...

That's right.

Thailand is a kind of cargo cult society -- they think that if they pass laws in parliament to British or international standards, then everyone's behaviour will magically and instantly adhere to those standards.

They are yet to grasp that for a law to be a law, there has to be someone enforcing it, and penalties for breaking it.

[Sealbash]

they have lights at the crossings in pattaya, but they don't care what color it is, they don't stop.

I hope you are including farangs, Chinese, Koreans, and anyone else driving. The blatant disregard for traffic laws is not confined to Thais.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[Torrens54]

This guy has been reading ThaiVisa Forum recently. Good.

What would Thailand do with out THAIVISA?

Why do some people have an over inflated opinion of how this forum influences Thai society!

It has sure had an Influence on YOU!

Do you assume that the Law Makers are less astute than you?

[inutil]

This is grossly irresponsible! Messages like this will only result in confusion for pedestrians and lead to thousands of prevenatable deaths on the zebra crossings of Thailand!

[ChrisY1]

Thai drivers will never obey road rules.....I think something we just have to accept.....I'de be quite happy if they drive in their lanes...not halfway over the line......and steering the car straight!

[ggold]

This guy has been reading ThaiVisa Forum recently. Good.

What would Thailand do with out THAIVISA?

Why do some people have an over inflated opinion of how this forum influences Thai society!

It has sure had an Influence on YOU!

Do you assume that the Law Makers are less astute than you?

Thaivisa doesn't have an influence on me. I come here to read all to nonsense posts and have a laugh! Where do I suggest Thai lawmakers are less astute? What are you trying to say? Are you saying Thai lawmakers need to read TV to know how to proceed?

[Bernard Flint]

Amazing! It took a Thai political scientist to come to the startling revelation that ENFORCING traffic laws would be a good thing. What a novel idea! Just imagine for a minute what a great idea it would be to not only have traffic laws and then to have drivers take a test to show that they understand the laws BUT, taking it to the extreme of ENFORCING the laws. WOW! ! ! !

That would take thousands of non thais off the road, problem solved then, let the thais do what they want then

[Bernard Flint]

Some of these posts realy make me laugh

farangs want better traffic laws, then moan like hell when they get stopped for a traffic offense, then describe how they gave money to the cop

Complaints everywhere about visas, then farang pay money for retirement visa, hilarious how two faced they are.

[Bernard Flint]

Good to see that the usual set of racist asshats with nothing in their lives are here to comment on their perceived lack of intelligence among our host country people. Some of you should just <deleted> off and be miserable somewhere else.

Not perceived at all, it was actually proven various studies that the Thai IQ is lower than most of their Western counterparts

http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html

http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-lowest-average-iq/

Do they do surveys within the ghetos of Liverpool, the council estates of Manchester, the families who have had 2/3 generations of stealing/ robbing, having no jobs,scrounging off the dole,while selling drugs, cheap ciggies., the despicable murders of innocent people by the IRA Mafia, in Northern Ireland claiming it was for religion.The black no go areas of America where even the police dont enter..Compare that little lot and the surveys would e totaly different.

Some need to grow up and remember the bad places of their countries and be more humble.

[garrya]

But why hasn't anybody suggested this before???

[steveyinasia]

As my nickname says, I travel a lot.

Have been to almost 100 countries.

By far, is Thailand the worst offender in this regards.

Never any other place (maybe some city here and there), is the total disregard for the traffic regulations so universal, as it is in Thailand.

Have you tried crossing the road in Manila at a crossing, the drivers there even have the audacity to sound there horn at you for being on the crossing.

[indothai]

Step 1: Enforcement of traffic laws.

This step just makes sense. This includes discipline from all motorists.

Step 2: Review of traffic laws.

I believe some laws needs to be updated.

Example 1, motorcycles need to stay on the left lane and off the bridges.... I believe my road tax applies to all lanes, including bridges? If not, then those cars needs to stay off the motorcycle lanes.

Example 2, updated traffic fines.

[lostmebike]

'He proposed that it should become mandatory for drivers to stop and let pedestrians go when they cross the roads using zebra crossings'

Is it not law to stop then?

[dao16]

I have always thought it was funny that they don't actually enforce traffic laws, given how much they like money. With all the violations happening on a daily basis, they could basically take their pick!

Instead, what we get is no enforcement at all and then the occasional roadblock that is just them stopping people for papers or helmets and extracting money. I guess that is less work.

One day I went through a checkpoint and they were checking dumb stuff to get money from people. Then, later that same day outside of a nightclub, a drunk guy was doing donuts at this intersection where tons of cars were parked. Result: the guy who doesn't have the right registration has to pay 500 or 1000 baht, but the guy who is endangering lives and property (cars and bike within meters of his spinning) gets nothing. In theory, you could fine that guy MUCH more! Lazy.

[Seastallion]

Motorcycle helmets stored in the carry basket put on when the BIB are nearby taken off when BIB have been passed, Unbelievable

Helmets and seatbelts are seen as anti fine devices not safety devices.

That's far from true in Hat Yai. Only ever see the police during peak traffic, yet probably 75% of motorcyclists wear their helmets all the time, the other 25% just don't have them.

When I first arrived, I thought the traffic was crazy. That was from the point of view of a pedestrian or a passenger in a tuktuk or on a motosy, but now I am driving, I can see most of the "craziness" is simply group mentality being expedient and everyone is on the same wavelength, so it works.

My biggest gripe is over-cautious car drivers stopping at intersections and not going when they could, or stopping mid intersection to give way, even though it's the other traffic on the stop sign.

I've witnessed a lot of driver courtesy, too, giving way to a bike turning off the main road, for example.

Of course there are the aggressive and impatient ones, especially the song teuws and van drivers, but overall, the private vehicles get along quite well and fairly safely.

I don't condone it at all, but the practice of having Mum, Dad, and Baby all on a bike probably wouldn't be so prevalent if there were fatalities.

But this is Hat Yai.....different I guess.

[everett kendall]

As my nickname says, I travel a lot.

Have been to almost 100 countries.

By far, is Thailand the worst offender in this regards.

Never any other place (maybe some city here and there), is the total disregard for the traffic regulations so universal, as it is in Thailand.

Guess you didnt drive in Saudi like I did for 11 years. They have the worst drivers in the world. Driversn dont respect the law, other drivers.

[upena]

If driving laws were actually enforced, 1/2 the country would be behind bars within the first 48 hours.

[FATOZ]

As my nickname says, I travel a lot.

Have been to almost 100 countries.

By far, is Thailand the worst offender in this regards.

Never any other place (maybe some city here and there), is the total disregard for the traffic regulations so universal, as it is in Thailand.

Never been to Vietnam then ?

At least in Vietnam you can be reasonably confident that you will get to the other side of the road alive. While drivers may not stop at pedestrian crossings they do actually make a conscious effort to avoid running you over, and generally they don't travel at more than 40km per hour. The traffic police in Vietnam will definitely stop people and issue fines if they see them breaking the road rules, and while I am sure that some of them may be open to bribery, I personally have never seen or been subjected to it, unlike Thailand where it seems to be the national sport

[PaullyW]

Lingbar, I'm not a racist, but I do consider myself a student of cultures and behaviors, and some behaviors associated with Thai culture is plain stupid. So is some behaviors with every culture that I have encountered.

Now, I try not to be a pessimist, but I do like improvement. I do believe that a good way to improve something ( a society for example), is by identifying and understanding the worst parts and fixing them. So, when thinking about how to improve Thailand I will naturally look at the worst stuff in Thailand, and it may make me look like a pessimist and a racist.

Oh and I'm personally invested in this, because it's not all unlikely that I die on a road in Thailand, and I'd rather not. But I would even more try to avoid going back to my boring and cold hone country, just because Thailand is nicer than my home country doesn't mean it's flawless and just because I'm not Thai doesn't mean I have given up my right to criticize Thailand.

Boom. Great post.

Several orders of intelligence higher than the 'if you don't like it, go home' comments or the 'I've seen this happen in another country, and therefore it's not just Thailand, and therefore Thailand has no problem' comments.

[Estrada]

"He proposed that it should become mandatory for drivers to stop and let pedestrians go when they cross the roads using zebra crossings."

Chula's political scientist (whatever one of those is in Thailand, as there ain't much science applied to Thai politics currently)?

Most Thais think a zebra crossing is a few lines in the road which were once markers for speed humps, but have since been flattened by heavily laden lorries and 40' high Isuzus carrying cardboard.

Glad to see he's on the ball though, for what the function of a zebra crossing is. Must have taken him 4 years of a PhD to get P<0,05 in that cars are supposed to stop.

Don't be silly. The reason they think a zebra crossing has white lines is so that it is easy to spot a dead or injured pedestrian as red blood shows up well against a white back ground, so they don't have an accident and can drive around it.

[HappyinNE]

As my nickname says, I travel a lot.

Have been to almost 100 countries.

By far, is Thailand the worst offender in this regards.

Never any other place (maybe some city here and there), is the total disregard for the traffic regulations so universal, as it is in Thailand.

Never been to Vietnam then ?

Yes, I have and they obey the laws a lot better than in Thailand. Even stop for you at crosswalks.

[PaullyW]

they have lights at the crossings in pattaya, but they don't care what color it is, they don't stop.

I hope you are including farangs, Chinese, Koreans, and anyone else driving. The blatant disregard for traffic laws is not confined to Thais.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

Another dumb post.

Farangs? How many are Farangs as a percentage of drivers in Thailand?

Does an anecdote of 1 percent vs 50 percent mean both are equivalent?

Anyway, many farangs have learned I'm sure that in fact it's often deadly dangerous to obey the traffic laws in Thailand because the majority do not.

[northernjohn]

Not even going to bother reading the OP.

My mentally challenged nephew knows this.

[Estrada]

Good to see that the usual set of racist asshats with nothing in their lives are here to comment on their perceived lack of intelligence among our host country people. Some of you should just <deleted> off and be miserable somewhere else.

Not perceived at all, it was actually proven various studies that the Thai IQ is lower than most of their Western counterparts

http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html

http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-with-the-highest-lowest-average-iq/

On the other hand the studies show that the top 5 countries with the highest average I.Q. are all Asians in this region, higher than their western counterparts.

[pitrevie]

I think it would be more to the point if the OP was to read

Chula academic calls for enforcement of the law.