Metropolitan Police to fine jaywalkers in Bangkok

[louse1953]

Aren't most of the zebra-striped crosswalks we're talking about, in BKK anyway, located at stoplighted intersections? Drivers SHOULD be stopped & fined for failing to stop for a pedestrian in such a crosswalk, but pedestrians should NOT be crossing against the light. The most common violation I see is pedestrians HAVING the light with them, but drivers - all of 'em - continuing to turn "left on red" with them in the crosswalk. Even when police are actively present in a police booth monitoring the intersection, I've never seen them do anything about it.

Sometimes there is a sign,hanging from a piece of cardboard that says you can do this.Out in the boonies even signs saying you can go through red lights,that took some getting used to.

[shirtless]

More rules , Thailand is fast becoming like the west,

[sae57]

Tried this in Denver CO 20-30 years ago. Didn't last long. Really there are more important things for the police to do.

BTW in any city I've been in, in the US cars don't have to stop if a ped. steps into a zebra crossing. I was amazed when I went to England & discovered you could just step out & the cars would stop.

[Codesh]

That's the end of my fitness training then. No more sprinting across zebra crossings at the first break in traffic. My weaving in and out between cars was getting ok too - good practice for slalom on the slopes next winter.

[Maggusoil]

So, I guess the payment to the BiB will be now down to 100 baht?

That's why there's only one receipt on the system

[Keesters]

I really don't get all these crackdowns. The police announce a crackdown on something and the spend a few days issuing fines for that one thing while all the other illegal activities are ignored. It is like a license to commit a felony. e.g. Fining jaywalkers while motorcyclists without helmets pass by unhindered. Is the RTP so inefficient that all they can do is crackdown on one thing at a time? The RTP need proper training and need to enforce the law for ALL things ALL the time.

[natway09]

Fab 5 U got it!

If we can wake up the police in the box at Sukhumvit /Nana could make a lot of money catching the elite that in driving their car believe

that a red light is a signal to put your foot down & get through faster, & try to miss the pedestrians.

Many broken bones already

[exalll]

Tried this in Denver CO 20-30 years ago. Didn't last long. Really there are more important things for the police to do.

BTW in any city I've been in, in the US cars don't have to stop if a ped. steps into a zebra crossing. I was amazed when I went to England & discovered you could just step out & the cars would stop.

So, if I understand, in the US, if you try to cross a road where there is no pedestrian crossing, cars are NOT obliged to stop. If you try to cross a road where there IS a pedestrian crossing, cars are NOT obliged to stop. So what is the difference, and what is the point of having pedestrian crossings? As an earlier poster suggested, is it just because they look nice?

[Jasun]

Playing frogger after a night on the tiles at Cowboy was half the fun. I hope by enforcing this they'll also be ensuring cars stop at the lights so pedestrians can cross where and when they should.

[hawker9000]

Tried this in Denver CO 20-30 years ago. Didn't last long. Really there are more important things for the police to do.

BTW in any city I've been in, in the US cars don't have to stop if a ped. steps into a zebra crossing. I was amazed when I went to England & discovered you could just step out & the cars would stop.

You're just picking nits. Pedestrians have the right of way in a striped zone. You don't necessarily have to stop just because a pedestrian is somewhere in the entire zone, like a foot from the curb and in a whole other lane of traffic, but you do have to give way, and if people keep entering the zone while you're waiting, you get to keep waiting (unless a crossing guard takes control). If the pedestrian has to change his pace or dodge to avoid you, you've broken the law. If you should hit somebody in one of these zones, it's on you just about no matter what. "I didn't see them" won't cut it. Your JOB to see them in a crosswalk. It's why you find them around schools, hospitals, near the homes of disabled (esp. blind or deaf) children, and high-traffic public buildings (like courthouses...) a lot in the U.S. And you don't often see drivers in the states ignoring them, EXCEPT maybe in mall parking lots where storeowners - rather than DOTs - put them everywhere willy nilly.

A "crosswalk" actually just has two bounding lines with no striping, like at urban intersections. Cars are supposed to stop short of these lines when waiting for the light (sometimes there's actually a third "stop line"). A striped zone however is a horse of a different color and puts much more responsibility on the driver, not that hitting a pedestrian in a normal (unstriped) crosswalk in the U.S. would be a good thing...

I could be wrong about this, but it's been my belief that a pedestrian can enter a zebra-striped zone at ANY time, and doesn't have to wait for any lights (though a great many will to be polite or just to keep mind & body together), whereas non zebra-striped zones, where they exist, usually have light signals pedestrians must adhere to. In Thailand, scofflaws are so much the rule rather than the exception, that I'm not too sure everything I've said about the states applies. You can't tell if the crowd is just ignoring the law, or there actually is no law. (I don't actually think most foreigners who claim to, really know the truth of these things either.)

[Tanlic]

I wish that Thailand changed the traffic laws to be like in Finland and Switzerland where the fine is based on your salary/income. Highest fine (ever) for speeding in Finland € 120000 and in Switzerland 1 million CHF... you don't even have to pay that kind of money if you kill someone here in Thailand!

So I think that if the fines were higher then people just might start thinking about the others in traffic too and not just about "ME, MYSELF and I".

Totally disagree with that law.....It's abit like horse racing A top jockey can lose 50,000 euro in riding fees and prize share if he gets a 5 day ban another jockey might have only 1 booked ride and loses only 50 euro yet both commted exactly the same offense.

If a poor man or a rich man are found guilty of murder both get life so why should driving laws be different. The punishment should fit the crime as they say

120,000 euro for speeding? Was the judge wired to the moon

[Anon999]

How about installing more crosswalks?

How about inforcing a law for traffic that will not stop for you at one?

How about inforcing a law for traffic that will actually speed up when you try to use one?

How about inforcing a law for traffic that obstruct crosswalks?

What a joke...

How about installing pedestrian operated traffic lights as is standard in the UK with cameras.

[tigermoth]

What a laugh. It's a lot safer to jaywalk than use a zebra crossing. When jaywalking you know the traffic will not stop therefore you take the appropriate avoidance action. On a zebra crossing there is total confusion. The traffic doesn't stop but sometimes it does, only when lights further along are slowing it down. Even when on the crossing the traffic still has to be avoided, at the very least a wary eye kept on it, and motorbikes, forget it.

[tingtongtourist]

This must be farang only crackdown since the sign is in english. Usually they have thai writing and english smaller on the same sign or not at all when it suits

this word jaywalker,the spelling and meaning i would think 80% of thais would have no idea what it means anyway maybe even 95.

This same thing as throwing cigarrete butt fine.only have to pay if your farang?

[bushwacker]

Keep up the good work. Soon there is going to be a crack down on Motorcycles driving on sidewalks.

What about the parked taxi and motorcycles and food shops and businesses that have taken over the sidewalk. Where are we suppose to walk then? Maybe we can walk on the road but just cannot cross?!

[mercman24]

think i might have said this before, but relevent now. so what about the taxis and motorbike taxis, at the second crossing on soi 4 who do not stop for pedestrains on the green light at all, christ they would have a field day collecting fines, so it is ok to be a taxi driver /motorbike taxi to drive through ligit crossing people.

[northernjohn]

Well before I read the replies I was wondering how many policemen they had deployed to watch ahnd fine vehicles who do not stop when there is a person in the crosswalk.

OK now I will read it.

[northernjohn]

Ahhh, a new crackdown! No week without a new crackdown in Thailand these day.

Well if they want to clean up the mess they were given they will have to pick up the pace.

[northernjohn]

How about fining the muppets who walk on sidewalk glued to their mobile phones, texting or facebook or whatever they do, the ones that bounce off of you and continue as if nothing has happened. I remember when I first moved to Thailand in 2001, I was walking through BKK with a mate from home who'd been living here for a good few years and he said to me, "you know what I'm going to do when I get rich Al"?... "I'm going to open a school and teach these <deleted> how to walk properly"... Not too much changes does it..

How do we know it is not you not watching where you are going?

If you were they would not bounce off of you. I presume you would have enough sense to move out of the way.

I could be wrong have been in the past on occasion wrong.

[northernjohn]

And in other news, murderers, drug dealers and other criminals continue to walk free!

I take it you are of the opinion that no traffic laws should be patrolled. In my opinion it is not the detectives working traffic. They are trying to lock up murders and drug dealers. In spite of the courts giving murders freedom to walk the streets after they are found guilty.

[Jonmarleesco]

And about time. These people are a menace, what with treating those black and white thingmegummies as though they have rights, often obstructing law abiding drivers who are trying to park on the stripey bits, before making a beeline for the other side, forcing other drivers to swerve around them, or worse, to remove their feet from the seat in order to panic stop. Then they have the temerity to wander off down the pavement, meeting other jaywalkers coming the other way and, between them, obliging motorcyclists to squeeze through the remaining few centimetres of space.

Disgraceful.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

Ahhh, a new crackdown! No week without a new crackdown in Thailand these day.

Well if they want to clean up the mess they were given they will have to pick up the pace.

Still can't figure out why a crackdown on those lovely Beer girls

[hawker9000]

How about fining the muppets who walk on sidewalk glued to their mobile phones, texting or facebook or whatever they do, the ones that bounce off of you and continue as if nothing has happened. I remember when I first moved to Thailand in 2001, I was walking through BKK with a mate from home who'd been living here for a good few years and he said to me, "you know what I'm going to do when I get rich Al"?... "I'm going to open a school and teach these <deleted> how to walk properly"... Not too much changes does it..

How do we know it is not you not watching where you are going?

If you were they would not bounce off of you. I presume you would have enough sense to move out of the way.

I could be wrong have been in the past on occasion wrong.

Nope, if their rudeness & stupidity lead them into a collision with me on the sidewalk, I'm not necessarily going to facilitate their arrogance & carelessness by trying to stagger around them. And if they should happen to drop their phone in the process, it'll be a shame, won't it? I'll smile, politely say " 'sorry", and continue on my merry way as they stoop down to pick up the pieces.

Ownership of a cellphone is not a license to abandon all courtesy and common consideration. Pretend that it is, and one takes certain risks...

[GAZZPA]

Priceless,,, fine pedestrians for not using the zebra crossing properly. Never mind the complete disregard for the zebra crossing by motorists. Perhaps spend more time on enforcing the road laws rather then attacking the pedestrians.

For me and most others crossing the road in Bangkok is like dicing with death, you have to cross wherever it looks the safest to do so as drivers don't give a stuff about your presence.

[theoldgit]

Does anybody know what exactly is the fuction of a zebra crossing in Bangkok? Are motorists supposed to stop to allow pedestrians to cross, or is it just a place where people can cross the road without committing jay-walking?

I am not being facetious; I really would like to know.

I think the post below, that was posted before yours, actually gave the answer.

The officer said that it's always been law but, despite the danger to pedestrians, has not been enforced.

Much as I would like there to be a change of mind set whereby drivers stop automatically when there are pedestrians on a crossing, I doubt it very much, especially given the differing answers given to a earlier poster when he asked his pupils, and the "me first" attitude of many drivers in Bangkok.

Where I live drivers rarely stop when there's a red light at a traffic lights pedestrian crossing, and at other crossings drivers rarely even slow down, even more rarely stop, when there are pedestrians trying to cross the road at a crossing, be the pedestrians older people, parents with babies and youngsters or even police officers.

I would dearly love things to change but I suspect this will join the long line of failed initiatives when the press cameras have gone.

Pol.Maj.Gen. Nipon Charoenpol, deputy commander of Metropolitan Police Bureau, said police will begin monitoring drivers behavior around zebra crossings in the financial district of Asoke.

BANGKOK Drivers in Bangkok are now legally required to stop for pedestrians at zebra crosswalks following a new campaign launched by police yesterday.

Police announced last week that from 1 September onward, motorists who failed to stop at zebra crossings in Bangkok will face a fine of 500 baht.

Although the current Traffic Act does require drivers to stop at the crosswalks, the law has not been strictly enforced and many pedestrians in the capital city prefer to use the "pedestrian bridges" over roads to avoid risking their lives with the oncoming traffic.

Pol.Maj.Gen. Nipon Charoenpol, deputy commander of Metropolitan Police Bureau, said police will begin monitoring drivers behavior around zebra crossings in the financial district of Asoke.

"Drivers who don't slow down their vehicles when they approach the crossing will be fined no more than 500 baht," Pol.Maj.Gen. Nipon said yesterday. "Pedestrians who don't use zebra crossing will also be guilty of violating Traffic Act ... which carries a fine of no more than 200 baht."

[USNret]

Several of the Thai students spoke up and said that there is no requirement in Thai traffic law for cars / vehicles to stop at these crossings. They are there to make it look nice,

"there to make it look nice"

lol, the best thing I've read on TV all day. Thank you for sharing!