Bicycle lanes planned throughout Thailand

[webfact]

Bicycle lanes planned throughout nation
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- A network of bicycle lanes would be built throughout the kingdom under a new government initiative.

In response to a call by junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, who’s been peddling petaling for healthy living, the THB20 million proposal would both improve existing lanes and construct new ones.

"The prime minister's policy is to campaign for the increasing use of bicycles to promote tourism, solve traffic problems and support exercise," Soithip Trisuddhi, permanent secretary for transport, said in the Bangkok Post.

In Bangkok, those new lanes would be built under elevated expressways.

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co//2014/11/14/bicycle-lanes-planned-throughout-nation-1

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2014-11-14

[uel1968]

Tourists should try avoid the Thai roads,forget the cycle lanes,put the money towards the orphanages.

[clockman]

Sheer madness! Roads are not safe anywhere in Thailand. And to speak of cycling.

[taony]

In response to a call by junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, who’s been peddling petaling for healthy living, the THB20 million proposal would both improve existing lanes and construct new ones.

[Thailand]

Waste of money.

[KunMatt]

Isn't it always strange to see a place in such need of basic infrastructure renovations and they try to change or fix things which are not paramount to causing the problems here. It's like having a house with a poor foundation and instead of stopping it from collapsing from it's poor foundation you just plant a new tree in the front garden to make up for it.

[JOC]

If you against the odds should survive your holiday to the islands, the encounter with your wife's "brother" and the notorious dangerous Thai balconies, now Thailand offers you the ultimate challenge: Get on the bike!!

A killer-idea!!

[zydeco]

Great idea. These new bike paths will make excellent spaces for street food vendors.

[doggie888888]

I'd eat my bicycle if it happens in pattaya.

[taony]

Well I ride my bike to work every day so in theory this is good news for me. But my experience in NY is always that the bike lanes aren't great and don't make it any safer for me to ride. I think anything built here will be even worse. From the very few I've seen here, I haven't changed that opinion, its only been strengthened. And I don't really want to ride all the way on the left on the roads in Bangkok. The list of hazards is too long to get into. Just the road itself has a litany of different hazards, let alone all the people who will be mobbing the lane. So I am not sure how they are going to make anything worth using unless they make a commitment to the project which I don't think anyone is willing to make.

[Misterwhisper]

Love the OP photo: The good general, donning a helmet and riding a bicycle flanked by secret service officials and being photographed by scores of reporters.

How far did he ride? 30 meters? 50 meters? 5 kilometers? And did the "men in black" have to run alongside him all the way?

Thais even use a car or motorbike when they they go buy a bag of ice at the mom and pop store less than 100 meters down the road. Why would the entire nation suddenly want to take to bicycling?

99% of Bangkokians don't even own a bicycle. Where are they to store it? In their one-room apartments on the 15th floor?

The only people one sees in Bangkok riding bicycles are maids and gardeners in quiet side lanes or the occasional crazy 'farang' negotiating the capital's 6-lane thoroughfares.

[Jay Sata]

Soon to be populated with lots of motorbikes and many coming the wrong way with no lights!

[taony]

I hadn't even noticed that was him on the bike. He's wearing the worst kind of helmet.

[coma]

As if there is room for bicycle lanes in BKK. Had the around Chiang Mai for a few years now. Basically a giveway to bicycles lane.

[thequietman]

Just need to let the truck drivers, tractor drivers, car drivers, pickup drivers, delivery truck drivers, vendors and the BIB know about it. And even then it won't work.

Edited November 14, 2014 by thequietman

[Commerce]

20 MILLION for bicycle lane across the country? Gotta be kidding.

"In Bangkok, those new lanes would be built under elevated expressways."

Note to self - if out riding in Bangkok, look right, look left, and ruddy look up for falling cars and lorries from above.

[toybits]

When the Generals and the Senior Government Officials start cycling on a daily basis, I just might begin to believe them. Publicity stunts like that featured in the OP does nothing. Lead by example. Walk the talk. When that happens, people will start following you. Otherwise . . . bwahaha.

[konying]

Considering that zebra crossings do not mean much, driving on the wrong side of the road is perfectly acceptable, for the life of me i do not see how bicycle lanes would have any meaning or provide any safety.

Most likely will be taken over by the taxi drivers and stalls selling some kind of crap

[BuddhistVirus]

I hope it's better than the bicycle lane near me, where you have to dodge and maneuver sinkholes, electric poles and recently erected trees supported on four long wooden legs, and then a stream of motosy approach you from the other direction.

[TommyUK1960]

And we have a pink elephant flying over Bangkok.

Great idea but how long before they have vendors and motorbikes on these lovely cycle lanes,

It would be nice to have pavements that we can actually use for walking on without vendors or motorbikes being parked on them.

Aint going to happen in the next 50 years

[Cloggie]

Rome has not been build in day - lets talk about this next year again and see if any progress has been made.

[Bullie]

If I figure correctly that amounts to 400,000,- Euro. In the Netherlands it would buy you aprox. 1 km. of cyclelane. I Thailand this money will be gone long, long before a meter of asphalt has been rolled out. It' s all the commities you see, they are so darned expensive.

Apart from that it' s a crap idea. Way too hot after 08.00 a.m., and too dangerous competing with the all the nonbiking Thai who will claim it as their own.

[Rumblecat]

I like the idea but as a lot of posters have said, it might not be workable. Right now roads are sometimes for driving on, sometimes as a place for carts to set up stalls, for people to park cars, for vehicles to drive down the wrong side just because etc etc. Although it has worked pretty well with the MRT- although there's a big difference between their lanes and bicycle lanes.

[Tomtomtom69]

And we have a pink elephant flying over Bangkok.

Great idea but how long before they have vendors and motorbikes on these lovely cycle lanes,

It would be nice to have pavements that we can actually use for walking on without vendors or motorbikes being parked on them.

Aint going to happen in the next 50 years

And yet despite the 5000 Baht fines they threaten if you drive on the footpath/sidewalk, which nobody reads, or is it that nobody CAN read? It's funny when I can read the signs and the locals all around are blatantly ignoring them.

[Mr Somtam]

Nobody rides a bicycle in Thailand! They take the car or motorbike to get a Fanta @ 50 meters distance!

[slapout]

Hope the PM's figure is the one that will determine the amount of graft (possible/probale) Chiang Mai officals say the cost in CM alone would be 23 million_+

Guess some close family member has been assured of a contract to repaint the existing marked bicycle lanes, which by the way are slick when wet and can cause motorbike tire slippage. They (CM) need to call the company who did the last job and ask for a refund from all parties involved.

There is no room to construct bicycle lanes in many Thai towns as they are concrete the entire width of pubic property, thus they will have to paint lanes on the roadway or wrestle the footpath away from venders/motorcycles. lots of luck

Edited November 14, 2014 by slapout

[JOC]

I hadn't even noticed that was him on the bike. He's wearing the worst kind of helmet.

An army helmet??

[trainman34014]

I'm sure the food vendors will welcome some new space to set up on. The pavements are full up already !

[tingtongfarang]

Nobody rides a bicycle in Thailand! They take the car or motorbike to get a Fanta @ 50 meters distance!

18 months ago your post might have been correct, in the last 1-2 years bicycles have become a fashion in bkk,

In my area there are bicycle lanes although in the last month they broke up from use with heavy trucks, but infact the thais here even have a place to store their very expencive bicycles then ride by motocyc on the wrong side of the road without helmets to where the bikes are kept under lock and key,

On arrival they put on the lycra gear and bike helmets and ride up and down the same road for a few hours till its time to ride the motocyc home without a helmet on the wrong side of the road,

Not kidding some of these bicycles have carbon fiber frames and wheels,

soft drink stalls and coffee shops have set up where they stop and exchange info and brag about the cost of the bike being over 100k,

These cyclists dont regard the bicycle as a mode of transport but rather a prestige fashion statement and nothing more.

Edited November 14, 2014 by tingtongfarang

[Felt 35]

As a bicyclist myself I have to applaud anything which can improve the conditions for cyclists. And as mentioned by a poster above bicycling in Thailand have gained enormous popularity the last 2-3 years. In Phuket a few years back I hardly meet cyclists on my early 0600am rides . Now I meet people cycling as soon as I'm out on the main road weekday or weekend.

On the other hand I'm note solely blind for the obstacles cyclists and the Government will have to get through to get cycling accepted as not only a sport for the lycra dressed racers but also as efficient transport with equal rights and duties as other vehicles on the roads.