Any opinions on this 'simple' suggestion?

There are a lot of reasons for and against.

This site is dedicated to the destruction of speed bumps...

http://www.abd.org.uk/speed_humps.htm

If speed bumps don't slow the cars, trucks and (bigger every day) bikes down, what will?

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I met a young lady a while back that had the misfortune of having her leg severly injured by a flying motorbike - she was sitting in a restaurant (in Chaing Rai if I recall correctly). Her holiday was ruined and most likely her future as well. The rider? A drunken farang first time on a bike.

If he had been doing 30kph or even better still 20, she may have seen him coming.

Imagine a car going through Smiley Bar on a good night, at 60 there would be carnage.

Something needs to be done.

Change the busiest parts of the beach roads in Chaweng and Lamai into walking areas only.

Allow trucks with supplies until 10:00.

Instant raise in tourism and revenues.

Good idear , our office is on the ban tai road and I've seen a few close ones over the last couple of months, especially from the taxi drivers and construction lorries that treat the place like a race track.

Road speed reduction schemes in Bantai (Koh Pha-Ngan) should be a safety priority.

The number of times that I've almost been wiped out by oncoming 4wds overtaking slower traffic, on the wrong side of this narrow road at 100 Kph+...

Speed bumps may or may not be the optimal solution - badly constructed ones will just aggravate a bad situation.

Another option for traffic calming measures may be the use of road chicanes and/or chokers -> see Traffic Calming Library.

jose '-)

Well, education in driving would be a good start but I see farang driving just as stupidly as Thais here so we can't blame just the Thai drivers.

Case in point, my husband was hit by a farang man on a motorbike who attempted to overtake him as he was turning into our driveway. With his turning signal on. When he asked him if he didn't see the turning signal the man said he had but he thought he was just overtaking a motorbike and therefore it was alright to overtake going over 80km an hour in a 50km hour zone. Guy wasn't too badly hurt, our truck is damaged and because he then lied to the police we are forced to pay half the repairs to our truck caused by his stupidity. If we wanted to dispute it would have to go to court. Just because this bozo wants to save a few thousand baht. And no, he wasn't a tourist.

And there has already been accidents in that area of Ban Tai. A drunken farang caused an accident with a taxi which caused the taxi to go off the road and into a woman who was talking in a phone booth. Rumor was she lost her leg.

I've always thought speed bumps would just cause more accidents as even more idiots like this guy would just hit them at high speeds and then go flying.

Instead of building useless speed bumps, they should have signs warning of spike stripes ahead if you speed, And have special places with spikes built into the road, like at Parking gararge exits in Europe & the US. It's less than a meter long, and will ruin all 4 tires, which will stop them next time, since 4 tires are expensive! Maybe a far-out idea, but effective. And they were warned, and radar will trigger it! But a bike would have to be heavy to stop.

And there has already been accidents in that area of Ban Tai. A drunken farang caused an accident with a taxi which caused the taxi to go off the road and into a woman who was talking in a phone booth. Rumor was she lost her leg.

hey i know this accident... near the isaan shop yes? the thai people there told me it was actually two taxi drivers racing each other after drinking.

i have already been in one accident on this stretch of road in a taxi which was driving wayyyy too fast and hit a motorbike head on (really sad as it was a burmese guy, and our taxi of course fled the scene before we could learn if he was going to live). there are a lot of bad farang drivers too, i would say the biggest problem is the taxi drivers who get too complacent and just drive as fast as they can, and also feel like they have to pass whoever is in front of them regardless of who is coming in the other lane.

can you really see anyone doing anything about this on koh phangan though? remember the stoplight they put up at the junction right before you hit the old market street in thongsala? that sure didn't last long.

Which is why speed bumps (humps?) would work - once off job, low maintenance.

They're called 'Sleeping Policemen' in the UK I believe - they should fit in just fine here...

Speed bumps just don't work, the (locals) fast drivers know too well where they are and adjust their driving to the annoyment of all others.

Simply put some policemen with a radar for enforcing the speed-limit and set a high fine (5000Baht) for speeding.

And put drunk-drivers in jail, no bail.

Advertise those measures for every tourist to know what will happen to him if ... (Big multi-language sign at the airport, flyer in the planes ...).

And there has already been accidents in that area of Ban Tai. A drunken farang caused an accident with a taxi which caused the taxi to go off the road and into a woman who was talking in a phone booth. Rumor was she lost her leg.

hey i know this accident... near the isaan shop yes? the thai people there told me it was actually two taxi drivers racing each other after drinking.

i have already been in one accident on this stretch of road in a taxi which was driving wayyyy too fast and hit a motorbike head on (really sad as it was a burmese guy, and our taxi of course fled the scene before we could learn if he was going to live). there are a lot of bad farang drivers too, i would say the biggest problem is the taxi drivers who get too complacent and just drive as fast as they can, and also feel like they have to pass whoever is in front of them regardless of who is coming in the other lane.

can you really see anyone doing anything about this on koh phangan though? remember the stoplight they put up at the junction right before you hit the old market street in thongsala? that sure didn't last long.

Oh well, they put those street lights up just in time for all the major drain construction.

A friend of mine was at the accident and the story was that a farang on a motorbike was trying to race two taxis, he had cut in front of one of the taxis and forced it to swerve.

But, I think a speedbump would just end up being an opportunity for the unwitting speeding tourist drunk to end up airborne.

I found this:

"Drive over the ‘Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp’ and Generate Speed Bump Electricity!"

http://www.hughesresearch.co.uk/index.htm

They claim you dont feel the bump - which defeats the purpose of slowing down traffic - but if they were combined with a speed hump/chicane/anything they could actually be used to help power street lamps etc.

I found this:

"Drive over the ‘Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp’ and Generate Speed Bump Electricity!"

http://www.hughesresearch.co.uk/index.htm

They claim you dont feel the bump - which defeats the purpose of slowing down traffic - but if they were combined with a speed hump/chicane/anything they could actually be used to help power street lamps etc.

NEVER will happen on KP in the Near Future, Zed, but a good idea in the places that can afford it.