How can we get public transportation? (& clean up the air!)

[northernjohn]

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Want to guess how many young kids are injured or killed on motorbikes because there's no safe, affordable, reliable way they can get to school, or the playing field, or the store? Do you know where Thai educational system (all levels) ranks in Asia, the world? Do you know about the lung cancer rate in Chiang Mai? There are seriously valid reasons to change many things in Chiang Mai, and Thailand in general, but -

Universal rule #417: "Everything is the way it is because people with the necessary power and influence to cause meaningful change don't want meaningful change."

That raises a few interesting questions, does it not?

Care to enlighten us with the figures. Dumb questions that can be asked in many big cities including Bangkok the Gem that the OP is referring to.

If those wonderful busses in Bangkok are such a good deal why do they have taxi's motor bike taxi's and tuck tucks. Why is traffic so bad? It would be a great help if some one could come up with a viable plan. Look to some city's that have solved these problems if there are any.

The reasonable answer is to upgrade the existing vehicles or retire them. The new ones coming out are not any where near as bad as some of the posters want every one to believe they are. They are like the vehicles Farongs buy. I believe that some of the tuck tuck's are propane. The only way Chiang Mai could ever get a transportation system using busses above ground to serve the whole city would require widening many streets which all ready have no room to be widened.

San Francisco's cable cars are above ground and have been there for years. Does any one know if the ground here in Chiang Mai would be suitable for a subway system big enough to serve all of Chiang Mai?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

The same topic has probably been started several times in the past 20 years ago with the same success (none).

people in Chiang mai will never get used to fixed lines and schedules.

Well, 20 years ago there actually was a bus between Maya and Central Festival.

(Maya and Central Festival didn't exist of course, but the bus between the two locations was there. The red #6A 'Clockwise' bus. )

Now there are loads more people, and loads more reasons why you'd want to go up or down the Superhighway, but.. no more buses.

[Loptr]

And here I thought the Song Taews were public transportation... Given the size of the city (mueang), state / size of the roads and the traffic congestion, how would a typically sized bus be effective? I cringe every time a tour bus comes at me on some of the smaller sois in the city...

[northernjohn]

And here I thought the Song Taews were public transportation... Given the size of the city (mueang), state / size of the roads and the traffic congestion, how would a typically sized bus be effective? I cringe every time a tour bus comes at me on some of the smaller sois in the city...

Not to mention the fact that most of the smog is not vehicle caused. It does have an input but is not the main culprit.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

And here I thought the Song Taews were public transportation... Given the size of the city (mueang), state / size of the roads and the traffic congestion, how would a typically sized bus be effective? I cringe every time a tour bus comes at me on some of the smaller sois in the city...

They don't have to be tour bus sized. The old buses in Chiang Mai were also mid/small sized. The old yellow 'Kodak' buses for example. Bus #3 has some aircon buses too, they were a good size.

[Sparkles]

There are 1,000's of vans operating in Bangkok on set routes.They surely would be a better addition than smoke belching songteaws who somehow manage to get through the yearly exhaust

inspection. There used to be some Chinese made, small buses (seating for about 20) that went to Pai from the Bus Arcade. They disappeared I guess the hills/road killed them and they

would probably suffer the same fate as previous buses

[CMBob]

Nope, the buses are still in service. Riding them and knowing their route/schedule is a closely held secret.

Out of curiosity, where are they in service? If my memory is right (don't bet on my memory here), the new lpg busses I saw were a medium green color and I can't remember seeing them again after the baht bus drivers shut down that transportation experiment. I also don't remember exactly when that occurred....but probably 4-6 or so years ago?

Edited February 2, 2015 by CMBob