Thai opinion: The nightmare infrastructure RUINING our holiday dreams

[Godders]

No long term planning, in anything. Just live for the day. Thainess, personified!

Wrong. Particularly when it comes to roads. For years they have been built with power poles and other roadside paraphernalia set well back, so they can be easily widened to accommodate more traffic. See - they're not as dumb as you seem to think.

[losworld]

The problem is two fold too many cars and too many buses. Unfortunately the ridiculous Thaksin new car rebate program put cars on the road to appease the auto makers without any thought about repayment or infrastructure. However, soon many will likely be repossessed.

As more Chinese discover Thailand and cheap and nearby the buses will continue to get more and more thus ruining the vacation spots.

[Estrada]

Why can't Thai cities be like London, or Sydney, even Brisbane? They don't have traffic congestion, or slow highway traffic during holidays, do they?

London 8.6 million Inhabitants

Sydney 3.6

Brisbane 2.3.

Bankok 11 Million + 3 Million not registered in Bkk, + 6 million people working in Bkk, + 2 million tourist.... but if you like to compare apples with pears...

Well done.. You are right about the real population of Bangkok. I found this out when researching for the Bangkok Solid Waste Master Plan in 1999. The BMA thought they only had 6 million but I found that the real figure at that time was around 17 million, which is one reason that they could not cope with the amount of waste they were really getting.

[spidermike007]

Why can't Thai cities be like London, or Sydney, even Brisbane? They don't have traffic congestion, or slow highway traffic during holidays, do they?

London 8.6 million Inhabitants

Sydney 3.6

Brisbane 2.3.

Bankok 11 Million + 3 Million not registered in Bkk, + 6 million people working in Bkk, + 2 million tourist.... but if you like to compare apples with pears...

A rather ridiculous comparison. Are you counting all of Sydney's suburbs, outside of city limits? How about London? The entire metropolitan area? Because that is what you are doing with Bangkok. You are including the entire metropolis. You are indeed comparing apples with pears.

As an example:

It is rare for large metros in North America or Europe to not be part of a much larger megalopolis with large cities like Boston and New York having many smaller satellite cities that have their own discrete economies but that are still very much dependent on their larger neighbors. In the US this is accounted for with the term CSA or Consolidated Statistical Area. For a city like Boston this would include most parts of the region that can access Central Boston by commuter rail. This includes smaller cities like Providence (about an hour by train from Boston South Station) and Manchester and brings the CSA population to 7.9 million. In Sydney the CSA population would include Wollongong, the Central Coast and perhaps parts of Newcastle bringing the Sydney CSA to somewhere between 5.2 and 5.5 million. It just really depends on how how strong the economic links are between the different subregions. In Toronto the CSA concept extends to the Golden Horseshoe region bringing that regional total to somewhere around 7.5 million.

Looking at your other examples the City of Paris is 2.2m, the larger urban area is 10.4 million, the metro area is 12.1m. In Chicago you get 2.7m city, 9.5m urban/MSA, 9.9m CSA. Los Angeles is 3.86m city, 15.1m urban, 16.4m MSA, 17.8m CSA.

[joshstiles]

...soooo another post about how thailand should change

BUT

knowing all to well that it never will

AND

so whats the point again????

[joshstiles]

the ruining of your holiday dreams is all in your head...try some realistic thai dreams

[Ulic]

Spread the work around the country, move government jobs to cities outside Bangkok.

This will spread the wealth around the country and lessen the crowding of Bangkok.

The high ups may not like living outside the capital but the worker bees will save money

and possibly a job closer to home.

[jacko45k]

Why can't Thai cities be like London, or Sydney, even Brisbane? They don't have traffic congestion, or slow highway traffic during holidays, do they?

You are joking aren't you.

Have you ever tried to get in or out of London.

[BSJ]

the road works going to pattaya have taken years and i NEVER see anyone working there.... why???

The workers see you coming and they hide!

Ps: They know your not a bad person deep down but they just don't trust you.

Edited May 5, 2015 by BSJ