We Forgot To Talk About Traffic Jams....

[cclub75]

At last ! An honest analysis, beyond the airport, but that will concern frequent flyers... And other.

From Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/09/18...ss_30013866.php

I start to think that it will be faster to take the outer ring, go to Don Muang, and take the express way... in order to enter into Bangkok by the north.

The key is : your arrival time...

Another point : suffering after a long haul... OK. But what about all the short domestic flights that we used to enjoy at Don Muang, for the week ends or long week ends ? A taxi hop, fast check in, no immigration, easy.

It's going to be difficult if you don't live close to Suva.

For instance, it is not hard to imagine what a traveller will go through after clearing immigration and customs. If he leaves the airport by the Bang Na route between 6pm and 8pm, he will run into heavy traffic along Bang Na-Trat.

If he takes the First Stage Expressway, travelling will not speed up but actually be impeded for hours. Travellers staying at hotels on Sukhumvit, Sathorn or Silom could be trapped on the expressway for two to three hours - or even longer.

This being a global record, if anybody bothers to measure the current jams today, this unique experience could foul up so badly that exhausted visitors won't bother to return quickly.

[bino]

The link to the Nation is dead already.

I agree that the key is arrival time, more precisely departure time from the airport (who knows how long immigration / baggage claim / customs could take), and that the traffic would be insane on the BangNa / Trat roads, especially in the area of BITEC. But- is there anywhere in Bangkok (especially going into the Sukhumvit area) that the traffic could be described as "light" between 6-8 PM?

I'm thinking that the best way to go in to the city from Suvarnabhumi would be on the #7 motorway, and the Rama 4 elevated tollway. Depending on where you are going on Sukhumvit, you could get down at Fortune Town and take Asoke Road into Sukhumvit, or stay on the elevated road to Din Daeng and go in that way.

Getting out of the city to the airport this way should be quite reasonable also... there is an expressway entrance shortly after passing Fortune Town.

[bino]

and the Rama 4 elevated tollway.

Caught my mistake after it was too late to edit.... should be the Rama 9 tollway to Fortune Town / Din Daeng.

[cclub75]

The link to the Nation is dead already.

Suvarnabhumi Airport exposes planning flaws

Failure to decentralise brings chronic congestion to Bang Na's residents

The opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport on September 28 marks a new era for Thai aviation. It also spells the demise of one of Bangkok's more exclusive residential zones.

For decades the Bang Na area housed some of the most exclusive housing estates in the capital, among them the Lakeside, Green Valley, Ladawan and Windmill projects - homes to some of the country's richest families.

Lately projects like Grand Monaco, Golden Nakara, Ananda and Land & Houses estates have tried to tap into this once scenic and peaceful area.

But the arrival of the new airport brings both good and bad news. For landowners and building contractors, the boom that came with massive land speculation has enriched their pockets.

For residents of Bang Na, the past three years have been miserable, nerve-wracking and wretched with the quality of life plummeting to new lows.

Overcrowding and congestion along the Srinakarin, Theparak and Kingkaew areas near the airport has already worsened as more housing projects spring up in a stampede to cash in on the real-estate mania.

With the induced huge population growth comes commuting woes, horrific traffic jams along Bang Na and its conduits, as well as expressways linking the area to town.

The original goal of Suvarnabhumi was to erect an improved gateway to Bangkok. But considering the reality of the current commuting routes today, there is much concern that the airport could bode ill for the tourism industry due to poor outbound road traffic.

The main culprit, as usual in local infrastructure works, is shortsighted planning.

While the airport itself may function properly, it is the congested commuting to the city that could cripple the reputation of Suvarnabhumi, and along with that, the country.

Unlike during the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings or Asian Games, looking good alone won't be enough. The botch-ups will be apparent for months after the opening, as airport operations are not transient events.

For instance, it is not hard to imagine what a traveller will go through after clearing immigration and customs. If he leaves the airport by the Bang Na route between 6pm and 8pm, he will run into heavy traffic along Bang Na-Trat.

If he takes the First Stage Expressway, travelling will not speed up but actually be impeded for hours. Travellers staying at hotels on Sukhumvit, Sathorn or Silom could be trapped on the expressway for two to three hours - or even longer.

This being a global record, if anybody bothers to measure the current jams today, this unique experience could foul up so badly that exhausted visitors won't bother to return quickly.

Indeed, these jams have been happening regularly for many months, as Bang Na residents will attest, with zero attempts by either police or city officials to address the problem.

The expensive government-funded public relations advertisements and TV shows praise the airport and avoid mentioning the existing problems. To be sure, balance and accuracy are not the first priority of PR companies, so users have to depend on common sense to weigh the risks of using these routes by the airport.

It is understandable why the authorities have chosen to close one eye to these problems, as they are very, very hard to fix.

Ironically, Suvarnabhumi Airport's most significant contribution to the public is that it exposes the country's staggering failure to provide sound economic planning.

Under the Eastern Seaboard project mapped out 30 years ago, which included a blueprint for a new airport at Nong Ngu Hao (before it was renamed Suvarnabhumi), the whole idea was to expand the country's industrial growth in a systematic, logical and sustainable manner.

One of the keywords of the plan was decentralisation, in order to diversify business activity out of Bangkok to the poorer coastal towns such as those in Chon Buri, Rayong and provinces beyond.

For its original planners, it seemed rather absurd - if not outright irresponsible - to have wealth concentrated purely in Bangkok. Decentralisation would resolve so many social, commercial and political problems surrounding an over-centralised system.

The plan also called for Klong Toei port to be shut gradually and for the port authority to shift to Laem Chabang and Map Ta Phut. Thirty years later, Suvarnabhumi Airport has been built, but without many of the other corresponding programmes put into practice.

Worse, the country is now more centralised than ever and the decentralisation plan has been quietly shelved.

Instead of shifting all the ports, oil refineries and other hopelessly outdated industries out of the inner city, all the vested interests are still located downtown. The container yards along Bang Na from Klong Toei to Bang Pakong are one of the key reasons why congestion is so bad and why expensive road repairs have to be conducted so often in town, thanks to the wear from overloaded trucks.

The reluctance to decentralise, and the failure to implement a sound plan that would help the country tremendously, is already costing billions in traffic delays and wasted fuel consumption lost in traffic jams all around town.

For the moment there is much effort to make Suvarnabhumi appear as if it is a great success.

One would do well to recall Abraham Lincoln's famous line, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time."

Evidently, shipping in armies of foreign journalists to write puff pieces about

Suvarnabhumi is a good strategy to boost one's standing. But it could backfire as the press corps will themselves be stuck in the quagmire that is frothing in what was once Bangkok's real-estate gold mine.

Itthi C tan

The Nation

[Maestro]

The link to the Nation is dead already.

It’s still alive at my end, buy anyway I enclose the article as a PDF file.

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Maestro

Nation_20060918_Suvarnabhumi_traffic_jam.pdf