new 4-lane hwy?

[Tomtomtom69]

It's funny how Thailand builds all this infrastructure in border provinces like Chiang Rai in a rush to bring in AEC, but the reality on the ground is that there is no agreement with say Myanmar that will allow their vehicles to use Thai roads more freely or vice versa. Lao vehicles are allowed in, but you only ever see one or two Lao registered vehicles in Chiang Rai and only since the bridge has been opened. It's not like there are hordes of them coming over. Sure, there's quite a few private Chinese vehicles coming in now, but their numbers are a drop in the ocean compared to the locally registered vehicles.

All of this road building is all good and well, but since neighboring countries like Myanmar and Laos are doing jack all on their side of the border, with roads that are worse than the worst Thai roads 30 years ago, it's as if all this will continue to lead to a road to nowhere. Just like Mae Sai is. You have a 6-lane road to the border, all funneled onto a narrow bridge that leads to a border town (Tachilek) which doesn't allow Thai vehicles to continue any further than that border town. And then even if you could continue to the Chinese border they have it firmly shut and won't let you across, let alone your vehicle.

All of this supposed integration is just BS. Look at how well it works in Europe. ASEAN and the AEC are like 50 years behind.

[Tomtomtom69]

Unknown to most of us including me until this afternoon when i was sitting in a restaurant in Muang Sing northern Laos ... a new friendship bridge is about to open up ...4 months..between Burma and Xieng Kok near here. This will open another China route.

Chiang Rai..Mai Sae...kentung..burma....muang sing..laos..and china ..15km away..

maybe this is connected in some way to more roads in Chuang Rai area.

This was opened officially recently.

Yes but there have been no reports of foreigners actually crossing (or being allowed to cross) this bridge since it's opening.

I suspect they aren't even letting vehicles across except MAYBE some locally registered trucks to load/offload goods from either side of the border and being restricted to a 1km radius of the border.

The Chinese border at Mong La is shut and neither Myanmar nor China have talked about officially opening that crossing. They have talked about opening the Ruili-Mu-se crossing, which could happen later this year, but that's hundreds of km away and then you won't even be able to travel there from either Laos or Mae Sai because route 4 inside Myanmar is blocked to foreigners and foreign registered vehicles EXCEPT if you seek permission in the form of a permit and if you wish to travel by car, you'll need to go on an expensive tour, as Top Gear did when they crossed that road.

The only way they can get this whole thing to work is to open up that road, allow foreigners and foreign registered vehicles in and subscribe to the concept of "integration" as AEC is supposedly about.

And for the person in Muang Sing - despite there being a Chinese border post only 9km away you as a non-Chinese, non-Lao citizen can't cross there. You have to go all the way to Boten, quite a detour. And let's not even get started about the difficulties of trying to drive a Thai car into China.

Yes Chiang Rai is getting prepared....for what? Because none of Thailand's neighbors are preparing for anything.

[villagefarang]

The same argument the OP is making could have been used for the ring-road to the east of town, I suppose. Something like, no one drives through the rice fields now so why build a road. <snipped for brevity>

I've mentioned the rim road east of town, in this topic and in prior topics. I don't have a problem with the one east of town. It had a two lane bridge which was doubled in size to 4 lanes to accommodate it. The OP is about one or two 4 lane hwys which appear to be planned for west of town. VF, please don't create words which I might have said ("same argument the OP is making could have been used....") and then comment upon the made-up version. It's called 'straw-man' argument.

If you want to comment on what I wrote, that's fine.

Sorry, I thought I would try my hand at your brand of odd analogies of obscure unrelated events in an effort to help you understand what I am saying. I guess I didn’t do a very good approximation.

The rest of what I said still holds. Ring roads are built to divert traffic away from congested highways and city centers. Secondarily they provide new areas for development. That will probably make Thais in the area happy but may upset some foreigners.

[villagefarang]

I really get tired of Thais being putdown and constantly criticized for not producing some idealized version of California. Given what they have to work with I think they are doing a pretty good job. I certainly wouldn’t expect government officials to come search me out and ask my permission to do whatever they have planned, either.

Though it would be nice if Thailand, or specifically Chiang Rai province, adopted Sustainable Urban Planning

I happen to like the idea of sidewalks, parking, clean water, public open space, youth centers, lower vehicle death rates and zoning that keeps industrial operations buffered/separate from commercial and residential areas.

Chaotic is interesting, but it's not long-term viable.

It looks to me like we need new roads to open new areas if we want any of those things you mention. Then again I always thought Thais used temples and schools as youth and community centers, even for public open space to some extent.

In my opinion the only practical way to provide relief in crowded areas is to spread out by moving things like government offices to an area where there is more space for parking and such, like they have started doing to the east.

In the end what we like or want really isn’t relevant and it is up to the Thais to live the way they want to live.

According to another topic in this forum there is a lot of traffic going to the border even though we can’t drive in neighboring countries.

"Holiday makers flock to Thai-Burmese border in Chiang Rai

CHIANG RAI, 31 July 2015 (NNT) – The Asanha Puja and Buddhist Lent holiday has stimulated economic activity in the border province of Chiang Rai.

The Mae Sai- Tha Khilek border point in Mae Sai District is packed with vehicles, shoppers and tourists crossing the border to Myanmar."

[Tomtomtom69]

I really get tired of Thais being putdown and constantly criticized for not producing some idealized version of California. Given what they have to work with I think they are doing a pretty good job. I certainly wouldn’t expect government officials to come search me out and ask my permission to do whatever they have planned, either.

Though it would be nice if Thailand, or specifically Chiang Rai province, adopted Sustainable Urban Planning

I happen to like the idea of sidewalks, parking, clean water, public open space, youth centers, lower vehicle death rates and zoning that keeps industrial operations buffered/separate from commercial and residential areas.

Chaotic is interesting, but it's not long-term viable.

It looks to me like we need new roads to open new areas if we want any of those things you mention. Then again I always thought Thais used temples and schools as youth and community centers, even for public open space to some extent.

In my opinion the only practical way to provide relief in crowded areas is to spread out by moving things like government offices to an area where there is more space for parking and such, like they have started doing to the east.

In the end what we like or want really isn’t relevant and it is up to the Thais to live the way they want to live.

According to another topic in this forum there is a lot of traffic going to the border even though we can’t drive in neighboring countries.

"Holiday makers flock to Thai-Burmese border in Chiang Rai

CHIANG RAI, 31 July 2015 (NNT) – The Asanha Puja and Buddhist Lent holiday has stimulated economic activity in the border province of Chiang Rai.

The Mae Sai- Tha Khilek border point in Mae Sai District is packed with vehicles, shoppers and tourists crossing the border to Myanmar."

Yes, all these Thais are driving to the border and then parking their cars on the Thai side, since it's too tedious to try and take them over. Even if they can, firstly they have to get used to driving on the right (accident danger!) and that bridge is where it starts as the only indications you have of right hand traffic are a flimsy arrow pointing to the right and trilingual signs in Burmese, English and Thai which say "in" on the right hand-side of the bridge. Then once on the other side, where do you park? Parking is much more difficult to find than on the Thai side. Also, with most Thais simply going to the market right next to the border, driving seems futile.