Excellent and informative article by Pim Kemasingki www.chiangmaicitylife.com on the current public transportation mess which is part of daily life in Chiang Mai.

Some interesting statistics 1.7m population in CM province,1.8 m reg vehicles ,1.2 m of which are motor bikes. 2,400 songteaws plying the city routes with another 500 out of towners etc etc.

Includes an interview with the head of the songteaw co op... a must read

Yep...if you can ever find a copy anywhere!!!

Yep...if you can ever find a copy anywhere!!!

It's on the internet

So is the Chiang Mai Mail.

Who can blame them? Everyone has internet everywhere now.

Yep...if you can ever find a copy anywhere!!!

A more direct link to the article - http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citylife-articles/mess-transit-why-chiang-mai-doesnt-have-public-transportation/

Here is the Limk

http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citylife-articles/mess-transit-why-chiang-mai-doesnt-have-public-transportation/

It wasn't difficult to use the link provided by the OP

It wasn't difficult to use the link provided by the OP

Yes, but next week/month that link in the OP will lead to a new story.

It wasn't difficult to use the link provided by the OP

Yes, but next week/month that link in the OP will lead to a new story.

"Who wants yesterday's papers....."

It all depends on your point of view. If you want set times you must be willing to wait and walk a distance. That also goes for prices. If you want to have more personal service you can stop a songthaew or tuk tuk give them an exact location then maybe barter over prices.

will a new bus system be able to handle school time routes. Many different factors to be considered for the customers. All completely different fro the ones the carriers face.

I like the current system because I like to walk a lot and some times just grab a songthaew home. As it is now I don't have to carry a bus schedule and a city map to get a ride. On the other hand many will find it quite convenient as the bus stops close to where they are coming from and going to.

Makes no difference as it is all just talk any how.

One other point that they have not addressed is the fact that the population is getting older and it is getting harder and harder for some older people to get in and out of vehicles. Cabs would serve the purpose for them. Would the new busses they are talking about be any better than what we have now.

The word that really jumps out at me is the word corruption. You have a mayor of the city, a governor and all they do is wring their hands touting budget restraints. You have a Mickey Mouse songtaew bus system and they are getting worse. They tried to charge my g/f 100 bahts to go to the bus station which is normally a 40 baht trip. On another she paid a premium fare with the understanding the songtaew would take her directly home instead he dragged her all over the city and on it goes. Its all talk hand wringing and sadly no action. This whole situation and others are the fault of the chintzy central government out of Bangkok in all matters it is really the problem. 17% of the population lives there and 70% of tax bahts are spent there shortchanging others what a disgrace. Another example of hand wringing is the present drought situation. Steps should have been taken a decade ago to start solving this problem as they saw it coming and did nothing but procrastinate and try to draw in more tourists without solving a problem that additional tourism was only making worse. Everything here has to reach a "its to late" tipping point before even band aid measures are applied.

Yep...if you can ever find a copy anywhere!!!

It's on the internet

My bad, I did not spot the link