Beach Road Bus Bedlam...

[lonewolf99]

Came out onto Beach road today at Soi 2. On my bicycle straight into a traffic jam. All lanes blocked.

Being on the bike I was able to dodge though it to find the problem is caused by up to a dozen coaches picking up Chinese tourists returning from Paragliding and sitting on Jet Skis for a photo on a plate.

The traffic is brought to a total standstill whilst they cross the road to get back on their appropriate coach. Men with a mental age of 8 are directing them and endlessly blowing whistles.

This is a one way road (or should be ?) the coaches come every day (almost) Soooooooo why do they not park the busses on the beach side of the road - Cone off part of the next lane to let the jabbering, gobbing, porky middle aged mob of quality tourists on/off the bus and allow 2 and 1/2 lanes of traffic to continue as normal ?????????......

Oh dear logical thinking. Thought up by a farrang who according to Thais can't tell the difference between a ripe mango and a rotten one....and what day of the week to eat it on.

[moonseeker]

Horrific traffic chaos and pollution. Will only get worse. Zero planning and enforcement. Real third world in second world wrapping. Even countries like Brazil cracked down on polluters already 20 years ago. Shame what is going on here. MS>

[guzzi850m2]

My brother in-law back in Denmark are complaining a lot about his daily drives into Copenhagen and back, the traffic is horrible he says and you pay big bucks for parking (if you can find any).

I been told it was much better in the 1960 where only few had cars.

I was in Bangkok first time in about 1983-85 as a very young seaman, as I recall there were no traffic jams and everything was very cheap man.

Ahh those were the times man.

Okay back to the buses off-loading tourists on beach road and them crossing the road. Well how else can they be off-loaded? Building bridges? No gonna work unless you erect a tall fence so people only get to the beach side via the bridges but that will not look nice.

It's always bad in the weekends, its not too bad on my morning rides there on weekdays, at about 10am.

This last weekend being a long one is always extra bad, the BKK people are coming here in big no's.

[slafriphos]

Cycling means going on sidewalks and the beach road path. Love it!

[Pattaya28]

This madness will only get worse.

More and more and more Chinese are on their way. And it's still well before peak-season.

[phycokiller]

I see at least the Thais do notice the pedestrians on the pedestrian crossings these days, they dont stop for them, in fact they dont slow down at all, but they lay on their horns as they go thru which is a start

talking to my friends betweens us we have six 6 people badly injured on Beach Road pedestrian crossings and there must be many more. its time they put some footbridges over the road and got rid of the fake crossings

Edited December 7, 2015 by phycokiller

[mikebell]

And another thing - traffic on 2nd Road crawling along last night at 10pm because the BIB decided to skim some money at Pattaya Klang junction. Greed trumps safety/convenience.

[jacko45k]

High season..... there will be quite a few instances of the Beach Rd being closed completely for various reasons and traffic movement be damned.

I think coaches and trucks should be barred from the inner areas of Pattaya, say within the 3rd Rd, North Rd, Pattaya Tai rectangle, and the parking, U-Turning of these coaches monitored, but we all know what it is, someone is making money! Traffic is stopped on Sukhumvit to allow coaches in and out of The World of Rubber, in the thick of the underpass construction mess. Minibuses still stop, block a lane to pick up and drop off there too. I get stopped by urchins thinking they have some right to stop traffic and let coaches in and out of the local Wat.

I feel better now!

Edited December 8, 2015 by jacko45k

[jacko45k]

I see at least the Thais do notice the pedestrians on the pedestrian crossings these days, they dont stop for them, in fact they dont slow down at all, but they lay on their horns as they go thru which is a start

talking to my friends betweens us we have six 6 people badly injured on Beach Road pedestrian crossings and there must be many more. its time they put some footbridges over the road and got rid of the fake crossings

True, Thais have started to use their horns, but I do not see this as a positive thing. It shows impatience.

[mancub]

I see at least the Thais do notice the pedestrians on the pedestrian crossings these days, they dont stop for them, in fact they dont slow down at all, but they lay on their horns as they go thru which is a start

talking to my friends betweens us we have six 6 people badly injured on Beach Road pedestrian crossings and there must be many more. its time they put some footbridges over the road and got rid of the fake crossings

True, Thais have started to use their horns, but I do not see this as a positive thing. It shows impatience.

They're discovering that using the horn can be sanuk ...no fun to be had in using indicators, however !

[jacko45k]

I see at least the Thais do notice the pedestrians on the pedestrian crossings these days, they dont stop for them, in fact they dont slow down at all, but they lay on their horns as they go thru which is a start

talking to my friends betweens us we have six 6 people badly injured on Beach Road pedestrian crossings and there must be many more. its time they put some footbridges over the road and got rid of the fake crossings

True, Thais have started to use their horns, but I do not see this as a positive thing. It shows impatience.

They're discovering that using the horn can be sanuk ...no fun to be had in using indicators, however !

No, they are meant to be switched on and left on.

The thing with the horn here is a dodgy one, I got someone leaning on their horn at me and when I did it back, a potential road-rage scenario ensued.

[Keesters]

It would help a lot if all the 4 wheel vehicles were in straight lines, headlights lined up with tail lights of vehicle in front. That would allow space for 2 wheel vehicles to pass through. What we get now is a mix of 4 wheelers all zig zag across the road trying to get a 2m wide vehicle into a 1 meter wide space leaving no room for the 2 wheelers to pass through. Selfish ba**ards.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Probably no parking/stopping zone on right side of the road.

[Sutty]

No great drama why worry yourself just chill and let everyday events look after themselves as they say this is Thailand go with the flow

[kkup]

"Men with a mental age of 8 are directing them and endlessly blowing whistles."

[AlQaholic]

90% of the occasions one encounter a traffic jam here in LOS, when you arrive at the cause of it, it is something stupid and illogical, and some times you cant even figure out what caused the jam...

[newnative]

As another poster has noted, it's not just Beach Road. Every morning one lane is totally blocked on Sukhumvit as a long line of tour buses wait to get into Rubberland. The city should demand that the buses use a side street to off-load or radio the buses to come only when there is space to park. This is a particularly bad area to be blocked as it is near the tunnel construction and traffic is already bad all the time there. The city needs to do a much better job of managing the tour buses all over the city. Thappraya is particularly bad to negotiate as there are lots of tour buses parked up and down the street, especially in the evening, and they block sight lines and make the street even more narrow. Plus it's just so unattractive. The city should prohibit parking vehicles with more than 4 tires on any public streets.

[lonewolf99]

Regarding the Busses parking on Thrappaya ...why don't they make them park up for the night at the far end of the Jomtien 2nd Road. They could all be accommodated there overnight. Virtually no traffic uses the last stretch of the biggest U turn in Thailand.

The drivers have ample room to dump all their rubbish next to the Venetian Condo landfill site ( great location to live 555 ) and take a dump as well in the remaining jungle next to the cows and skinny horses. No one will notice anymore piles of poop and plastic.....surely ?

[chicowoodduck]

Geez, and you seem to be surprised??? Try any Sunday morning from about the 7 AM hour onwards.....a true shitstorm in every sense of the word......sometimes it is near impossible to cross the road on foot....unless a friendly policeman is nearby......lol...?

[Sutty]

As another poster has noted, it's not just Beach Road. Every morning one lane is totally blocked on Sukhumvit as a long line of tour buses wait to get into Rubberland. The city should demand that the buses use a side street to off-load or radio the buses to come only when there is space to park. This is a particularly bad area to be blocked as it is near the tunnel construction and traffic is already bad all the time there. The city needs to do a much better job of managing the tour buses all over the city. Thappraya is particularly bad to negotiate as there are lots of tour buses parked up and down the street, especially in the evening, and they block sight lines and make the street even more narrow. Plus it's just so unattractive. The city should prohibit parking vehicles with more than 4 tires on any public streets.

Tour busses is the word TOUR which means tourists in the area spending money which local population benifits from. I think all two wheeled vehicles should be banned between 7am and 7pm as they cause no end of problem's but it ain't going to happen so live with it

[smudger1951]

Instead of filling every plot of land with a new condo perhaps town planning could consider providing a car and coach park near the beach. There's still a chance ! The beach road should not be a part of the one way system. We all risk our lives crossing to the beach having to estimate the speed of oncoming traffic - having had a beer !

[petermik]

Gents

We ALL know the problems here in Pattaya and without a doubt could sort them out if we were able to BUT many people here are employed at City Hall whose best interests are served by keeping this chaos going

[FiveStarVagabond]

One thing would reduce the problem, reverse the traffic flow and buses would then park on the beach side stopping the need for the rampaging hordes to cross the road.

Main problem with this idea is two things don't apply in Thailand, logic and common sense, therefore not much chance of this happening.

However if this were to happen you could then stop the motor bike hire people clogging up Beach Rd, make them park in the Soi. I would also ban the buses using any narrow Soi by constructing height limiters, just saying...........

[Graham8888]

High season..... there will be quite a few instances of the Beach Rd being closed completely for various reasons and traffic movement be damned.

I think coaches and trucks should be barred from the inner areas of Pattaya, say within the 3rd Rd, North Rd, Pattaya Tai rectangle, and the parking, U-Turning of these coaches monitored, but we all know what it is, someone is making money! Traffic is stopped on Sukhumvit to allow coaches in and out of The World of Rubber, in the thick of the underpass construction mess. Minibuses still stop, block a lane to pick up and drop off there too. I get stopped by urchins thinking they have some right to stop traffic and let coaches in and out of the local Wat.

I feel better now!

There is still a large area of empty land on beach road next to the Twin Palms hotel - why can't that be used as a temporary car park ( as in most cities ) or is that too easy ?!

[Suradit69]

Horrific traffic chaos and pollution. Will only get worse. Zero planning and enforcement. Real third world in second world wrapping. Even countries like Brazil cracked down on polluters already 20 years ago. Shame what is going on here. MS>

And (using that logic) in 3rd world countries wrapped in first world clothing we have ...

Disgruntled motorists faced hours of delays as they endured gridlock in west London this evening. Hundreds of drivers were held in traffic for up to three hours near the Hammersmith Gyratory from about 6pm. Some motorists reportedly decided to leave their cars and take public transport home after becoming increasingly frustrated. Among those stuck in the jam was singer Michael Ball, who tweeted: "Been in a traffic jam round Shepherd's Bush for 2 HOURS!!! No exaggeration. Still not at Hammersmith. ARGHHH. Just sharing..."

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/motorists-face-hours-of-delays-as-they-endure-gridlock-in-hammersmith-a2949251.html

Americans drove more than 3 trillion miles in the last 12 months, a record, surpassing the previous record set in 2007, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation The study produced by the data technology company INRIX and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, also found the average travel delay per commuter nationwide is more than twice what it was in 1982.

http://mynewsla.com/life/2015/08/26/traffic-scorecard-study-los-angeles-gridlock-second-worst-in-nation/

MUNICH, Germany – 24 August 2015: INRIX, a leading provider of real-time traffic information and connected driving services, has published its annual Traffic Scorecard Report revealing German drivers wasted 39 hours in congestion during 2014 – up four hours from 2013. Germany ranks third in the list of Europe’s most congested countries, although German motorists spend 12 hours less in traffic than those in Belgium, Europe’s most congested country, where drivers spent 51 hours stuck in gridlock last year.

http://inrix.com/press/scorecard-report-germany-english/

[Sutty]

Instead of filling every plot of land with a new condo perhaps town planning could consider providing a car and coach park near the beach. There's still a chance ! The beach road should not be a part of the one way system. We all risk our lives crossing to the beach having to estimate the speed of oncoming traffic - having had a beer !

Don't drink then road was there long before you

[morrobay]

Its not just the buses: The minivans from hell double parked along Beach Rd, All these ridiculous green and yellow "meter taxis " driving around in circles all day empty

when not parked in " no parking " zones. City hall has no control whatsoever. I dont know what they do up there besides turn the lights on.

The"good old days" were when the only transportation service was songthaws.

Edited December 8, 2015 by morrobay

[craigt3365]

I traveled from Thepprasit to Naklua yesterday at 3pm. Took over 45 minutes. Traffic was insane.

[guzzi850m2]

I traveled from Thepprasit to Naklua yesterday at 3pm. Took over 45 minutes. Traffic was insane.

We long time ago stopped using the truck down town if can be avoided, scooter is just soooo much more nippy and you can park almost everywhere.

It drives me nuts sitting in the "cage" going nowhere.

[Sutty]

I traveled from Thepprasit to Naklua yesterday at 3pm. Took over 45 minutes. Traffic was insane.

We long time ago stopped using the truck down town if can be avoided, scooter is just soooo much more nippy and you can park almost everywhere.

It drives me nuts sitting in the "cage" going nowhere.

Going nowhere usualy as the two wheelers park anywhere and cut you up left right and center but hey go with the flow