Thai Police to tackle 10 traffic offences seriously to ease traffic congestions at tourist spots

[webfact]

Police to tackle 10 traffic offences seriously to ease traffic congestions at tourist spots



BANGKOK: -- As several tourist destinations always have traffic congestion and accidents during holidays due mainly to people ignoring traffic laws, now the Royal Thai Police has contemplated the issue seriously and will come up with tough enforcement of traffic laws against traffic violators.

This was agreed at a meeting chaired by Royal Thai Police Department deputy commissioner Pol Gen Wut Liptapanlop yesterday.

Under the agreement to resolve traffic congestions at tourist destinations, the Royal Thai Police will be launching a pilot program to enforce traffic discipline along eight popular tourist locations.

Under the program, 10 priority traffic offences will be strictly dealt with in the first trials.

This was based on the finding by police that the problem of heavy traffic congestion at popular tourist locations in the country was caused partly by the physical location of the place.

The finding showed that the main problems were narrow streets and the extraordinary number of visitors in a particular day.

The finding said many of these popular locations are at old historical cities with small narrow roads that could never cope with the rising number of human and vehicular traffic.

In the trial program, 10 critical traffic offences in these areas will be put in place, and strictly enforce.

They are:

Driving on pedestrian footpaths, drunk driving, driving without driver’s license, driving without seat-belts, parking at restricted zones, riding motorcycles without safety helmets, unacceptable noise levels from vehicles, Illegally allocating areas along streets for parking purposes, unsafe driving behavior, and pedestrians crossing roads at unspecified areas or vehicles not stopping at pedestrian crossings.

Eight areas targeted first are the old capital of Ayutthaya, Samut Prakarn municipality, Pattaya City, Chiang Mai municipality, Chiang Rai municipality, Samui Island, Phuket municipality and Hat Yai city.

The Royal Thai Police hoped that a major reduction in traffic congestion will result in reduced pollution and a major improvement in the general atmosphere, thus will attract even more tourists to these locations.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/152987

-- Thai PBS 2016-03-01

[thesetat2013]

It's always about making the tourists happy. Forget about safety issues and forget about enforcing normal laws throughout Thailand as long as it doesn't affect tourists.

[PattayaAl]

Does that mean they planning to actually do their job?

If that's the case I am afraid police stations will have 1 month queues of people waiting to pay their fines.

[richard_smith237]

Great so the BiB are planning on tackling the issues (also listed below) - It will be interesting see if any serious impact is made or whether or not this is simple media-lip-service as many of these announcements seem to be.

I remember the recent campaign to prevent roadside parking - nothing really changed.

Until the whole ethos of the BiB changes nothing much will change. The BiB are simply told to follow instructions and not to think on their feet. IF today they are told to catch those driving without seatbelts, they'll have no issue with anyone jumping a red light !...

Once the BiB are trained properly to enforce the law and once given the freedom to actually do their jobs without risk of reprimand for pulling over the wrong-drive (connected) traffic conditions may improve.

At least someone is thinking about it seriously enough to make a statement - but no one really expects much will be done - its just a childish game of pretence.

-Driving on pedestrian footpaths.

-Drunk driving.

-Driving without driver’s license.

-Driving without seat-belts.

Parking at restricted zones.

-Riding motorcycles without safety helmets.

-Unacceptable noise levels from vehicles.

-Illegally allocating areas along streets for parking purposes.

-Unsafe driving behaviour.

-Pedestrians crossing roads at unspecified areas.

-Vehicles not stopping at pedestrian crossings.

[jaywalker]

"As several tourist destinations always have traffic congestion and accidents during holidays due mainly to people ignoring traffic laws, now the Royal Thai Police has contemplated the issue seriously and will come up with tough enforcement of traffic laws against traffic violators."

This says it all... Up until now, they have never taken the law seriously.

The sad part is they don't realize just how buffoonish this makes them look.

[Pattaya28]

And no mention of these 8 popular tourist destinations.

[ChrisY1]

I fail to see how the 10 areas of enforcement would make one iota of a difference to traffic congestion...possibly with the exception of parking .......

[canuckamuck]

#8 Unsafe Driving Behaviour:

Just work on that one boys, that's the game changer!

[ezzra]

Here are my suggestions how to improve traffic flows...

No parking means NO PARKING of any kind of vehicles,

Get all the vendors and their carts of the roads and footpath to designated areas for trading,

Make narrow roads one way,

Don't allow huge tourist busses enter small Sois and lanes and park there,

Station full time police person to enforce the traffic laws, and not just for show,

Hefty fines to all violators and matter how ' poor ' they're, paid in the police station

and hold their ID cards until they pay,

I can go on and on, but start with above and that'll be a good start.....

[Ceruhe]

-Driving on pedestrian footpaths..

-Driving without driver’s license.

-Driving without seat-belts.

-Riding motorcycles without safety helmets.

-Unacceptable noise levels from vehicles.

-Vehicles not stopping at pedestrian crossings.

Exactly how do these points change anything about congestion exactly? I guess I could compromise on not stopping at crossings, but the rest...meh.

But well, good luck on your "tough enforcement" there, RTP

[manarak]

-Driving on pedestrian footpaths..

-Driving without driver’s license.

-Driving without seat-belts.

-Riding motorcycles without safety helmets.

-Unacceptable noise levels from vehicles.

-Vehicles not stopping at pedestrian crossings.

Exactly how do these points change anything about congestion exactly? I guess I could compromise on not stopping at crossings, but the rest...meh.

But well, good luck on your "tough enforcement" there, RTP

I have to agree with your assessment.

If they wanted to do something against congestion, talking about Pattaya, they should free the leftmost lane of beach road of anything and make baht buses stop in designated areas, forbid any vehicle to stop anywhere near the beach road bend at WS, ban coaches from beach road and second road, enforce no parking areas, fine motorcycles with sidecars that don't drive in the same lane as a car, install traffic cameras to catch people running red lights.

Another measure could be to build an elevated highway above sukhumvit road from Naklua to Na Jomtien, so that the transit traffic could flow without congesting Sukhumvit road.

[dwcrist]

Here are my suggestions how to improve traffic flows...

No parking means NO PARKING of any kind of vehicles,

Get all the vendors and their carts of the roads and footpath to designated areas for trading,

Make narrow roads one way,

Don't allow huge tourist busses enter small Sois and lanes and park there,

Station full time police person to enforce the traffic laws, and not just for show,

Hefty fines to all violators and matter how ' poor ' they're, paid in the police station

and hold their ID cards until they pay,

I can go on and on, but start with above and that'll be a good start.....

Yes! and not to mention punishing red light runners, those who block intersections, entrances, and side streets, people turning or going straight from the wrong lanes at intersections, and those who pick the wrong lane (left or U-turn) and sit there blocking it for everyone else just so they can get ahead and cut off everyone already in line. Seriously, is it that hard for these people to see what actually causes traffic congestion?

[NCC1701A]

here, i fixed the headline:

Thai Police to tackle 10 traffic offences (seriously!?) to ease traffic congestions at tourist spots

Edited March 1, 2016 by NCC1701A

[laolover88]

H'm. Songkhran coming. Need to be freeing up some hospital beds, I guess.

In some countries you can have your fines mitigated if you take an "awareness" course. Drink Driving, Speeding. Well here, naturally, there is little awareness of much except one's own needs. In this town they have just made a couple of roads "One Way". Several crashes, of course. Guy says" " I don't want to drive a further 500 metres just to get to my front door". Quite. Unbearable limitation of freedom.

I would add 3 things.

1. No driving, parking, selling on the hard shoulder. Should be enforceable? No?

2. (But this involves money!) No U Turns without traffic lights; this leads on, if you are really tackling congestion, to traffic lights on appropriate phases in the right places. I drive quite long distances in Thailand. There are regular jams because someone has thought it a good idea to set up lights where some red road crosses a 4 line highway!

3. Provincial Police Districts to publish monthly Numbers of Traffic Violation Tickets Issued. Categories and Fines received

[jaywalker]

And no mention of these 8 popular tourist destinations.

Here ya go.

"Eight areas targeted first are the old capital of Ayutthaya, Samut Prakarn municipality, Pattaya City, Chiang Mai municipality, Chiang Rai municipality, Samui Island, Phuket municipality and Hat Yai city."

[dcnx]

Looking forward to their week of enforcement, if they make it that long.

[donnybay]

Double parking is one of the worst problems that causes bottle necks

[craigt3365]

How about if they just did their job...enforce ALL traffic laws...

[chrissables]

Great so the BiB are planning on tackling the issues (also listed below) - It will be interesting see if any serious impact is made or whether or not this is simple media-lip-service as many of these announcements seem to be.

I remember the recent campaign to prevent roadside parking - nothing really changed.

Until the whole ethos of the BiB changes nothing much will change. The BiB are simply told to follow instructions and not to think on their feet. IF today they are told to catch those driving without seatbelts, they'll have no issue with anyone jumping a red light !...

Once the BiB are trained properly to enforce the law and once given the freedom to actually do their jobs without risk of reprimand for pulling over the wrong-drive (connected) traffic conditions may improve.

At least someone is thinking about it seriously enough to make a statement - but no one really expects much will be done - its just a childish game of pretence.

-Driving on pedestrian footpaths.

-Drunk driving.

-Driving without driver’s license.

-Driving without seat-belts.

Parking at restricted zones.

-Riding motorcycles without safety helmets.

-Unacceptable noise levels from vehicles.

-Illegally allocating areas along streets for parking purposes.

-Unsafe driving behaviour.

-Pedestrians crossing roads at unspecified areas.

-Vehicles not stopping at pedestrian crossings.

While i agree certain things need to be done, i have no idea what or how numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, of the list will have any affect on congestion. Unless the are go to confiscate and remove the vehicles from the road.

The easiest way initially would be to ban buses. Have a major parking area for them, from which people can be taken to their destination.

[Jim walker]

unsafe driving behaviour, that should cover about everyone driving in Thailand so easy cash cow for Royal Thai Police to strictly enforce the law as usual, then again we should appreciate anything that the Thai police do to make the roads even a tiny bit safer to use but I doubt if this will take down the Thailand road deaths by a big percentage police strictly enforcing the law a bit of a turn up for the books this one.

[topt]

Does anybody know for sure if this is actually an offence in Thailand?

and pedestrians crossing roads at unspecified areas

[trogers]

Bt500 fine at the courts or Bt200 slipped under covers...

Great deterrents!

[gandalf12]

Great so the BiB are planning on tackling the issues (also listed below) - It will be interesting see if any serious impact is made or whether or not this is simple media-lip-service as many of these announcements seem to be.

I remember the recent campaign to prevent roadside parking - nothing really changed.

Until the whole ethos of the BiB changes nothing much will change. The BiB are simply told to follow instructions and not to think on their feet. IF today they are told to catch those driving without seatbelts, they'll have no issue with anyone jumping a red light !...

Once the BiB are trained properly to enforce the law and once given the freedom to actually do their jobs without risk of reprimand for pulling over the wrong-drive (connected) traffic conditions may improve.

At least someone is thinking about it seriously enough to make a statement - but no one really expects much will be done - its just a childish game of pretence.

-Driving on pedestrian footpaths.

-Drunk driving.

-Driving without driver’s license.

-Driving without seat-belts.

Parking at restricted zones.

-Riding motorcycles without safety helmets.

-Unacceptable noise levels from vehicles.

-Illegally allocating areas along streets for parking purposes.

-Unsafe driving behaviour.

-Pedestrians crossing roads at unspecified areas.

-Vehicles not stopping at pedestrian crossings.

Dont forget excessively smokey exhausts from vehicles

[KhaoNiaw]

Not related to tourist areas, but they've been serious about enforcing parking times on Sukhumvit 101/1 and 103 (Udomsuk) for several months now. Park on the road to go to the market or stop for something to eat in the evening before 8pm and you've got a good chance of getting your wheel clamped. You can really see the benefits now that people have started getting the message as well. Kudos to the local cops for that one.

[rayw]

All very good if implemented BUT where is the serious traffic offences that DO cause the most accidents and those serious offences, which IMHO are :- .

1 Riding or Driving down the wrong side of the road.

2 No rear lights or worse no lights at all at night.

3 Jumping red traffic lights.

I think it is total stupidity to include seat belts and crash helmet rules in that list of 10 traffic offences !!! Why ? Well not using seat belts or crash helmets DOES NOT cause accidents or cause injury to others, as it only endangers the life of the driver or rider if they do not wear them, and that surely is simply their own stupid fault. So the seat belts and helmet wearing laws are really not protecting anyone but nanny protecting the driver/rider from their own stupidity and making, dare I say, a possibly easy way for collecting police tea money donations. Never agreed with seat belt and crash helmet wearing being enforced by law, but sure it should be highly encouraged by TV and hoarding campaigns and viewed and socially established as a very nasty face losing stupid action for those not using them.

Edited March 1, 2016 by rayw

[prestburypark]

There are simply no deterrents, except for drunk driving. No licence suspensions, bans, test retakes (ha ha).

Everyone is always allowed to drive.

How is there ever going to be any enforcement. Given of course that drivers are even aware that they are in the wrong.

[Squeegee]

"We weren't serious about it before."

[GreasyFingers]

Gee, lucky I am leaving Lamai soon. A total drag if you cannot ride down the Lamai Beach Road (one way traveling south) in the wrong direction. If they enforce this everyone will need to do a 3 km loop onto the Ring Road. The pedestrians are a bigger danger than vehicles.

[Emster23]

Good luck on this one. Expecting police to remember 10 laws will just over stress their brains (Did they ever have to learn traffic laws whilst in training?). They know 2 money making schemes: no helmet fine and no license fine....

[legend49]

Mmmm now tourist season is over we return to the same agenda that was dropped in November last year before high season started. the goal is stop congestion; so what happens to the traffic when the BIB closes a 3 lane road down to 1 lane to filter out the norm of motor bike riders with no helmet and check the licence at the same time. Same old issues, they dont know anything else to check. Have you ever seen diesel vehicles pulled for a POLLUTION check; that was an outcome to reduce pollution LOL.