Bangkok is the second-most congested city in the world

[Jimbo2014]

Has someone said it yet? A HUB of congestion?

[Kabula]

Another opinion I dismiss!?

Apparently the source never drove in LA nor Atlanta traffic and took a nap on the hood of the car while in a freeway parking lot.

[Autonuaq]

Not worry all is going smooth and soon will be the number 1

all is set to realize with the building, high rises and car purchase stimulation.

[thaihome]

Another opinion I dismiss!?

Apparently the source never drove in LA nor Atlanta traffic and took a nap on the hood of the car while in a freeway parking lot.

Apparently, you did not even read the source article before dismissing the opinion. LA is on the list at number 10. Atlanta is in the traffic congestion minor league.

TH

[DrTuner]

Another opinion I dismiss!?

Apparently the source never drove in LA nor Atlanta traffic and took a nap on the hood of the car while in a freeway parking lot.

Apparently, you did not even read the source article before dismissing the opinion. LA is on the list at number 10. Atlanta is in the traffic congestion minor league.

TH

And it's not an opinion, but stats extracted from GPS data from vehicles using TomToms navigation software. I reckon Google has better data due to widespread use of it's Maps app, but don't know if they've released any calculated stats outside of what the traffic overlay in Maps shows.

[captainhornblower]

I blame it all on the lack of Police....and of course it's busy yup.

It's normal for Thai to jump the qeueu at U-turns and than just block 1 or 2 more lanes causing huge congestion.

Also taxi's and minivans like to block lanes in peak hours, who cares? They won't get fined anyway, heck nobody even dares to horn to them!

My experience has always been when the police get involved (taking over road traffic direction etc) it slows the traffic down even more.

It is much better without the police involved

[BangkokKen]

If you life in bangkok, I only used a car for go upcountry.. Inside Bangkok only use Skytrain so good as possible...

There are some spots where the traffic is too much and I can't understand why people go every day only for sit in the car for 1-2 hours.....

The BTS only covers a small portion of Bangkok, primarily key arteries in central Bangkok. I live in western Bangkok and the nearest BTS terminal is about 5 KMs away from my Bangkok residence as the crow flies. Yea, the BTS is fine to go to a limited range of places within Bangkok. Fortunately the BTS is slowly expanding its lines/coverage...give it another 5 years and it will cover more of Bangkok but even then when looking at Bangkok as a whole the BTS will still only cover a limited portion. Many more cars, buses, and taxis are still in Bangkok's future even with the BTS expansion.

What Bangkok's public transport network will look like in 2020 (hopefully, but they do have a plan)

We all have seen dozens of these never realized plans.

The only plan that does happen is money going into the same pockets every year and BTS dealyed redelayed and reredelayed

[gandalf12]

How do you slow down 114%? Dead stop is slowing down by 100%. Presumably you must be going in reverse to get over the 100% value

[vukovar77]

Yes tell me about it soi 22 to soi 13 sukhumvit 30 minutes.

You can easily walk 10-15 minutes from soi 22 to soi 13 !!!

[kinmaew]

If only governments had foresight. Large scale underground subway systems should have all been built in all countries 50 years ago - Only the bloody poms (I mean that in the nicest way I love the poms) had the foresight and now its to their benefit. London would stop without the tube and the new Crossrail will make things even better, now that is using your brains. Meanwhile a lot of other countries including AUS and most parts of Asia are "Too busy preparing for the next election" and MP's on huge 6 fig packages have no time for silly things like this so we will just keep sitting in "Car parks" wasting valuable time/life because there is no long term vision. Hats of to the Thais though as they have many mass rail projects on the go. This is why I don't vote any-more, its pointless because all I hear is rhetoric no action.

[little mary sunshine]

Felt like it should be in first place today, really

A mess!!

[trogers]

If you life in bangkok, I only used a car for go upcountry.. Inside Bangkok only use Skytrain so good as possible...

There are some spots where the traffic is too much and I can't understand why people go every day only for sit in the car for 1-2 hours.....

The BTS only covers a small portion of Bangkok, primarily key arteries in central Bangkok. I live in western Bangkok and the nearest BTS terminal is about 5 KMs away from my Bangkok residence as the crow flies. Yea, the BTS is fine to go to a limited range of places within Bangkok. Fortunately the BTS is slowly expanding its lines/coverage...give it another 5 years and it will cover more of Bangkok but even then when looking at Bangkok as a whole the BTS will still only cover a limited portion. Many more cars, buses, and taxis are still in Bangkok's future even with the BTS expansion.

What Bangkok's public transport network will look like in 2020 (hopefully, but they do have a plan)

Yea, a graphic like that make the rapid transit system look impressive...covering almost anywhere you want to go in Bangkok--NOT!!! Still kilometers of distance between some of those routes....and it's still primarily concentrated on central Bangkok with some fingers reaching out to other parts of the Metropolitan area. Works fine if a person's residence, work, and shopping needs are close to those routes; otherwise it's car, bus, taxi time. But yea, expand the rapid transit system as it definitely helps to reduce road traffic by X-amount.

And if you want to go from Bang Yai to Siam you'll have to change to metro and back to skytrain again, including buying new tickets and taking long walks upstairs.

Well it's better than nothing but BKK deserves a better system.

Beam me up, Scotty!

[trogers]

If only governments had foresight. Large scale underground subway systems should have all been built in all countries 50 years ago - Only the bloody poms (I mean that in the nicest way I love the poms) had the foresight and now its to their benefit. London would stop without the tube and the new Crossrail will make things even better, now that is using your brains. Meanwhile a lot of other countries including AUS and most parts of Asia are "Too busy preparing for the next election" and MP's on huge 6 fig packages have no time for silly things like this so we will just keep sitting in "Car parks" wasting valuable time/life because there is no long term vision. Hats of to the Thais though as they have many mass rail projects on the go. This is why I don't vote any-more, its pointless because all I hear is rhetoric no action.

Not too long ago, a ruling govt delayed the extension of the BTS system because BMA who contracts with BTS was controlled by an opposition party.

[stoneyboy]

Yes tell me about it soi 22 to soi 13 sukhumvit 30 minutes.

You can easily walk 10-15 minutes from soi 22 to soi 13 !!!

You clearly never read the whole thread.

I had my 2 and a half year old daughter and my parents with me.

I personally could run it in 6 minutes I'm fully aware of how far away it is.

Edited March 23, 2016 by stoneyboy

[ace]

Never went to Manilla I guess

[Melyn]

And zero traffic control

[taony]

If only governments had foresight. Large scale underground subway systems should have all been built in all countries 50 years ago - Only the bloody poms (I mean that in the nicest way I love the poms) had the foresight and now its to their benefit. London would stop without the tube and the new Crossrail will make things even better, now that is using your brains. Meanwhile a lot of other countries including AUS and most parts of Asia are "Too busy preparing for the next election" and MP's on huge 6 fig packages have no time for silly things like this so we will just keep sitting in "Car parks" wasting valuable time/life because there is no long term vision. Hats of to the Thais though as they have many mass rail projects on the go. This is why I don't vote any-more, its pointless because all I hear is rhetoric no action.

Not too long ago, a ruling govt delayed the extension of the BTS system because BMA who contracts with BTS was controlled by an opposition party.

Extension of bts hardly does anything to solve anything. They take the easy way out and just keep extending indefinately along roads that already inadequately serve areas instead of in the city center creating a needed system. What's thw point if extending forever along sukhumwit? Will it reach Cambodia one day? Its being extended to samut prakan town right now with regular stops along barely inhabited areas. Why build there when there are so many other areas in desperate need of public transport at the moment?

[dcnx]

And what do these 2 cities have in common?

Corruption!

Thats the result of money going into deep pockets of leaders instead of building BTS. lines.

At the current rate of decay, it's only a matter of time before the kidnappings start.

[coulson]

Bullocks.....considering population and size Doha is much worse comparing free movement to rush hour. And no mention of India??????

[Tomtomtom69]

Spent the night on Soi 39 this weekend. Took some 40 minutes to get to Suk from our hotel via taxi. It was only a few KM!! Traffic is horrible. It might be worse in other cities, but it's quite bad in Bangkok

True but what I don't understand is why couldn't you just catch the BTS above your head? I struggle to understand why anyone would drive along Sukhumvit road (or catch a taxi) unless they're like me who lives 2 hours away and has no public transport anywhere near them, when a perfectly good Skytrain operates to all the major tourist and business sites in Bangkok. Laziness is useally a factor though.

[fusion58]

Wait for the TAT to sue for image damage.

Visit the website linked in the OP while you still can.

[fusion58]

If you life in bangkok, I only used a car for go upcountry.. Inside Bangkok only use Skytrain so good as possible...

There are some spots where the traffic is too much and I can't understand why people go every day only for sit in the car for 1-2 hours.....

The BTS only covers a small portion of Bangkok, primarily key arteries in central Bangkok. I live in western Bangkok and the nearest BTS terminal is about 5 KMs away from my Bangkok residence as the crow flies. Yea, the BTS is fine to go to a limited range of places within Bangkok. Fortunately the BTS is slowly expanding its lines/coverage...give it another 5 years and it will cover more of Bangkok but even then when looking at Bangkok as a whole the BTS will still only cover a limited portion. Many more cars, buses, and taxis are still in Bangkok's future even with the BTS expansion.

Exactly.

The expansion of the BTS seems to move at the speed of molasses in January.

The Thai transport ministry officials should visit Taipei sometime. That city's metro system puts BKK's to shame.

[Thian]

Spent the night on Soi 39 this weekend. Took some 40 minutes to get to Suk from our hotel via taxi. It was only a few KM!! Traffic is horrible. It might be worse in other cities, but it's quite bad in Bangkok

True but what I don't understand is why couldn't you just catch the BTS above your head? I struggle to understand why anyone would drive along Sukhumvit road (or catch a taxi) unless they're like me who lives 2 hours away and has no public transport anywhere near them, when a perfectly good Skytrain operates to all the major tourist and business sites in Bangkok. Laziness is useally a factor though.

Have you never been in the parkinggarages in those big malls around Siam? Or ever been in the skytrain with loads of full shoppingbags ?

Last time in Central Chidlom there was an old Thai couple who had been shopping in Tops. They couldn't push the shoppingcarts themselves so the assistants did that, they also loaded everything in the car (which the also had to get to the door) and than they left. Those people could barely walk so old but the man could still drive that huge SUV.

We can't go into the city with skytrain, taxi or car. It always takes 2 hours to go there and it's only 35 km from our home. Somebody will pay for all that congestion.