Crazy Driving in Thailand! by The Pattaya Sleuth

[jerome2]

Today coming into town at about 30km/hr on a bicycle (full bright lycra kit and lights) a large truck started to overtake maybe 10m from the petrol station it was about to pull into. Apparently he expected that I would do an emergency stop as soon as his cab was next to me with it's feeble blinker on.

By then of course if I stopped I'd be right at the driveway and still risk getting run over. Thankfully he had a lot of passenger side glass to see me yell at him and he held off turning. At the risk of killing me he would have save less than a second...

I dream that he feels a slight loss of face as I drew the attention of locals who had full view of his "impoliteness". I'm trying not to think that the locals will think I'm just another complaining falang. Please don't burst my bubble with your superior experience.

bicycle here... you must be joking ...a sciuicide

[ardokano]

When in Rome.

When in Thailand.

It is their country, we just have to learn to adjust. If you don't, you will cause accidents. They are not going to change for us.

They need change for not us.

You will cause in accident if follow they.

[tigermoth]

Excume me, not agree with comment at above.

I am living in Thailand some years. Almost everyday I take part in the traffic, to drive my car, or ride bicycle.

I experienced a lot of ocassions, many farangs adapted to the "thai driving" methods, excellently. So look around, and You can see, farangs, heavy drunken drive, no helmet on the ride, or driving againist to the traffic, no obey the traffic rules, etc.

A "Farang" does not have much choice, particularly in the city, to adopt the Thai way of driving or be in a serious accident.

[andrew55]

Today coming into town at about 30km/hr on a bicycle (full bright lycra kit and lights) a large truck started to overtake maybe 10m from the petrol station it was about to pull into. Apparently he expected that I would do an emergency stop as soon as his cab was next to me with it's feeble blinker on.

By then of course if I stopped I'd be right at the driveway and still risk getting run over. Thankfully he had a lot of passenger side glass to see me yell at him and he held off turning. At the risk of killing me he would have save less than a second...

I dream that he feels a slight loss of face as I drew the attention of locals who had full view of his "impoliteness". I'm trying not to think that the locals will think I'm just another complaining falang. Please don't burst my bubble with your superior experience.

Bubble feeling fragile?

No respect for lycra these peasants. And to have had his impoliteness pointed out publicly by a farang wearing same. I don't know how he is going to live with himself.

I have no superior experience but seriously enjoyed your post.

Glad you weren't hurt.

Edited April 11, 2016 by andrew55

[andrew55]

A chance for a bitch?

I enjoyed it.

I'll go now....

Please don't go. If that peed you off there's got to be more...

[AlphaSoiDog]

Today coming into town at about 30km/hr on a bicycle (full bright lycra kit and lights) a large truck started to overtake maybe 10m from the petrol station it was about to pull into. Apparently he expected that I would do an emergency stop as soon as his cab was next to me with it's feeble blinker on.

By then of course if I stopped I'd be right at the driveway and still risk getting run over. Thankfully he had a lot of passenger side glass to see me yell at him and he held off turning. At the risk of killing me he would have save less than a second...

I dream that he feels a slight loss of face as I drew the attention of locals who had full view of his "impoliteness". I'm trying not to think that the locals will think I'm just another complaining falang. Please don't burst my bubble with your superior experience.

Bubble feeling fragile?

No respect for lycra these peasants. And to have had his impoliteness pointed out publicly by a farang wearing same. I don't know how he is going to live with himself.

I have no superior experience but seriously enjoyed your post.

Glad you weren't hurt.

Nice!!

I think you have elegantly shown that any dream of improvement in this case is about as insubstantial as my lycra armour....

[nonagon]

One positive thing I'll say is, despite traffic congestion and chaotic driving, Thai drivers don't often use their horns. I'm grateful not to hear constant car horns.

[Tomtomtom69]

Excume me, not agree with comment at above.

I am living in Thailand some years. Almost everyday I take part in the traffic, to drive my car, or ride bicycle.

I experienced a lot of ocassions, many farangs adapted to the "thai driving" methods, excellently. So look around, and You can see, farangs, heavy drunken drive, no helmet on the ride, or driving againist to the traffic, no obey the traffic rules, etc.

No question that there are stupid falangs as well.

For sure, yes. But most of them (even if they're not the sharpest tools in the shed) probably have this attitude, well, I'm living in Thailand, this is how the locals do it, why should I be any different? And of course no one expects them to and in the unlikely event that they do diverge from the standard driving behaviour, problems start to occur.

So at the end of the day it's up to each individual to stay safe, but no one really cares about traffic laws when they aren't being enforced. Thais certainly don't expect any different driving behaviours from foreigners either. Foreigners aren't supposed to be an "example" to show Thais how to drive safely. That is up to the authorities here.

Personally I stick to a few basic rules, and have never had any problems (even though occasional close calls are inevitable).

I never drink and drive (this should be obvious)

When I'm driving a motorcycle, I never drive on the wrong side of the road (even more obvious)

I always wear a helmet

I don't bother driving a motorcycle long distances or on heavily congested roads full of trucks etc. that's an invitation to become a flat piece of meat. And anyway, that's what I have a car for. My small bike is only used for driving around the moo baan and sometimes to nearby shops, but it rarely gets a workout.

I always wear a seat belt

I always indicate

I don't make sudden driving maneuvers

However, on highways and expressways, I drive at whatever speed is suitable (speed limits are rarely posted and mean nothing here) and generally drive in the right hand lane on roads with 2 lanes in each direction, unless there is not too much traffic on the left hand lane and the condition of the lane is good or occasionally for the purposes of "undertaking" slow moving traffic blocking the right hand lane

I anticipate other road users and expect the unexpected, such as dangerous overtaking maneuvers on two-way roads which force you onto the shoulder because some idiot coming in the opposite direction is too much in a rush to wait to overtake but will happily force you half way out of your lane so he can get ahead a few moments quicker. Even more comical is when that happens as you're approaching a dead end road, such as a road to a border crossing, where it's unlikely said driver would be driving across the border as few Thai cars have permission to leave the country and most Thais are scared of driving in neighboring countries. Hence one always sees more foreign cars driving into Thailand than Thai cars leaving.

[Tomtomtom69]

Try driving in PP, Cambodia...now that is "Crazy"

Just did it for the first time in my Thai car and yes, it's crazy. However, upon my return to Thailand, the very same evening after leaving Cambodia I saw something one normally doesn't see very often in Thailand but I saw plenty of in Phnom Penh - someone driving against the flow of traffic in the fast lane! I don't know if it was because of Songkran or what, but driving on that road, which is not far from where I live, even late at night many times and I've never seen that before. Motorcyclists driving slowly in the wrong direction on the shoulder or the far left hand lane is common, but that rarely impacts anyone driving in the other lanes.

​Although my Thai family constantly commented on the bad and strange driving habits of Cambodians when we were over there (as Thais do when they travel they tend to compare every little thing with Thailand, which for someone like me who has become quite de-sensitised to such differences given my extensive travel history and the fact the center of the world is NOT Thailand) became quite annoying after a while, I mean, Thai driving is not a whole lot better than Cambodian style driving.

The main reasons why it appears better (and safer) is that most Thai roads are of a good standard, with some even being of international standard and they feature reflective lights and painting, better approaches to u-turns, whereas Cambodian roads are death traps after dark as they are completely dark and unlit, with very few featuring any sort of safety standards.

[Tomtomtom69]

I am also starting to realize that there is a lot of truth when it comes to those statistics that show Thailand has a higher road accident rate and fatalities from road accidents than all other countries, making it the most dangerous country in the world to drive in, particularly for motorcycles. Actually, I think the road accident fatality rate per capita is marginally higher in Libya, making Thailand number two, while for motorcycles Thailand gets the top spot. However, given that road accident victims who don't die at the scene but within 30 days of the accident should also be counted (but aren't being counted in Thailand) Thailand likely does have the worst record in the world.

Some of the reasons include: poor driver training; poor enforcement of road rules; small fines for breaking road rules; police corruption (instead of getting a 400-1000 Baht fine, you can give the officer a 100 Baht backhander and they rarely insist on more than this whether you are Thai or a foreigner) so that means 100 Baht is not nearly enough of an incentive to adjust your driving behavior; poor design of some roads forcing vehicles to engage in dangerous behavior (actually one of the reasons as to why scooters and small motorcycles engage in risky behavior like driving on the wrong side of the road for a short distance and then darting across 3 lanes of traffic to make a u-turn is because they are scared of being mowed down by fast moving cars and trucks who won't slow down for anything).

In neighboring countries like Cambodia, at first glance it's even more chaotic than Thailand, but when you look more closely, quite a few drivers take great care when overtaking/passing trucks and equally many of them don't drive very fast at all, especially at night when the unlit roads could have pot holes, unexpected speed humps (usually located near old torn down toll booths and they tend to appear without warning), drivers drive without their headlights on, roads don't have shoulders etc. Despite all the dangerous driving by scooters, I didn't see a single accident during my 5 days in Cambodia, whereas driving on a highway in Thailand it's almost inevitable some sort of crash will be spotted on every single trip of over 100-200km. Exceptions are few, and I do a lot of driving.

Whereas in Vietnam despite all the chaotic driving that motorcycles engage in, car drivers are generally fairly civil and will stick to the speed limits, more or less, due to a great fear of being stopped by the police for speeding. Speed radar is used far more regularly in Vietnam than in Thailand and the fines are much higher too.

Even though I just received my third ticket for speeding in as many months here in Thailand (probably because many of the fixed speed cameras have only recently started working) if I drove the way I do in Thailand in Vietnam, I'd probably wrack up a speeding ticket every other day. AND yes I have driven cars in Vietnam many times.

Many Vietnamese friends of mine I've spoken to have laughed at Thailand's lax enforcement of road rules and told me they would happily be caught for speeding if they only had to pay 400-500 Baht if caught by a camera or 100-200 if caught by an officer. In Vietnam, expect fines of 2-3 million Dong or at the minimum around 1 million if you're very good at bargaining, which equates to no less than about 1500 Baht or as much as 5000+. I wonder if such fines would deter speedsters here in Thailand. I guess it wouldn't deter the Mercedes and Porsche driving ones, but perhaps the regular VIOS and Hilux VIGO drivers.

[Tomtomtom69]

Excume me, not agree with comment at above.

I am living in Thailand some years. Almost everyday I take part in the traffic, to drive my car, or ride bicycle.

I experienced a lot of ocassions, many farangs adapted to the "thai driving" methods, excellently. So look around, and You can see, farangs, heavy drunken drive, no helmet on the ride, or driving againist to the traffic, no obey the traffic rules, etc.

A "Farang" does not have much choice, particularly in the city, to adopt the Thai way of driving or be in a serious accident.

Equally, as I've pointed out in my first reply, "farangs" are not expected to be some sort of model of driving behavior amongst Thais either. While I don't condone drunk driving, riding without a helmet on, neither the police nor local Thais expect "farangs" to drive any better than they do. Nor would they care either way - as long as no one is enforcing the road rules, nothing will change.

Even though when you watch a show like "The Embassy" on Australia's Channel 9 you would be led to think that Thailand has strict anti-drink driving laws and all just because a young Aussie had a bike crash while drunk, the reality is that shows like it just try to paint an unrealistic picture of the apparent strictness of Thai laws, which does not exist in reality. Perhaps so naïve Aussie audiences might still be able to get the false impression that Thailand is at least somewhat civilized compared to Australia, when in fact, when it comes to traffic laws at least, couldn't be further from the truth.

The underlying truth is that in one of the cases I saw on the second series of that show, one young Aussie and his friend hit a parked police car while riding a rented scooter; they probably did have something to drink before getting on their bikes. The police were after the compensation to pay for the damage to the car (which they paid quite quickly) but then came the issue of the damaged bike. The threat to bring them to court for drink driving was an empty one - no one was injured, compensation was made and that's how things work in Thailand.

Although I hear that recently the penalties for drink driving have increased and so have random breath tests in some locations, however, overall it hasn't changed much. A somewhat higher fine is all that's really changed - up to 10000 Baht rather than the paltry 1000 Baht that used to be charged. As long as you aren't dirt poor, there won't be any further repercussions as long as you can pay the requested fine or bargain it down to a mutually acceptable amount. No one who has any money or status in Thailand (and that includes westerners) goes to jail for any sort of traffic offence (including if it results in the death of someone) as long as they have enough money to compensate the family of the victims. In Thailand, it all comes down to money. Sad but true.

[JaseTheBass]

Another common problem, especially with scooters is that they're often poorly maintained. I've recently borrowed 2 of my staff's bikes and both were bloody death traps. And these are supposedly intelligent university educated people. I have act like their father to get them to service their bikes.

[ableguy]

Excume me, not agree with comment at above.

I am living in Thailand some years. Almost everyday I take part in the traffic, to drive my car, or ride bicycle.

I experienced a lot of ocassions, many farangs adapted to the "thai driving" methods, excellently. So look around, and You can see, farangs, heavy drunken drive, no helmet on the ride, or driving againist to the traffic, no obey the traffic rules, etc.

When in Rome do as the Romans do ??? ( only with good insurance )

[JaseTheBass]

Excume me, not agree with comment at above.

I am living in Thailand some years. Almost everyday I take part in the traffic, to drive my car, or ride bicycle.

I experienced a lot of ocassions, many farangs adapted to the "thai driving" methods, excellently. So look around, and You can see, farangs, heavy drunken drive, no helmet on the ride, or driving againist to the traffic, no obey the traffic rules, etc.

When in Rome do as the Romans do ??? ( only with good insurance )

I never understand why anyone would want to regress just so they could 'fit in'.