In order for the meeting to occur on time, all bosses had a full motorcade escort and all roads were closed to let them travel with ease. Upon arriving to the meeting, most said the traffic was barely noticeable, and that people should stop complaining about the traffic problems. 

How about computers controlling traffic lights instead of someone in their own fiefdom every 200m?

19 minutes ago, matta330 said:

How about computers controlling traffic lights instead of someone in their own fiefdom every 200m?

 

This was apparently attempted decades ago, as the 'story' goes, the computerised system was sabotaged by those who control the lights in fear of losing their jobs.

 

There are clearly a number of measures which would lead to improvement. I agree that the first should be a computerised system whereby traffic flow is optimised and would offer major improvements when compared to the incredibly inefficient system which currently exists. 

Something that also adds to the congestion, is lack of connecting roads every 100-200 meters like you have in most cities.  The way Bangkok is laid out, you have all these long, parallel roads with very few connecting roads.  With my last move to an almost neighboring building (50 meters), the moving van drove probably 4km and it took 20 minutes.  

 

This also makes Bangkok an unnecessarily inconvenient place for walking, which again will make more people go by car.  A destination 300 meters away could be a 20-30 minute walk.  When I lived on Soi 24, I almost never went to Soi 22 or 26.  In a normal city, that would be my immediate neighborhood.