Poll urges using Section 44 to resolve chronic traffic problems

[rooster59]

Poll urges using Section 44 to resolve chronic traffic problems

 

BANGKOK:-- Lack of traffic disciplines of the Thai people is the major cause of  the chronic traffic problem. But this could be resolved if Section 44 of the interim constitution is invoked to punish all involved in order to inculcate traffic disciplines in them.

 

This was what Super Poll found when it interviewed 1,195 samples during September 13- 16 on chronic traffic problems in the city.

 

According to the finding of Thai Researchers in Community Happiness, a network of Super Poll, 96.5% said traffic problems were caused by lack of traffic disciplines, particularly queue jumping, overtaking.

 

However 92.9% also viewed traffic problem was caused by the driving habit of drivers who will observe the rules of road only when traffic police are insight.

 

But 92.9% said traffic problems were caused by drivers playing Line application, smoking, and using mobile phones while driving.

 

On the question of invoking Section 44 to deal with traffic violation, 50.09% agreed, reasoning this will help to bring traffic disciplines to the roads, and pressure them to show more respect to traffic rules.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/poll-urges-using-section-44-resolve-chronic-traffic-problems/

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2016-09-17

 

[useronthenet]

Main problem is that there is no Police force in Thailand adequately enforcing the law, thus drivers will break the law.

[rkidlad]

You simply cannot ask or tell people to do something. Most people are selfish and only see themselves in a very small picture. This is true anywhere in the world. As a government, it's your responsibility to 'make' people do things they don't like for the greater good. As long as there's no real law and order here, there'll be no real social development. 

 

The buck always stops with the people in power who make decisions. Unfortunately, they're often not held accountable and believe themselves to be above their people. 

[chrisinth]

 

Call me skeptical if you wish, but if the actual traffic laws were enforced in the first place, there would be no reason to look for other means of control.

 

And what is article 44 going to do anyway? Change the infrastructure? Because that will be what it takes to control the traffic in Bkk.

 

Its about time those in control realized that instead of issuing false promises and fantasy timelines on how they will change the unchangeable by shuffling people around.......................

[jamesbrock]

41 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Lack of traffic disciplines of the Thai people is the major cause of  the chronic traffic problem. But this could be resolved if Section 44 of the interim constitution is invoked to punish all involved

 

As the three posters have said before me, simply enforcing the traffic laws already in place with the police force already in place would "inculcate traffic disciplines" in the population. Obviously, that's easier said than done...

 

Is invoking S22 suddenly going to make police do their job effectively? Let's hope.

[maoro2013]

Is this for real? 

 

There are not enough roads or space for the number of motorcars.

 

Simple really.

 

How can you give a time line to anyone to fix this.

 

Clowns at the best.

[maoro2013]

Absolute load of crap.

 

There are so many vehicles waiting to use roads which cannot accommodate them simple.

 

Why try to blame other things. The capital is congested.

[elgordo38]

38 minutes ago, useronthenet said:

Main problem is that there is no Police force in Thailand adequately enforcing the law, thus drivers will break the law.

Article 44 in this case would be like trying to push a string uphill. Driver education, better public transit, car pooling, more working from home, staggered working hours a multitude of answers, over head road systems (scratch that one to expensive. Spending money here is a dirty word except for war toys) You can no longer go out to solve the problem you must go up. Look at big cities like LA etc.

[Motown239]

Article 44 is appropriate for civilizations who believe in law & order, where citizens , corporations, companies and government work for the greater good of its country.

There's in country who can transition from the norm and implement article 44. Thailand must start implementing some significant steps to curb traffic congestion.

Initiate programs that can be measured or tracked. Separate initiatives and set benchmarks to measure progress for each.

The citizens will appreciate and support programs that improves their daily life. When they witness less congestion on the streets and highways. The country must accept there's a problems and work together to resolve them.

I hope that Thailand can successfully remedy the traffic nightmares.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[pieeyed]

After Yingluck introduced the rebate back on purchasing a new vehicle Bangkok had a major new fleet of vehicles on the road. I used to live in Ekamai and saw families of 5 having 7 vehicles. I believe there were something like 1.6 new vehicles bought on this program. If measured would put a vehicle bumper to bumper from at least Bangkok to Chiang Mai and back. With no forward thinking of road road construction or people even being to be able to pay for a car/truck the results are obvious. 

[shirtless]

44 will not fix Bangkok traffic god cannot fix Bangkoks  traffic  woes.

[Hayduke]

Won't happen.

 

If you take your best shot it had better work....and the '44' magic wand would be a spectacular failure.

 

This failure would be a very public and very convincing display of government impotence. One that couldn't be ignored, covered up or double talked around. A massive and irredeemable lose of face.

 

Even they know that.

 

 

[Brer Fox]

But only a few days ago Deputy PM Prawit issued instructions to the various authorities that Bangkok's traffic problems had to be fixed. They were given one month to get things improved. Then we also had the police running around like children with silly traffic flags.

So only 29 more days to go and the traffic problems will be all but gone. No need for Section 44.

[williamgeorgeallen]

2 hours ago, maoro2013 said:

Is this for real? 

 

There are not enough roads or space for the number of motorcars.

 

Simple really.

 

How can you give a time line to anyone to fix this.

 

Clowns at the best.

well you beat me to it. bangkok like any city needs about 12% or more of its land area for roads and it has less than 8%. doubt obeying the road rules will make any significant difference. only real hope is to improve public transport. subway or over over head probably the best.  how does imposing 44 really help, another crackdown? just making noise to be seen making noise. what is a super poll, did not seem to poll that many people to be that super. 

[DNPBC0]

As traffic volumes increase, there is an understandable urge to build more expressways, but this may be entirely the wrong approach. I realise that this will sound ridiculous , but a more effective solution could be to demolish some of the existing expressways:
http://gizmodo.com/6-freeway-removals-that-changed-their-cities-forever-1548314937

[gandalf12]

From what I have read, the major cities in the world that do not have the Traffic problems of Bangkok is because there is a minimum of 7% of the land is roads. In Bangkok has something like 2%.

Also as many have already said here the Traffic laws have to be enforced: at present they are not.

Use of s44 is not going to do anything to solve the problem

Edited September 17, 2016 by gandalf12

[NoBrainer]

How about trying the EVEN/ODD system, that is used on other large cities.

 

Draw a ring around the CBD areas, and make it EVEN/ODD and maybe 200 Baht to enter.

 

Stiff fines for anyone caught driving inside the zone on the wrong day.

 

Would definitely lessen the congestion, and would be a financial boon for the Government.

 

Generated funds could be used to build new roads (while stuffing the pockets of participating players in the infrastructure expansion), a Win Win for everyone.

 

 

[tbthailand]

and in other news, ...

 

"Bangkok woman urges using Section 44 to stop her husband's drinking and gambling..."

 

Isn't having absolute power fun.... 

[Emster23]

Next on agenda: Invoking Article 44 to command the tides.

[davemos]

Hey I live in Melbourne to travel to St kilda from Fitzroy can take up to two hours .Its about 7 Ks there are speed cameras red light drones designated lanes and computer traffic lights and enforced speed limits of 40 -50 k .all this makes it so slow and punishing( huge fine including jail)I find the random factor of Bangkok traffic makes it flow in a otherwise impossible gridlock .In England they trialed a free area where there was no lights and found that there were fewer delays and accidents after they removed the controls .

[chickenslegs]

Section 44 is the silver bullet.

 

All future governments, city mayors and village pooyai baans should be given Section 44 powers, then there will be no problems at all in Thailand.

[MaxLee]

Another Magic article not to be named solution

[Living in a cartoon]

My career was in roads and bridges. There are no solutions to street traffic in built-up urban areas. You just need to get used to the delay, time your trips when the traffic is lower, and use alternatives such as NTS and BRT in the case of Bangkok.

 

Singapore is the only exception that I have ever experienced.

[Calach]

You can change Thai drivers into Swiss drivers, there will be less road rages and casualties but still quite the same huge traffic all over Bangkok. The perpetual congestion is caused by one simple problem : there are just not enough roads and too many buildings drawing crowds here and there. The space dedicated to circulation (including pedestrians) in areas like Sukhumvit amounts to only 7% of the ground surface, the 93 other % is occupied by buildings, in a European city that would be between 20 and 25%.

 

So we can debate endlessly about not cutting lanes and rules enforcement, until they do some town planning, shave off half the malls, condos, etc, instead of erecting a new one every two weeks without building or widening the roads to get there, Bangkok traffic will get worse. 

Edited September 17, 2016 by Calach

[jerojero]

Maybe Sec 44 to compel police to enforce all traffic laws would help.

[JayBeeee]

Who on Earth were 'Thai Researchers in Community Happiness'  interviewing to get these results?

96.5%: lack of traffic disciplines, particularly queue jumping.

92.9%: driving habit of drivers who will observe the rules of road only when traffic police are insight [sic].

92.9%: caused by drivers playing Line application, smoking, and using mobile phones.

That's 282.3% of those questioned!... ?????

Smoking?... are you sure? Playing Line application AND using mobile phones? I can do both at the same time!

Re: Section 44; 50.09% agreed (sounds like they've held a referendum).

... along with tougher measures to penalize[sic] all road users, drivers, pedestrians, state officials, state agencies, and their executives.

WHAT? Pedestrians? HTF are pedestrians to blame? I'd love to know who commissioned this 'poll', and moreso, who wrote the results! And whether it's going to be cited as grounds for the biggest yet imposition of Section 44.

The only suggestion that the "traffic problems" in question are related to congestion, doesn't come till the penutimate sentence of the original report. All of the reasons given by 'those polled' refer to quality of driving, not the volume of traffic.

I want to see the questiinair, if indeed there was one!

On the subject of congestion in Bangkok:

How can using section 44 effect the amount of traffic on the road?

Congestion Charge? like London; where cameras read every number-plate as it crosses the inner-city line, and if you don't pay within the alotted time, at a machine I think, you get a fine in the post? Could that happen here?

From my experience, putting cops on traffic control invariably makes things worse!

Re: Traffic police; do you have them in Bangkok? We don't have them here! Apart from the occasional fund-raising road block, often just past a U-turn to give us an escape route. Northern cops are much nicer than BKKBiB, I think! I've only been stopped once in 14 years, not long after I arrived, and then he was so excited to see his first international licence, he didn't notice it had expired, and he handed it back with a smile and a salute. But most people who have to go in, time it for after 11.45 when they've gone to lunch.

Life in a northern town!

[NongKhaiKid]

4 hours ago, jerojero said:

Maybe Sec 44 to compel police to enforce all traffic laws would help.

Like many others I've put in a fair bit of driving including long hauls on the highways, plenty of static checks but have never seen a police mobile unit pull a motorist over. I have seen Highway Police driving around when they're not escorting VIPs or buses full of civil servants out for a jollie, sorry attending a seminar but other than this they don't seem to do much enforcement.

 

Proper enforcement and realistic punishments are a must but highly unlikely as it' too easy to get away with things by paying an ' on the spot ' fine at a reduced rate or of course by being a someone.

It's all but pointless to bother disqualifying people from driving as no one pays any attention and since, to the best of my knowledge, there's no national register, so how would police know they're dealing with a disqualified driver rather than someone who has ' forgotten ' their licence. Anyway even if there was a proper register would the BIB be bothered to check ?

 

If there was proper leadership from on high it would go a long way but it's sadly lacking. Lazy, errant etc BIB and other officials get away with far too much, if not actually promoted and get a bigger salary, plus perks,  for doing even less.

[kingalfred]

Undisciplined selfish bunch on the roads in LOS but not really a surprise


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[Caps]

21 minutes ago, kingalfred said:

Undisciplined selfish bunch on the roads in LOS but not really a surprise


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Yes and its not just the Thais a lot of Westerners do the same (speaking about the BKK area)  Some of them think that because they live/work/visit here then they have to adopt the same principles...then probably come on TV and moan about Thais 

[Chris Lawrence]

Its not the people in the cars and on bikes its the cars and bikes. Plan to get them off the road and improve the infrastructure to support commuting. But enforcement of traffic laws may help to save lives and the many accidents that injure.