We Care Because We Love You('re Money)

[Godot]

This is a follow up on a previous post about tuk-tuk prices. And although I agree 100% with the posters, I would like to express some deep concerns regarding public transportation (or lack thereof) on the island. I lived in Kamala a while back, and simply refused to pay the 200+ they demanded. So, I had to rent a motorbike. Currently, Phuket is the province in Thailand with most fatalities on the roads (with a 15-1 death ratio compared to my country), and about 99% of the accidents are motorbike related.

The only way to reduce this? Get the bikes off the road! Obviously, turning on head-lights and the helmet inspections have not had much of an impact. And come on, why should you only be required to wear a helmet during the day? (Even though it might mess up tha hairdo).

My suggestion? Start a shuttle route (ala Pattaya and Samui) with different lines running in loops between Kata-Patong, Patong-Kamala etc. And set up dedicated shuttle stops. Make the prices affordable, even for Thais. (Maybe 10 baht within Patong and 30 between Kata-Patong).

I know this poses some problems, with the mob, etc. But something has to be done, right? People are dying like flies here. This new "company" should even be subsidized, as it would certainly cut "health costs".

Let's see if they really care...

[neenthewiser]

Nice idea but it just aint gonna happen; not unless Phuket gets a governor with the balls to stand up to the tuk tuk mafia.

Also I suspect most of the accidents happen in and around Phuket Town. The main reason for accidents is obviously the appalling driving but also I think the roads themselves are dangerous. Look at the airport road near Phuket Town. You get vehicles trying to turn right across 2 lanes of fast moving traffic outside Tesco, Big C and Promphan. These are accidents waiting to happen. Big C even employs some poor bloke in a hat to wade into the traffic to try and help vehicles turn right. Now if the powers that think they are would just put roundabouts at these locations they would slow approching traffic and drivers would have to negotiate just one direction of traffic at a time. I believe such traffic calming methods would reduce accidents, assuming people could ever learn the correct way to use roundabouts.