How to Reduce Vehicle Traffic Congestion

[Banana7]

The authorities seem to struggle to keep vehicle traffic moving effectively and efficiently. Widening roads for more vehicles doesn't seem to work.

 

One way to reduce vehicle traffic is encourage more pedestrian traffic by making the pedestrian walkways more pedestrian friendly and enjoyable. This will also reduce environmental pollution. 

 

Very simple solutions are:

1. Remove all obstacles from pedestrian walkways, especially food carts, merchant displays, telephone booths, motorcycles, etc..

2. Make walkways flat and least 1.5 meters wide,

3. Re-route wires and cables, so that all are at least 2 meters above the sidewalk.

 

Any other solutions?

 

[pegman]

The town is mostly Thais and they don't walk. Secondly very few streets have the room for proper side walks. If the cops enforced the no parking areas that would greatly improve flow. Also the traffic lights last way too long.

[Familyonthemove]

I reckon that in Bangkok the traffic is 50% taxis,  and that 90% of them have no passengers.   At night the taxi % must be nearer 90%, amd there are traffic jams comprising taxis only along Sukhumvit. 

 

By providing taxi ranks and allowing the police to fine taxis for cruising for customers in congested areas, the traffic issue would be solved.

 

Another solution would be congestion charging for private cars as in London.  Nobody needs to take up 10 square metres of road space for a car if there's only one person on board.  Motorcycles are much more space efficient.   Perhaps Mercedes-Benz could make a HiSo Scoopy?

 

[champers]

Last night I dreamt that I was in bed with Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce. My dream has more chance of coming true than the OP's.

[Emster23]

Impound cars of drunk or dangerous drivers for a month. That could rid the streets of good percentage of cars. Stumbling block is, as usual, gettig the police out among the public and enforcing laws.

[thailand49]

Have a Master City planning and then enforce it, but of course no chance this ever happening. I have a better chance getting in bed with Jennifer Lopez and Beyounce and the % is slim and none!

[Pdaz]

Do away with credit purchases of vehicles.

If you can't pay cash. No car. Would remove 60% of the problem. Maybe more.

[newnative]

All good ideas, Banana7.  A couple things I would add.  First, excellent public transportation at a reasonable cost will get many people out of their private cars, as will taxing them if they insist on driving in congested areas.  Hong Kong is very densely populated but the traffic moves well because the people mostly use public transportation--an excellent subway and  bus system--and good, wide sidewalks.  The buses I see in Bangkok look mostly old and horrible and seem to be designed only for the  poor to use--that's not going to get anyone out of their air conditioned cars or taxis.  By contrast, many of the Hong Kong public buses look like luxury tour buses.  If you have an excellent public transportation system in place, you have less need for taxis and can start putting limits on the number of them allowed.  Pattaya needs to realize that it is now an urban city and some of its major roads can no longer offer parking. It should start with Pattaya Beach Road and Pattaya Second Road.  Eliminate the parking and widen the sidewalks--some places on Pattaya Second Road don't have sidewalks at all!  Manage the pedestrians with low fencing or shrubbery and designated crosswalks.  Include cutouts for buses and taxis to pick up passengers out of the traffic lanes. 

[whatproblem]

Crush all vehicles that are driven by people with no licence or drunk / drugged drivers ,if the owners of the vehicles didn't give permission to drive it give 5 years minimum sentencing for stealing the vehicle ,no exception ,none ,no matter who your dad is or who your mums sleeping with

[jesimps]

Thais don't do walking.

 

[Banana7]

Pattaya is a premier tourist destination in Thailand, Southeast Asia and the world. Millions of tourists (both Thai and foreigners) come to Pattaya every year and most visit Beach Road, 2nd Road between Pattaya Klang and Pattaya Tia, Soi Bua  Khaow, and roadways between these major roadways.  Pattaya generates huge amounts of foreign currency for Thailand, and employees more than a 100,000 Thais.

 

Most of these tourists do not have a private motor vehicle and are walking in these areas.

 

Wake-up Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT), City of Pattaya officials and anyone else who can help make Pattaya a more pedestrian friendly city! Make a premier public mass transit system.

 

Just use your imagination! Just think how wonderful, and less congested Pattaya would be if there was a skytrain running from Naklua to Jomtien near the beach front; and another from the train station(dark-side) down Pattaya Klang, (stopping at a new sukhumvit bus station that accommodates buses to all destinations) then down to the beach. Tourist volume could triple and massively reduce congestion, and improve travel times and convenience!

 

 

 

 

 

[NoshowJones]

2 hours ago, champers said:

Last night I dreamt that I was in bed with Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce. My dream has more chance of coming true than the OP's.

Yes, but that's only because this is Thailand.

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, Emster23 said:

Impound cars of drunk or dangerous drivers for a month. That could rid the streets of good percentage of cars. Stumbling block is, as usual, gettig the police out among the public and enforcing laws.

That's what I used to always say back home, get the bad drivers off the road, but that would be too drastic in Thailand as the roads would then be deserted.

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, Pdaz said:

Do away with credit purchases of vehicles.

If you can't pay cash. No car. Would remove 60% of the problem. Maybe more.

Would that apply to motorbikes too?

[NoshowJones]

33 minutes ago, jesimps said:

Thais don't do walking.

 

Funny how Thais hate walking, yet they will stand on the BTS and MRT when there are plenty of available seats.

[alien365]

Its quite simple, if they don't want cars in the center get them to park outside of the center and use transport to get in AKA park and ride schemes. It's not difficult to build multi-storey car parks at the end of or outer stations of the bts/mrt lines.

 

 

 

[Sooo Upto Me]

3 hours ago, pegman said:

The town is mostly Thais and they don't walk. Secondly very few streets have the room for proper side walks. If the cops enforced the no parking areas that would greatly improve flow. Also the traffic lights last way too long.

 

Which Town?  Might help if the OP told us where he is talking about. 

 

[Pdaz]

7 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Would that apply to motorbikes too?

Depends if you want to eradicate the scooter prob too ? Not that many years ago, before easy credit became available there weren't that many scooters on the road. Hence the popularity of motocyc taxis. Now even the lowliest worker seems to have a scooter while the moto guys sit idle. 17 yrs back I hardly knew anyone who had a private car to themselves. The family might own a truck, but not every son and daughter. Only the very rich were two or three car households. 

[Sooo Upto Me]

The only solution to cut the congestion in Thailand is to ban all Thai drivers who don't hav a licence or insurance and are under the influence. 

But we know that can never happen.  ?

[Pdaz]

Or link licences to IQ. Under 85 points - No licence. 

[Banana7]

11 minutes ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

Which Town?  Might help if the OP told us where he is talking about. 

 

The town is Pattaya Chonburi since this discussion is posted in the Pattaya Forum.

[fruitman]

For BKK:

 

Don't let ANYBODY park on the roads and sure not occupy 2 -3 lanes (like minivans and taxi's love to do).

 

Let slow drivers keep left (i'm sure they won't do it).

 

Stop with U-turns occupying incoming lanes and sure not 2 incoming lanes.

 

Tell taxi's to drive faster when empty, many times they hold up the line searching for customers.

 

Tell big buses and big trucks to keep left.

 

Make better roadsigns so people can prepare to take an exit in advance and don't need to cut off other drivers.

 

For big main roads set a minimum speed and fine everybody not reaching that speed. (against very slow streetvendors and tricycles or drunk motocy drivers).

[Sooo Upto Me]

8 minutes ago, Banana7 said:

The town is Pattaya Chonburi since this discussion is posted in the Pattaya Forum.

 

This is true, but at the same time there have been numerous posts on here about Bkk, Chaing Mai etc

[natway09]

They upgraded a 2 laner into a great 4 lane road on my way to work.

The 2 outside lanes have just become the most expensive car parks on the planet.

The real trouble of course Farang, is you don't understand

[ghillie44]

1  Improve Thai driving test to actual road driving as in UK and learning the rules of the road like UK Highway Code.

2  punish minor traffic offences with bans - increasing with each subsequent offence up to lifetime ban

3  punish serious traffic offences (drunk driving, vehicular manslaughter etc) with prison

4  cut out BIB "toll" gates.  They seriously undermine respect for BIB.

5  teach BIB to drive correctly as per European police driving standards and then they might be able to enforce traffic laws

6  enforce traffic laws

7  enforce traffic laws

8  enforce traffic laws

9  enforce..... enforce.....enforce.......where's the nearest nut-house?......beam me up Scottie....enforce.....enforce......enforce.....enforce

[Banana7]

19 minutes ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

This is true, but at the same time there have been numerous posts on here about Bkk, Chaing Mai etc

My issue is primarily in Pattaya so that's why I posted in the Pattaya Forum. I didn't know there are similar issues in other cities. Maybe TAT and other government officials should take more notice and action since this issue affects several premier tourist destinations in Thailand and probably effects 10's of millions of tourists.

 

 

 

 

 

[alien365]

23 minutes ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

This is true, but at the same time there have been numerous posts on here about Bkk, Chaing Mai etc

I got here from the general e mail that I get every day, not searching through the forum. I've only just noticed it says at the very top left of the screen that it's in the Pattaya f... For Pattaya, I have no idea as I don't live there and have only been once

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, newnative said:

First, excellent public transportation at a reasonable cost

 

Agree. All recent governments have adopted the full 'user pays' approach to mass transport, however IMHO in a developing country the policy should be strong subsidization, to get people to work etc., much more quickly and with less stress, and hopefully this would also reduce the numbers of motorcycles and cars on the roads and reduce pollution.  

 

'User pays', yes, but when there is a much bigger 'middle class' with better income. 

[topt]

5 hours ago, pegman said:

The town is mostly Thais and they don't walk. Secondly very few streets have the room for proper side walks. If the cops enforced the no parking areas that would greatly improve flow. Also the traffic lights last way too long.

Maybe signs of change (but not holding my breath). Third Road south of where it joins Pattaya Klang they were repainting the red and white check on the kerb stones and moving on all the parked vehicles around 2pm today. This included MC taxis. There were 2 tow trucks, a pick up for bikes and a number of BIB having discussions with what I presume were somewhat pissed off business owners. On my return journey the only blockage was caused, ironically, by a contractor's pick up as they were still painting. Absolutely nothing else was parked along that stretch at that time.

 

Be intrigued to see how long this lasts or how often they enforce it?

[gmac]

3 hours ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

Which Town?  Might help if the OP told us where he is talking about. 

 

Pattaya but the problem is pretty general in all large towns.