how bad are the roads and traffic getting

[Deepinthailand]

18 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

Yes, I have heard that a few times, their stupid parents will be teaching their ten year olds to ride their motorbikes, then will hand them the keys to it, and your kids will want to know why you are not, and you will be the bad one, I sympathise with you, and there is no easy answer.

I as a responsible parent here will not allow my lad to ride a motor bike on any public roads. However I have taught him to ride a bike correctly using English CBT and part 1 and 2 criteria. On our private land and he has been told he is allowed to use a bike on that land. This is how I was taught by my dad back home in my early teenage years using the techniques used in that era. I am now teaching him to drive correctly again using English driving techniques. So when he is old enough to drive legally he will be armed with the skills needed to drive safely here. Now if some want to say that's wrong or want to call me "stupid" I don't care I'm doing what I see is correct.As any responsible parent should do.

So in a years time when he's 15 and legally entitled to a bike licence he will fly through the so called Thai tests.

[NoshowJones]

2 minutes ago, Deepinthailand said:

I as a responsible parent here will not allow my lad to ride a motor bike on any public roads. However I have taught him to ride a bike correctly using English CBT and part 1 and 2 criteria. On our private land and he has been told he is allowed to use a bike on that land. This is how I was taught by my dad back home in my early teenage years using the techniques used in that era. I am now teaching him to drive correctly again using English driving techniques. So when he is old enough to drive legally he will be armed with the skills needed to drive safely here. Now if some want to say that's wrong or want to call me "stupid" I don't care I'm doing what I see is correct.As any responsible parent should do.

That is not wrong, you sound like a very sensible parent to me, when I say "stupid", I mean the parents who allow their underage children to ride their bikes in amongst traffic.

[NoshowJones]

18 minutes ago, louse1953 said:

No is the answer.Being a parent is not easy.

I have never been a parent, but I certainly believe it is not easy, especially here in Thailand with so many underage children taking another two on a motorbike to school, and neither of them wearing helmets.

[Hutch68]

36 minutes ago, louse1953 said:

No is the answer.Being a parent is not easy.

And it will be a no that's for sure.

[fruitman]

On 19-1-2017 at 9:14 PM, samsensam said:

 

they laid some new tarmac near my place last year, its so uneven, when it rains water puddles in the dips, i mean, how hard can it be to lay flat tarmac with a gentle incline to the drains?

 

Very hard on a clay soil and without decent machinery. 

And when they fix a hole it became a bubble in the road.

 

Just buy a car with big wheels so you don't feel it.

[searcher22]

Many of the car commercials I see on TV feature reckless driving, and it's depicted as fun and macho.  

[Grubster]

On 1/19/2017 at 7:21 PM, kannot said:

The roads by me are disgusting and VERY dangerous, no one cares, holes 1  metre across in places and 30cm deep................its always a quick and useless repair done........ within months it  all comes out. Live out in the country

If we're lucky they might fill them in once a year................near Hua  Hin.............tarmac is so thin its laughable, must be 3  mm at best

We have gotten some really nice road repairs here as some people that I can't mention are visiting soon. I wish they would visit more often.

[mike324]

17 hours ago, Cake Monster said:

I have certainly noticed a sharp decline in the driving standards of most Thai drivers over the past 18 months or so.

The worst drivers ( IMO ) are not the young teenagers, but the 30 somethings that have never owned or driven a car / pickup truck before, but now have money to buy one due to higher earnings . lower interest rates Etc.

and they now think they are the bees knees when driving.

The reality is that they are the murdering scum that drive around with an attitude in a 4 wheeled missile that is primed to kill and maim.

 

I think compare to the 90s, driving was getting better until Yingluck introduce the first car rebate scheme. That put a hoard of new drivers on the road, which was when I thought it started to get worse again.

 

As for traffic, many new roads and highways are being built. I think traffic has improved a little.

[Kwasaki]

18 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

With cars?

 

Yes & motorbikes & scoots.

 

Only jesting. 

[elgordo38]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

 

Yes & motorbikes & scoots.

 

Only jesting. 

OK I will build your like count. 

[impulse]

On 1/18/2017 at 7:03 PM, opalred said:

i moved outside cm on a country road 6 years ago

you would hear a siren about once in a few weeks

now its 3 to 4 times a day

 

Have you checked to see if the ambulance got a different driver, or if there's a new ambulance company in town?

[Bulldozer Dawn]

How bad are the road getting?  Take a look at these videos:

 

Roads, Traffic, and Driving in Thailand: Videos

 

 

[grollies]

Been coming here last 10 years and the rural roads where we live have gone from laterite if you were lucky to blacktop.

 

Even the backroads are being resurfaced and widened.

 

I love driving and in the last year I've lived here full time don't have a problem. I don't mind driving in Bangkok. The two worst things for me are U-turns and the problem people seem to have in giving way.

 

Some crazy dudes about and like @Deepinthailand says, just back off.

 

There seems to be a big increase in big motorbike ownership here, the only way is up for road deaths unfortunately.

[Deepinthailand]

8 minutes ago, grollies said:

Been coming here last 10 years and the rural roads where we live have gone from laterite if you were lucky to blacktop.

 

Even the backroads are being resurfaced and widened.

 

I love driving and in the last year I've lived here full time don't have a problem. I don't mind driving in Bangkok. The two worst things for me are U-turns and the problem people seem to have in giving way.

 

Some crazy dudes about and like @Deepinthailand says, just back off.

 

There seems to be a big increase in big motorbike ownership here, the only way is up for road deaths unfortunately.

Sorry read post wrong I fully agree

[grollies]

Meanwhile, back in the UK........

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/21/second-hand-tyres-23-years-old-putting-lives-risk-britains-roadstrading/

 

Going downhill badly back in Blighty.

[Broken Record]

Huge increase in traffic since I came to Thailand, roads are much better now, with the amount of motorcycles on the road the death toll will be high, I've been driving in Thailand a long time, I'm used to it by now, and honestly, I don't find it so bad, but that is probably due to living in Thailand full time a long time and  I adapted along with the huge increase in traffic.

 

I do understand it would be daunting for some who came here when the traffic was already like it is today, I would have had a harder time too.

[kannot]

11 hours ago, grollies said:

Been coming here last 10 years and the rural roads where we live have gone from laterite if you were lucky to blacktop.

 

Even the backroads are being resurfaced and widened.

 

I love driving and in the last year I've lived here full time don't have a problem. I don't mind driving in Bangkok. The two worst things for me are U-turns and the problem people seem to have in giving way.

 

Some crazy dudes about and like @Deepinthailand says, just back off.

 

There seems to be a big increase in big motorbike ownership here, the only way is up for road deaths unfortunately.

Building new roads is  one thing, maintaining them another, they lay the tarmac so thin that at best here it lasts a  year before the holes appear, these are then filled in with "anything" from mud to old road scrapings to loose  untamped tarmac to concrete "maybe" once a  year.

Ive lived where I am now for  4  years, when I arrived the road outside the land was mud, it was tarmaced 2  years ago, its  now  got holes  1.5metres wide and 25cm deep, If  I can be bothered Ill post up a  photo later,  the tarmac is  not  more than 2mm thick and ALL the  country roads  round here are  like that.................most of the time the paint they put on them is  thicker than the road