Guiding taxi drivers in Bangkok

[BadCash]

Did anyone ever try guiding a taxi driver in Bangkok to take a different route than the one the driver "usually takes"? 

 

The reason I'm asking is because me and my friend tried guiding a driver from Don Muang airport to On Nut via the route that Google maps suggests. Let's face it, Google has tons of up-to-the-minute information about travel times collected from peoples Android devices and actually knows, not guesses, which route is the best right at this very moment.

 

Initially it went "okay", after some persuasion we managed to get him into the direction of the Ram Inthra - At Narong expressway, despite him insisting that it was "traffic jam". Then as we got closer to the expressway, trouble began. He asked about "Rama IX", we said yes as that's clearly what the road signs pointing in the right direction to get onto the expressway said. But instead of simply accepting a "chai khrap", he went on about "road go down" or something like that, probably meaning he wanted to take some underpass instead? We struggled back and forth with this a few times until my friend handed him his phone and let his Thai girlfriend explain where we wanted to go. It seemed like he understood her right away, as he got on the right onramp, but instead of just getting on with driving to On Nut, he had a long and somewhat (it sounded like) heated conversation with my friends girlfriend. Anyway, we were sure he would manage to get us from there to On Nut without further assistance, since it's basically just follow the road all the way there, you almost can't mess it up at this point!

 

Unfortunately, for some unimaginable reason he suddenly decides to leave the expressway and proceed to Ekkamai road (!) to go via Sukhumvit to On Nut. At this point we gave up any further attempts to guide him and just accepted our fate, now being stuck in heavy traffic when we should have just had a smooth journey on the expressway all the way to On Nut. Personally I will probably never try to guide a taxi driver in Bangkok again. Come to think of it, I'll probably try using Uber more often instead, since those drivers actually seem capable of looking at the map on a smartphone and follow the navigation along the fastest route.

 

Anyway, I'm just curious to know about what your experiences are with guiding taxi drivers to take a different route than the first one that pops into their head. Any tips on how to succeed? Or is it doomed to fail? 

 

 

 

 

 

[thedemon]

It sounds like it was when you passed the phone to your friends girlfriend that things went pear shaped.

 

Google Maps is a great resource and is getting better all the time but it is still a long way off beating a human that knows their way around Bangkok. There are just too many unpredictable variables here.

 

2 weeks ago I used Uber to go from Nonthaburi to Bangkapi. There are several possible routes but Google chose to take us right into Ratchyothin intersection which has just had a flyover demolished rendering it possibly the worst intersection in Thailand right now. It turned a 45 minute trip into 2 hours.

[BadCash]

1 hour ago, thedemon said:

It sounds like it was when you passed the phone to your friends girlfriend that things went pear shaped.

 

Google Maps is a great resource and is getting better all the time but it is still a long way off beating a human that knows their way around Bangkok. There are just too many unpredictable variables here.

 

2 weeks ago I used Uber to go from Nonthaburi to Bangkapi. There are several possible routes but Google chose to take us right into Ratchyothin intersection which has just had a flyover demolished rendering it possibly the worst intersection in Thailand right now. It turned a 45 minute trip into 2 hours.

Yes, it could have been some confusion there between them since they seemed to have an unnecessarily long conversation (although I find that Thais seem to do that sometimes, discussing a simple matter of yes and no for ten minutes :) 

 

True that Google maps sometimes doesn't know about new roads and stuff. Were you using Google Maps navigation in your phone to get the fastest route? Might be a setting somewhere (there are "Avoid toll ways", "Avoid highways", etc). You know how Google maps shows your route in blue, orange and red depending on how heavy the traffic is? That info is collected from peoples phones as they travel, and is usually extremely accurate and up to date. Unlike us humans, Google can actually look ahead along the entire route and find out how long it takes the average car to move from A to B right now, so I don't really see why it wouldn't display a situation as the one you describe as bright red and detect that things are moving very slow there? Unless you guys were the only ones taking that route... ;D Or if the situation changed very quickly from good to bad, but I think the route actually gets updated if the estimated time changes a lot.

Edited February 8, 2017 by BadCash

[impulse]

While I have no doubt that it goes the other way on occasion- maybe even regularly- almost every time I try to tell the taxi drivers a better route, they know something I don't know and I end up regretting it.  

 

It may have been a 2 hour debacle, but there are days when I'd gladly take 2 hours over a couple of the intersections near my place at Asoke.  I've spent over an hour at one light on many a Friday afternoon.  And while I'm stuck in the right turn lane for a dozen cycles of the light, Google Maps seems to be clocking people going straight at a goodly clip.  So it shows up looking great, but it isn't.

Edited February 9, 2017 by impulse

[smutcakes]

Unless its a route i have done countless times and i am in a mad rush and they are clearly scraping around for directions i just let them get on with it. Or unless of course they make it clear they are lost, or ask for directions.

 

I would never attempt to show a taxi driver a map, or be confident enough in google maps alone to overide a taxi driver. Only if i personally knew the route well and normally a short one. Not bothered to sit and direct them for an hour through traffic.

[Thainess]

When Thai people do really bad things, or when they're really stupid, they are reincarnated as taxi drivers.

[wprime]

They want to take the fast way, they get more per distance than per time and they hate getting stuck in traffic as passengers often leave and nobody gets in the cabs when they're stuck in traffic so they can waste a good 15 to 20 minutes.

 

But the thing is when guiding them, sometimes they'll pretend to understand but don't actually understand you and just nod then not do what you ask so it's useful to know the thai directions.

 

Leaw sai - turn left

trong pai - go straight

leaw kwa - turn right

klap rot - u turn

slow down, we're nearly there - cha cha, kamlang ja teung laew

slow down (because you're scared of his crazy driving) - rew rew, rao reep