Long-abandoned, Pattaya’s pedestrian signals still leave tourists angry, bewildered

[manarak]

3 minutes ago, thaiden1 said:

Police in Thailand seem to be reluctant to enforce the traffic rules except motorbike helmets. Think of the baht they could collect just standing at one intersection and ticketing all the infractions.

their big problem is that it's nearly impossible to find people based on license plates

 

that said, they should just fine the owner of the vehicle

Edited March 10, 2017 by manarak

[DanielS]

Somtimes when they worked there was another problem, and police did not care.

 

Edited March 10, 2017 by DanielS

[impulse]

Every time I stop at a light like that here I cringe in anticipation of the guy behind me rear ending me, then getting out and coming at me with a machete.

[Bangkok Barry]

The lights were just a money-making scheme for someone of influence. Same as the taxi stations in Bangkok, one of which was actually blocked off by a barrier outside Pantip to prevent it being used. The idea was that you pushed a button for a taxi and waited, while 20 empty taxis passed you by. The stupidity/corruption here knows no limits.

[Panda13]

So the rest of the civilized worlds traffic systems are in complete chaos, because they use working traffic lights without people dying from old age, waiting  for light changes and orderly pedestrian movement in between ? Really? What sounds more feasible? That Thailand is wrong or the rest of humanity is deluding itself? If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how implausible, must be true.

 

[Destiny1990]

Pattaya beach road is basically an 5 lane highway very industrial if u walk besides it is unpleasant and crossing is a mission impossible.if they would ban all parking on this road also the bikes etc and make it 2 lane road maybe pedestrians have a chance now its inpossible to cross touringcars go full speed.and widen the beach boulevard now its one big highway!

[impulse]

15 minutes ago, Panda13 said:

So the rest of the civilized worlds traffic systems are in complete chaos, because they use working traffic lights without people dying from old age, waiting  for light changes and orderly pedestrian movement in between ? Really? What sounds more feasible? That Thailand is wrong or the rest of humanity is deluding itself? If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how implausible, must be true.

 

The reality is that, given the density of cars per km and the conditions and design of the roads, traffic often moves better here with no intrusive lights or (God forbid) 4 way stops like we have back home.  People work things out faster than dumb traffic signals.

 

That's not to say "safer", just that the traffic messes clear themselves up faster.  I see it every day from my high office window looking out over a couple of the craziest intersections I've ever seen in a capitol city like Bangkok, and most of the times I'm in a taxi and the driver does stuff you just can't get away with back home- and I'm thankful he got me home a lot faster for it.

 

You want effective traffic control?  First spend $$ trillions on the roads like we did back home.  And that's not going to happen here.

 

[balo]

I think its better to remove the traffic lights on beach road and paint over the zebra crossings as well  . Then we can just cross the roads like any local would, look left right , and left right again and run for your life. TIT get used to it. 

 

 

 

Edited March 10, 2017 by balo

[Destiny1990]

They probably come up with pedestrian tunnels...but still the traffic on pattaya beach road needs to get reduced in a single lane.

[gandalf12]

Having traffic lights is good, trouble in Thailand is they don't synchronize them as they should. That is were the problems arise

[overherebc]

5 hours ago, little mary sunshine said:

Turn the crossing lights back on....post a traffic

cop at every other light writing tickets with a

fine of 1000B for every car, truck, motorbike that

doesn stop....people will be safe, the City will

 are a fortune.

Yep. ??????

[Ulic]

If they were serious they could add speed bumps similar to the ones on beach road,

and traffic police specifically to fine cross walk red light runners. A one approach

(just pedestrian traffic lights) clearly does not work. Slow people down and get there

attention with the speed bumps, hit them with a fine if they fail to stop when the

pedestrian light is red to traffic.

[Destiny1990]

2 minutes ago, Ulic said:

If they were serious they could add speed bumps similar to the ones on beach road,

and traffic police specifically to fine cross walk red light runners. A one approach

(just pedestrian traffic lights) clearly does not work. Slow people down and get there

attention with the speed bumps, hit them with a fine if they fail to stop when the

pedestrian light is red to traffic.

Busses are speeding 60-70 km at pattaya beach road good luck..its a 5 lane highway...

[wpcoe]

In Hua Hin when they added a traffic light for a crosswalk by the new BluPort Mall they had a security guard venture out into the roadway to halt traffic.  It seemed to work, but I think the mall paid the guy's salary.

 

Also in Hua Hin a traffic light for a crosswalk was installed in front of a hospital a few years ago and it apparently was openly believed by drivers to be an "optional" stop on red because it wasn't a "real" traffic light.  At least, that was how it was explained on a local Hua Hin forum.  Farangs would stop, but not many Thais would.

[Thechook]

Doesn't matter if they work or not, nobody stops for pedestrians.  In 10 years I have  seen many running for their lives at functioning pedestrian crossings but I have never seen a vehicle stop at one.

[tropo]

15 hours ago, Cuchulainn said:

........... Pushing the button to request a red light that stops traffic doesn’t work .........

 

Well, we ALL know that!!

 

No, tourists don't know that - which is the whole point of this report.

[NanLaew]

12 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

I really don't understand either City Hall or the police, they have spent gawd knows how much money installing traffic lights at Chicken Crossroads (Soi Siam CC for those that don't know the area) Near the temple at the top end of Nern Plawb wan, and the cross roads on the way to the Million years stone park, currently none of them are switched on ?? Why ? trying to cross some of these junctions in a car you need your head on a swivel and eyes in every orifice. 

 

Chicken cross roads I can understand, they were switched off while the road was resurfaced, so now please switch them back on, the other two have never been used, what a total waste of money 

 

 

I was scratching my head a bit with the location of 'chicken crossroads'... but then the penny dropped. That junction has always been a bit of a money spinner for the chaps at the Nongprue police station. Even before the roadworks, it went to flashing red and amber around 8 PM and thus made them a few bob from the frequent after-dark side-sideswipes and t-bones that occurred. They lost a lot of revenue with the prolonged roadworks and takings are still down since traffic flows are well below average since the west end of the SSCC is still largely unusable. So I don't see them coming up the hill with the key to turn them on again any time soon.

 

If you need some more excitement, check out the 4-way stop where the Crocodile Farm road passes under Highway 7 and its attendant slip roads. I reckon that one is good for at least 3 or 4 prangs a week, especially after a gully washer downpour that flushes all the sand out of the drains making for plenty locked wheels and sliding around.

[tifino]

Red lights - dangerous

 

Green lights - Kill

 

Disable lights so that no traffic has to ever Stop for people, because people are smaller than cars.

 

Fine the same people if they instead try to cross anywhere except at the 'lights'

 

Yeah! it all ties (thais) into the same story... so selfish!!!

 

but, it's no different than the observation of parents with helmets, carrying kids without - 'look after the biggest more important'

 

 

Edited March 10, 2017 by tifino

[lvr181]

17 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

"The project officially was declared a failure in February 2011 when traffic police asked the city to turn off the lights on weekdays until a better system could be designed."

 

The system was perfectly OK, and anyone from a fully modernised country was/would be completely happy with it.

 

It was however ignored and flouted by most Thai road users. 

 

It would not have taken much education (publicity together with a regular continuity of days handing out fines at the crossings) before the message got across.

 

But "a better system"  meant one that worked automatically, one that did not require the police to take any trouble to enforce and one that did not inconvenience "superior" vehicle owners (by requiring them to show consideration and deference to pedestrians).

 

An all too familiar story in Thailand:  GET HARDWARE!  It'll be  good for your "image", everyone will see how "modern" you are, you don't have to do anything else,  just sit back and watch everything fall into place, you'll become a "hub" in no time. 

 

 

 

 

" The system was perfectly OK, and anyone from a fully modernised country was/would be completely happy with it."  And therein lays the problem! Thailand is neither modernised nor first world - despite what the PM thinks, preaches and hopes for! Sad really (or sad reality?). 

[lvr181]

3 hours ago, tropo said:

No, tourists don't know that - which is the whole point of this report.

I think Cuchulainn made the comment "tongue in cheek". 

[Bangkok Barry]

11 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

They probably come up with pedestrian tunnels...but still the traffic on pattaya beach road needs to get reduced in a single lane.

 

No. They need to close the entire road to traffic and turn it into a pedestrian only area with only delivery vehicles allowed access. Imagine how pleasant that would be, properly landscaped. Make Second Road two-way. It's wide enough. And even if it's jammed with traffic, better there than along the beach. A jammed Beach Road isn't what tourists or anyone else enjoys.

[Briggsy]

15 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

I really don't understand either City Hall or the police, they have spent gawd knows how much money installing traffic lights at Chicken Crossroads (Soi Siam CC for those that don't know the area) Near the temple at the top end of Nern Plawb wan, and the cross roads on the way to the Million years stone park, currently none of them are switched on ?? Why ? trying to cross some of these junctions in a car you need your head on a swivel and eyes in every orifice. 

 

Chicken cross roads I can understand, they were switched off while the road was resurfaced, so now please switch them back on, the other two have never been used, what a total waste of money 

 

 

May I congratulate the accuracy of your observations. You have correctly observed a capital intensive project which is seemingly abandoned just a few months after completion. It seems nonsensical.

 

It is nonsensical if viewed from a Western perspective with principles such as local government spends money to provide infrastructure for the good of society, local government spends the people's money wisely and a sensible long term view is taken.

 

Once you put aside these notions and substitute them with the Eastern perspective that it costs a huge amount of money to buy yourself into power and that money must be recouped in triplicate or more, that skimming off 20% of capital expenditure is a great way to do this, that politically powerful groups are protected from public scrutiny, that politics is volatile and power can be lost quickly so there is no time to waste and there is no prestige in maintenance, only shiny new projects, then you will understand what has happened here.

 

If you continue with your observations, you will see this pattern repeat itself over and over in Thailand wherever one group has gained control of a budget. If I look over my balcony, I can see one, a beautifully retiled swimming pool (retiled 3 times in the last 5 years) but almost always without water.

[moonseeker]

Lack of education, respect and total disregard for other human beings. Most won't even stop for somebody in a wheelchair. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday, stopping on my bike to check on an elderly foreigner that had a fall on the side of the road and immediately an elderly Thai man pulled over next to me to see if he could help. Still some good ones here....MS>

[Get Real]

Another dangerous side of Pattaya!

[darksidedog]

This is the Thai equivalent of Chicken Run. Turn off the lights and watch the chickens try to cross. You calculate your score by the number of dead and crippled.

[maxcorrigan]

20 hours ago, taichiplanet said:

even if the lights were working, it would only confuse the tourists even more because no one would stop!

 

Exactly, it would put them into even more danger as thinking and taking for granted the traffic would stop, when they don't even slow down, it is safer taking your life in your own hands and crossing when you can see a gap in the traffic that is not filled by motor bikes going in all directions!

[joepattaya1961]

Most important is that even when using a pedestrian crossing guided by a green pedestrian light is life threatenting. 

Motorists usally don't give a shaait and utmost care has to be regarded at the side of the pedestrian. 

 

That's not only for the pedestrian light "on-demand" but for the pedestrian lights at big road crossings as well. 

 

 

[bangkokorbust]

Motorbike taxis area the biggest offenders. I don't get it, they are always speeding always running red lights for what? They only end up at the rank at the back of the que twiddling thumbs for an hour

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

[Joebuzz]

Dang, I thought the red lights were advertising and have been disappointed when there wasn't a  lady leaning on the lamppost.

[Destiny1990]

3 hours ago, bangkokorbust said:

Motorbike taxis area the biggest offenders. I don't get it, they are always speeding always running red lights for what? They only end up at the rank at the back of the que twiddling thumbs for an hour

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

If u had the same lifespan as a motorbike taxi than u would be in a hurry also.

Edited March 11, 2017 by Destiny1990