Can the traffffic get any worse?

[elephant45]

Would it be possible for the powers that be to stop endorsing Japanese Car Makers and use the the tax money to get moving ASAP on any type of  light rail, underground transportation here> When it takes me 1hr to drive 10km I think we have a problem???

[KittenKong]

22 minutes ago, elephant45 said:

Can the traffffic get any worse?

 

Of course it can.

[shady86]

1 hr for 10 km is quite good especially during rush hours. Imagine stuck at junction for 30 mind not moving a meter because of manually controlled traffic light.

[ubonjoe]

27 minutes ago, elephant45 said:

Would it be possible for the powers that be to stop endorsing Japanese Car Makers and use the the tax money to get moving ASAP on any type of  light rail, underground transportation here> When it takes me 1hr to drive 10km I think we have a problem???

In which city.

Bangkok has a lot of construction going on now and more that have been approved.

[Chou Anou]

Pretty sure it's BEEN a lot worse (pre-economic crash 1990s)...

[Katia]

33 minutes ago, shady86 said:

1 hr for 10 km is quite good especially during rush hours. Imagine stuck at junction for 30 mind not moving a meter because of manually controlled traffic light.

Or because cars can't get out of the soi (no light) between pedestrians crossing and the traffic on the road they're trying to get onto... if there's a bus trying to get out, might as well turn off the car, go have dinner at the nearest street vendor, and come back to find traffic hasn't moved anyway.

[Kwasaki]

Get a bicycle or a scooter. 

[grollies]

Yes, some geezer on another thread, bad driving, wants to put traffic lights at every U-turn.

 

[Moonlover]

Of course it can, and will. It has been proven, in many cities throughout the world,  that the more roads they build, the more traffic there is to clog them up.

 

Good public transport coupled with punitive restrictions on private motor vehicles is the only answer.

 

And those who moan about being stuck in traffic should always keep in mind the fact that they are helping to create that traffic jam. And are polluting the air that they are breathing!

[captspectre]

In one word, YES!

[jeab1980]

No problems in my neck of the woods.

Live in a city expect city traffic. Dont like city traffic move out of city.

[craigt3365]

12 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Get a bicycle or a scooter. 

A bit of a death wish if you do that here in Pattaya!!! LOL

 

One hospital here alone does 3-4 rod implants in broken legs every day.  That's just one hospital and one procedure.

[KittenKong]

It's true that some parts of Bangkok have no mass transit system and this lack needs to be addressed (they are extending the existing system as mentioned, but even more is needed).

 

But they also need to improve the existing system by making the BTS trains much more frequent and extending the length of both them and the MRT trains to fill the entire available length of the platform. Currently the trains are shorter than they could be and they run too infrequently. That way there would be more breathing space for travellers and people would get where they are going more quickly without the long queues that sometimes occur. It would also reduce the exit queues at stations when trains arrive. Making adequate free parking available at BTS/MRT stops would be a good idea too, though not so easy to achieve.

 

Having done that they could introduce some sort of car traffic reduction system such as congestion charging or number plate alternation, as used in Singapore. Shared car-pool lanes as used in many cities would also be possible.

 

[Pilotman]

Having had to put up for years with major UK cities and the lousy UK motorway system, this is a great improvement. I dont live in the city here, but at least driving there is predictable, which in the UK it's not. Outside the cities, long stretches of the duelled  roads are near empty. Try Sattahip to Udon, via Korat it's not bad at all. 

[craigt3365]

4 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Having had to put up for years with major UK cities and the lousy UK motorway system, this is a great improvement. I dont live in the city here, but at least driving there is predictable, which in the UK it's not. Outside the cities, long stretches of the duelled  roads are near empty. Try Sattahip to Udon, via Korat it's not bad at all. 

I've done Sattahip to Issan many times.  It's insane.  Drivers are crazy and roads can be pretty beat up.  I'd hate to count all the accidents I've seen.  And forget trying to drive at night.  Super dangerous.

 

Just back from a month long drive in Europe.  I'll take the divers in Italy any day over the ones here.  France was a dream.  Though traffic in the big cities is a problem, but that's true for any big city.

[Kabula]

Yes...much worse until there are flying cars!

[mike324]

tax money is there every year, it just that the money is squandered year after year and that dinosaurs fill the cabinet to make any meaningful change to the road designs.

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, craigt3365 said:

A bit of a death wish if you do that here in Pattaya!!! LOL

 

One hospital here alone does 3-4 rod implants in broken legs every day.  That's just one hospital and one procedure.

Perhaps, but the alternative  is slow going.

Traffic isn't too bad at the moment ( low season and quiet), but of course riding a bike requires much vigilance, many do it for years without getting external fixations at the hospital.

[MyFriend You]

You think this is bad??  Move to jakarta or Manila...................

[craigt3365]

4 minutes ago, TunnelRat69 said:

You think this is bad??  Move to jakarta or Manila...................

Right on.  Many countries have worse traffic than here.  But still, it's gotten really bad over the past 5-7 years.

[newnative]

Any time I start to think that Pattaya's traffic is bad I just spend a few days in Bangkok.

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, newnative said:

Any time I start to think that Pattaya's traffic is bad I just spend a few days in Bangkok.

3 day weekend coming up.  Thursday night will be some bad traffic here.

[elephant45]

Yes I know I am dreaming, but in the early 1900's in the usa the car companies paid to have all the railroads removed so as to increase car sales/production. Making more roads is not an answer.

[lordblackader]

2 minutes ago, elephant45 said:

Yes I know I am dreaming, but in the early 1900's in the usa the car companies paid to have all the railroads removed so as to increase car sales/production. Making more roads is not an answer.

It was 1938-1950, wasn't railroads it was streetcars and it wasn't to increase car production it was for bus production.

[Winniej]

13 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Of course it can, and will. It has been proven, in many cities throughout the world,  that the more roads they build, the more traffic there is to clog them up.

 

Good public transport coupled with punitive restrictions on private motor vehicles is the only answer.

 

And those who moan about being stuck in traffic should always keep in mind the fact that they are helping to create that traffic jam. And are polluting the air that they are breathing!

Sounds about right if you have 10000 cars and 1 road  that's 10000 cars on that road 

if you have 5 roads . The answer is ? 

What 15000 cars . Where did the extra 5000 come from . 

[natway09]

Try Jakarta & get back to me.

The highways & roads here have undertaken massive infrastructure leaps in the 24 years of driving.

Planning your trip  is an essential part of my day, go to work 35 km = 1hour return 1 10 min most of the time.

I have a mate who used to leave home at 6 am get to work at 6.40 am then had breakfast, read the paper

& start work at 8am. Reckons it saved him 2 hours in traffic a day

[chilli42]

18 hours ago, Chou Anou said:

Pretty sure it's BEEN a lot worse (pre-economic crash 1990s)...

Pre BTS it certainly was

[Pilotman]

11 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

I've done Sattahip to Issan many times.  It's insane.  Drivers are crazy and roads can be pretty beat up.  I'd hate to count all the accidents I've seen.  And forget trying to drive at night.  Super dangerous.

 

Just back from a month long drive in Europe.  I'll take the divers in Italy any day over the ones here.  France was a dream.  Though traffic in the big cities is a problem, but that's true for any big city.

Not my experience at all, but there you go.  Last time I drove in France I ended up in a 6 hour jam on the motorway near Nice.!  You can only judge by your own experiences. 

[Chou Anou]

8 hours ago, chilli42 said:

Pre BTS it certainly was

There's a great Thai short story (it's been translated into English as well), which won a SEA-Write literary award, from the early or mid-1990s, which takes a tongue-in-cheek (though not by much!) look at the traffic jams of those days.  The writer talks about the community that forms among drivers who are stopped in traffic for so long that they get out of their cars, walk around, get to know each other...one man even plants and tends a garden on the side of the highway.  Eventually, the main character in the story and his wife conceive a child in their car while stopped in traffic.  There's also reference in the story to a popular contraption of the time (100% real), a kind of porta-potty which enabled one to relieve oneself in one's car while sitting for hours in traffic jams.

[jeab1980]

12 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

I've done Sattahip to Issan many times.  It's insane.  Drivers are crazy and roads can be pretty beat up.  I'd hate to count all the accidents I've seen.  And forget trying to drive at night.  Super dangerous.

 

Just back from a month long drive in Europe.  I'll take the divers in Italy any day over the ones here.  France was a dream.  Though traffic in the big cities is a problem, but that's true for any big city.

No sorry dont agree i have done that route many times always at night its a dream very little traffic. No more dangerous than driving on the A9 in the Highlands at night.