the dangers of Beach Road traffic

[wpcoe]

Some oldie but goodie YouTube videos, not brought to you by TAT:

 

 

 

 

[bangkokbanjo]

When i took my motorcycle safety course in the states you learn two valuable lessons. One is that you have to assume no one sees you....ever. The other is even if an accident is not your fault, it is your fault. The last one is the most important. How can you prevent yourself from being a victim in pattaya. Drivers habits will not change, so it is so important as a pedestrian you do everything in your power to avoid being hit. For example, looking both ways before crossing, even if it is a one way street. How many of us have seen scooters driving the wrong way because the soi they want to reach is closer going the wrong way than if they traveled around the block. Crossing at a red light? Make sure all the cars have stopped before crossing. There are way too many nuances to put here, but as a pedestrian, i assume no laws will be followed and i must do my best to protect myself

 

 

[Keesters]

On 9/4/2017 at 1:57 PM, Asiantravel said:

" gives you the right to cross by law "

 

but you can't attribute much value to that if you are a corpse lying on Pattaya Beach Road after being hit by a driver who totally disregards speed limitations (painted on the road)or indeed even the very significance of a pedestrian crossing?

But at least you'll be in the right. Anyway the discussion going on is that crossing where there is not a zebra is better than using one. A ridiculous idea.

 

 

[balo]

13 hours ago, bangkokbanjo said:

For example, looking both ways before crossing,

 

Yesterday one Indian guy tried to cross the road looking only one way , I almost hit him . 

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎9‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 1:57 PM, Asiantravel said:

" gives you the right to cross by law "

 

but you can't attribute much value to that if you are a corpse lying on Pattaya Beach Road after being hit by a driver who totally disregards speed limitations (painted on the road)or indeed even the very significance of a pedestrian crossing?

It is as easy to be cautious crossing on the stripes as elsewhere. If I am beside a crossing when I want to cross I'm not going to walk up the road to cross.

[ross163103]

13 hours ago, balo said:

 

Yesterday one Indian guy tried to cross the road looking only one way , I almost hit him . 

 

 

I've had the same thing, and usually they're looking the wrong way on a one way street, not sure what's up with that. I'm not an expert but personally if I was a pedestrian I'd be looking at the direction cars are coming FROM not going too.....but that's just me.

[johng]

I almost hit one who was looking in the direction of where the traffic is going instead of the oncoming direction while I was riding my motorbike.
He ran across towards the beach side appearing just behind a songthew in the middle lane...I didn't have time to press the horn so just shouted and slammed on the breaks....he heard my shout and stopped I carried on no chance to stop,we missed collision by a few centimeters.
The passengers in the Songthew had shocked flabbergasted expressions
I too couldn't believe we both came away totally unscathed.

[gmac]

18 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It is as easy to be cautious crossing on the stripes as elsewhere. If I am beside a crossing when I want to cross I'm not going to walk up the road to cross.

That's fine but don't expect people to stop for you because they very rarely do.

[ross163103]

3 hours ago, gmac said:

That's fine but don't expect people to stop for you because they very rarely do.

I always stop for people in the crossings........as long as I'm not going to get rear ended from some driver not paying attention.

[hawker9000]

1 hour ago, ross163103 said:

I always stop for people in the crossings........as long as I'm not going to get rear ended from some driver not paying attention.

You need to yield to pedestrians, period.  Crossings or no!   Bikes, whether driven by locals or farangs, habitually carry way too much speed for pedestrian-rich environments like Beach Road and Second Road, and nobody takes the crossings seriously.  (And if driven by vacationing farangs, they're probably not even experienced/licensed riders in the 1st place!.)  Lots of traffic moving faster than it should, and bikes popping out unexpectedly and bearing down hard on their throttles from behind baht busses and other larger vehicles.  Pedestrians can't always see them coming when that happens, and it happens all the time. At best, each is trying to figure out which way the other is going to move.   Nobody on foot in his right mind is going to go out of their way to get hit by a bike, but if I ever see it coming and I know I'm going down, even if it's the last conscious thing I do, that moron is going down with me.  Hard.

[johng]

even if it's the last conscious thing I do, that moron is going down with me.  Hard.

LOL sounds MAD to me
(Mutually Assured Destruction)
if the "moron" was driving anything larger than a bicycle most likely you would be the one going down the hardest...or do you cary a portable low yield nuclear device just in case

[thaibeachlovers]

7 hours ago, gmac said:

That's fine but don't expect people to stop for you because they very rarely do.

I never expect people to stop. I wait for a gap and run for my life.

It's quite good when there is a traffic jam on Second as I can just walk across, checking for m'bikes of course.

[bkk6060]

NONO with some of these posts.  Walking in the middle of the road not a crossing and holding your hand out to stop, is not a good/legal way to cross.  In fact in many countries it is JAYWALKING and subject to citation.  In case some of you do not know the motorbike/car has the right of way!!, Not your hand out..

Use the crosswalks and the signals.  Yes, it is still risky here but OMG you are in Thailand not some USA suburb just like other things here, use common sense and figure it out.

Edited September 7, 2017 by bkk6060

[i claudius]

I’m posting this not just from my own experience this morning trying to cross Beach road as a pedestrian but more from subsequently seeing the reaction of a young Chinese couple just a few minutes later up the road also trying to do the same thing. Who knows maybe remembering this post could save someone from sustaining a serious injury or even worse because I have a theory that the already poor and sometimes dangerous driving habits in Pattaya are gradually getting even worse.
 
And why wouldn’t they get worse because if drivers can get away with so much ( particularly speeding   ) without any repercussions, then over time consideration for others can gradually become less and less important to drivers because there are no consequences to acting irresponsibly?
 
This morning I tried to cross Beach Road outside the 7/11 on the pedestrian crossing at Pattaya 13/3 Alley. When there was a break in the traffic(because the lights are not switched on) I started walking across and the vehicles in the first two lanes were   able stop because they were going at a reasonable speed to allow me to proceed. But when I had almost reached the beachside curb I noticed a car travelling so fast in the beach side lane that I stopped and stood on the pedestrian crossing . The driver of the fast car could see all the other vehicles had stopped but he proceeded anyway. I even put my arm up and signalled for him to stop which he totally ignored  and if I had  continued to walk instead of waiting on the crossing   I would definitely not be here to write this account now because he just kept speeding past and he would never have been able to stop in time. It was a scary and surreal experience.
 
But what made it even more surreal was as I walked northwards along Beach Road I then came to the pedestrian crossing outside Royal Garden and was astounded to see a young Chinese couple standing on the beachside who almost experienced the same as me except they hadn’t yet set foot on the crossing. The cars in two of the lanes had stopped seeing that they were trying to walk across to Royal Garden but as soon as they put their foot near the curb edge a car travelling fast in the beach side lane tooted its horn which prompted the Chinese couple to point up at the pedestrian lights to indicate to the driver they were not working so what else were they to do?!  . How else does a young couple who are presumably tourists in this city walk across the road safely at a pedestrian crossing if motorists are so intolerant?
 
From my experience this morning the simple act of trying to walk across Beach Road is something you can no longer take for granted . You need 100% concentration even on a pedestrian crossings where the lights have been turned off . at this rate it can only be a matter of time until there will be a fatality.

Dont walk and hold up the traffic run !!

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Pattaya46]

10 hours ago, johng said:

He ran across towards the beach side appearing just behind a songthew in the middle lane...I didn't have time to press the horn so just shouted and slammed on the breaks....he heard my shout and stopped I carried on no chance to stop,we missed collision by a few centimeters.

That's for this kind of reasons that Beach Road is restricted to 40 km/h...

and such a low speed should allow a driver to stop in most cases.

[johng]

That's for this kind of reasons that Beach Road is restricted to 40 km/h...
and such a low speed should allow a driver to stop in most cases.

Well I was going about 60KPH at the time..and there wasn't a 40KPH limit
but even if there was and I was going that slow it would have been difficult to avoid a collision when something "magically" pops out in front of you with no warning.

[toenail]

I"d love to throw a ripe fruit at some car, truck, or bus zooming down Beach Rd not paying attention to a pedestrian right away,  but knowing the mentality of some of the locals, they probably would pull a gun out and start shooting at me instead of knowing what he did wrong. 

[toenail]

On 8/27/2017 at 1:59 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

Area around Sunee Plaza is exceptionally dangerous due to the insane riders of a certain non Thai ethnicity that inhabit that area.

Hey, I have lived in the Gulf countries and they are the worse drivers in the world because they feel they are above the law.

 

[champers]

20 hours ago, johng said:

Well I was going about 60KPH at the time..and there wasn't a 40KPH limit
but even if there was and I was going that slow it would have been difficult to avoid a collision when something "magically" pops out in front of you with no warning.

So you were breaking the speed limit by a margin of 50%. You ought to be the one getting off the road as you are a menace and a danger to other road users.

[richard_smith237]

20 hours ago, johng said:

Well I was going about 60KPH at the time..and there wasn't a 40KPH limit
but even if there was and I was going that slow it would have been difficult to avoid a collision when something "magically" pops out in front of you with no warning.

 

While speed restrictions allow the driver to avoid an accident in many cases, the reality is that some accidents are unavoidable, as mentioned above 'when something "Magically" pops out in front of you'... It is in these circumstances that low speeds are the real life saver... 

 

For example....

If someone is hit by a car at 20 mph (32 kmh) there is a 10% likelihood they are killed. 

If someone is hit by a car at 30 mph (48 kmh) there is a 50% likelihood they are killed. 

If someone is hit by a car at 40 mph (64 kmh) there is a 90% likelihood they are killed. 

 

(Stats according to: http://www.safespeed.org.uk/killspeed.html) 

 

Thus, while killing your speed also reduces the likelihood you are able to react in time to someone 'surprising' you.... the real result of limiting your speed is that in the event of an unavoidable accident (i.e. Child running out into the road) there is a far less likelyhood of serious injury and death. 

 

It's all about what happen's when you do hit someone, not about whether or not you can stop in time. 

Edited September 8, 2017 by richard_smith237

[johng]

So you were breaking the speed limit by a margin of 50%. You ought to be the one getting off the road as you are a menace and a danger to other road users.

When this happened there where no speed limit signs on or along the road
I was driving at the speed of the other traffic on the road....isn't the normal speed in towns 60kph ?
Have they recently put up 40 kph signs ?

[champers]

The 40 KPH speed limit is painted on the road surface of Beach Road, though faded in parts.

Speed limit aside, Beach Road is a very busy road and is difficult to cross at times. I don't imagine anyone chooses to put themselves in grave danger by rushing out in front of vehicles. 

Drivers must be aware that their vehicles have the capacity to kill and maim and should drive with caution.

[johng]

Pedestrians should be aware that they are not superhuman
and are on the lowest pecking order on the roads of Thailand
+ they should not be fooled by faded speed limits,zebra crossings that no one stops for even if there is a traffic light
and remember to look both ways constantly while crossing the road.

[Pattaya46]

6 hours ago, johng said:

....isn't the normal speed in towns 60kph ?

Yes, by default it's 60, but many cities have lower limits, like Pattaya where it's globally 50 and lower (40, 30) is a few strategic streets.

 

Note that Thailand thinks for some time already to reduce speed in cities to 40 km/h by default

 

Again in this article from yesterday:

 

“Thailand might opt for a speed limit of 40km/hr, the same as Japan"

[Asiantravel]

 Today they were pulling over and booking motorcyclists right-to-left and centre and I just happened to notice this sign directly opposite Beach Road police station

The sign says in the first line “cross the road illegally “ (the second and third lines are Chinese and Russian languages) and then presumably your eyes are meant to go straight down to the fine 1000 baht

so would anyone care to interpret this? Does this mean you have to have a police officer there like in the picture to avoid being fined the 1000 baht and does this apply on all pedestrian crossings ?

[johng]

It one of their favorite spots to stop motorcycles...at least its not far to walk to the station and pay fine.

 

The Thai bits say

"Travel Pattaya safely"

"Drivers will stop for you"

" safe for drivers and those crossing"

"Cross on the crossing ,stop for those on the crossing"

 

5555 yeah good luck with that !