All Talk and No Action

[Gaybutton]

This, from PATTAYA CITY NEWS:

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Traffic Report Presented to Pattaya City Hall

 

An interesting meeting now from Pattaya City Hall chaired by Khun Niran, the Mayor of Pattaya who received a bulky report from a team of analysts from the King Mongkot University from Bangkok. Over the last three months they have been conducting a study of traffic flow and modifications required to improve the look of Pattaya City.

 

The report, which is over 200 pages long, began with identifying problems on Pattaya Beach Road. The report suggested that road markings were wrong and problems with Baht Buses and other vehicles who were double parking were causing potential dangers for oncoming motorists.

 

The report also suggested that all power lines should be placed underground. They suggested that the improvements be made together and Pattaya Beach Road should be closed to traffic whilst the work is undertaken. During the closure, Pattaya Second Road will become a two way road but will revert to one-way when the work is completed.

 

Other smaller issues such as standardization of traffic signs was also mentioned in the report which is now being considered by the Mayor.

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It doesn't take many visits to Pattaya to see that there is a major traffic problem, one that has been escalating for years with very little being done about it. With all the new housing construction and the increase in popularity of Pattaya as a tourist destination, it doesn't take too many people with IQ's that exceed Hedda's report to see that without something drastic being done, and soon, the traffic problems will inevitably continue to grow until Pattaya becomes a traffic nightmare equalled only by Bangkok.

 

Most of what I see in the above article has been talked about for years, especially the part about placing power lines underground. That isn't exactly something new.

 

They are talking about working on Beach Road. I don't know what can be done about Beach Road that would make a significant difference. They can't widen the road. There's no space available to widen it. It seems to me that while placing the wires underground will dramatically improve the looks of Beach Road, I'm trying to figure out what that would do to improve the traffic flow.

 

As usual, all these ideas are being considered at just the wrong time. High tourist season is fast approaching. I suppose, if they do anything at all, they'll start tearing up the streets during high season again, as they have done so many times before.

 

It seems to me that much of this is a no-brainer. Instead of using the police force to spend its time looking for helmetless motorcyclists, what would be so terrible about having a group of police officers patrol around and ticketing people who double and triple park?

 

Obviously one of the reasons people double park is because they can't find anywhere else to park. Several things can be done about that. Perhaps a city parking lot would help. Also, and this is one of my peeves, stop allowing stores to place their barriers and no parking signs on public streets. Many of these shops simply place barrriers in front of their shops so that people can't park there. Why is that tolerated?

 

As far as I know, they have no right to do that, but they do it anyway. If they do have the right to do that, then change the regulations so that they don't. I don't understand what those barriers are supposed to accomplish. How is a car parked in front of a shop hurting their business? I don't get it.

 

Another helpful solution would be to take advantage of already existing traffic signals. There seems to be no coordination to them. How much would it take to coordinate them? Also, the timers seem to be nonsensically set. One of my most despised traffic signals is the one located at Third Road and South Road (Pattaya Tai). Whenever I come that way from Sukhumvit Road, half my trip is spent waiting for that light. That's because it stays red forever, and then turns green with enough time for only a few cars to get through. That causes backups and major delays. And that's not the only traffic signal where this sort of problem occurs. If you are a driver in Pattaya, I'll bet you've noticed the same thing I have . . . when a traffic signal is not working, now the traffic flows smoothly.

 

Another problem is the lack of parallel streets. There are very few and the distances between them are too far.

 

Some of these problems seem that they would be fairly simple to rectify. Other problems are complex and there are no quick fixes.

 

It doesn't matter, though. If it happens like most other things happen, then there will be a lot of meetings and a lot of talk, and by the time anything is actually done, if ever, it will be botched. The process of it will cause even more problems, the work will be shoddy and incompetent, and the outcome will be obsolete before the construction is even halfway finished.

 

As you can see, I'm very optimistic . . .

[Guest Hedda]

"It seems to me that much of this is a no-brainer. Instead of using the police force to spend its time looking for helmetless motorcyclists, what would be so terrible about having a group of police officers patrol around and ticketing people who double and triple park?"

 

 

No-brainer for whom ?

 

Just remember that poor people are usually the ones riding around on motorbikes, so they're fair game for all kinds of law enforcement.

 

Rich people, on the other hand, drive around in cars, and they don't want any policeman stopping them or telling them where they can park or how they can drive. That's the no-brainer.

 

 

 

[Gaybutton]

That might be true for rich people, but I'm not sure you are right. The police are quick enough to ticket cars when they're parked along red/white striped curbs. They chain those cars and won't unchain them until the ticket is paid. They also pull cars over along the highways and check for proper papers, licensing, etc, and ticket cars that they find with violations. I don't see how ticketing double parked cars would be so much different. Also, plenty of delivery trucks don't seem to mind blocking traffic when they stop to make a delivery, and sometimes they keep traffic blocked for quite some time. Certainly those drivers aren't rich.

[Guest Hedda]

"Certainly those drivers aren't rich."

 

No, but the people who own the company certainly are.

 

Frankly, I have never seen the kind of traffic enforcement you mention in the years i have been living or visiting in Pattaya. In over 10 years, I think I have seen two incidents of police giving tickets or "the boot" to illegally parked cars, and both were on occasions where a VIP motorcade was expected in the area.

 

The worst congestion in the city, that stretch of road to Jomtien, from Pattaya Thai , past Soi VC, to the base of Pratamnak Hill, is all painted with candy stripe and marked "NO PARKING" , and yet it is packed every night of the year with illegally parked cars.

 

As for police pulling cars over on the highway, I have seen far too many incidents of that in all these years travelling here. But most people call it something other than "to check papers." I assume you get my meaning.

[Gaybutton]

Indeed I do get your meaning. As for "the boot," I see it fairly regularly. I even had it happen to me. One evening I had dinner at Hugh Millar's Symphony Brasserie. I parked in a spot at which there were no curb markings at all and no signs. When I returned to my car after dinner, it had been ticketed and chained. The car directly in front of me was also ticketed and chained. The owner of that car, a Thai woman, arrived at just about the same time I did. I asked her if she knew why this happened. She said she didn't know.

 

Both of us had to go to the police station. We waited nearly an hour and a half before they finally got around to calling us. She was called first. I went to the desk with her. She asked why her car had been chained. All the clerk would say was that she was illegally parked. She insisted she was not, but she still ended up having to pay the fine in order to get her car released. Same for me.

 

The fine was only 200 baht, so it wasn't worth making a major fuss over it, but since that night I have passed that same spot several times with various Thai friends, none of whom can figure out what was illegal about parking there. Probably nothing at all.

 

The point is, they really do ticket cars, whether illegally parked or not. And we were not exactly the only two car owners in the police station that night paying fines. Since they do ticket cars, I hope they will extend that to double parked cars and delivery trucks, but I can definitely agree with you about one thing, Hedda . . . you better have a tremendous lung capacity if you are going to hold your breath waiting for the police to take action against those vehicles.

 

You may be right about the reason and maybe you are wrong. Does that matter? Either way, cars are double and triple parking with impunity.