BKK - Traffic Jams from Hell

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"Has thai gov. ever come up with a carpool plan?

 

just by putting up sign up sheets at places of work might get ppl interested."

 

I think that one of the big problems countering this is the fact that many people see their car as a status symbol. Many are also very lazy and would take the car even when they could walk it in 10 minutes or so.

 

Sanuk!

[Nervous_Dog]

KS - you have hit it on the head, Cars are astatus symbol, for bar girls cleaners through to clerks, I am amazed to see every day cars, backed up 25 kms on the freeway, majority with a single person in them.

 

In other countries, (ie Aus) we have express lanes for cars with more than two people, hahahaha, as if that would work here.

 

I get the BTS every day, from anytime between 6.30 and 9.30 am, without exception its full,

 

But hey brer rabbit, do you car pool with your 740iL?

 

JB

[Guest]

A side note from BKK Post:

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Accessories boosted by soaring car sales

 

Growth up to 30% higher than last year

 

Santan Santivimolnat

 

The car audio and accessories market will continue growing this year in line with the robust expansion of automobile sales, with many car companies projecting total sales of 600,000 units this year.

 

``We predict sales of car audio and accessories will expand by 20-30% over the previous year and those of car audio alone will increase 10%,'' said Kamchai Petchnamsin, chairman of the Car Audio Consumer and Accessories Group, an industry organisation.

 

The car audio and accessories market last year was valued at about five billion baht, or which 10-15% was locally-made products.

 

Of the total market, Mr Kamchai said used vehicles accounted for 60% of sales and new ones the remainder.

 

Used vehicles represent a larger market share because owners tend to look for new products to replace equipment installed with the vehicles when they were first purchased.

 

Mr Kamchai said the popularity of new vehicles such as the Honda Jazz and Toyota Wish would help spur the accessories market as a variety of items were being offered to owners to decorate or beautify their vehicles.

 

As well, consumer finance providers that offer instalment loans could also help expand the car audio and accessories market, while product importers and producers could join the credit providers to offer zero-interest campaigns.

 

Mr Kamchai said the group would hold the fourth Thailand Car Audio and Accessories Exhibition from July 1-5 at Central Plaza, Lat Phrao to help spur sales growth.

 

The events the group organised in the past three years achieved impressive results as most exhibitors said their sales targets were met.

 

About 59 importing companies will exhibit their products at the event, with a focus on innovative and modern products, for an expected 300,000 event-goers, mostly younger consumers.

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HT

[samak]

agree on that! car is a very important status symbol here.

and another status symbol among middle to upper class Thais is NOT to use public traffic!

"i have a certain status and can afford a car and do not need to sit in public traffic beside blue collars, maids and all those folks from upcountry!"

i know many Thais, who would never use public traffic and prefer to spend hours in traffic jams.

 

another problem is that so many middle to upper class Thais send and pick up their kids at their school. private schools are often far away; and schoolbus? not my kid!

[Fatbastard]

The Thai attachment for their cars !!!

My soi is approx 5 mins walk to Villa in soi 49, yet most of the people in the soi will take their cars rather than walk even tho' in most cases it is actually faster to get there by walking.

Last nite I saw the women who lives opposite me call her driver to pick her up from there to take her back home, she offered me a lift but I had already arrived back when by the time the driver had exited the Soi.

[iuytrede]

For Thais cars are primarily a means to show off. That you can use them to get from A to B is quite secondary. If you need one hour to get from Siam to Emporium by car (BTS 5 minutes), that's fine - much better than 5 minutes, because you can enjoy your status for 1 full hour, not just 5 minutes.

 

The same applies for the Skytrain. It was never designed as a "heavy duty mass transport" like another poster wrote. It is a means for the upper (quite literally!) people to move over the heads of the lower people, like expressways. It never competed with the 4-Baht-busses for the masses, it competed with taxis. For the masses BTS is way to expensive: I use BTS a lot and spend maybe 800 B a month for it, public transport in Bkk is not cheaper than in Europe if you use BTS (and subway) - no way a factory worker can afford this every day.

 

Lower people (not only farmers and factory workers) feel often quite embarassed if they use the Skytrain: they feel uncomfortable between all those upper people. And this exactly how it is supposed to be. Everybody knows his place in Thai society.

[Guest]

"another problem is that so many middle to upper class Thais send and pick up their kids at their school. private schools are often far away; and schoolbus? not my kid!

 

"

 

I notice ( when taking my daughter to school (( St. Johns school in bkk))

 

the "vip" thais in their bmw, merc, ect. let the kids "float" around in the cars, no seat belts, or child seats for the smaller kids.

 

Face, stupidity, or dont care. ?

 

just sad I think

[Nervous_Dog]

Ahh- the lack of safety inside the car is amazing,

 

St Johns you say, now some teachers there

 

JB

[Guest]

JB:

 

"St Johns you say, now some teachers there"

 

 

Any one notice ( sorry, not really related to the first subject) that the drinking water for the kids ( and teachers too, most likely) is a cooler with a cup on a string?

 

 

 

kind of middle ages health wise