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Today’s Grumble - Pattaya Traffic.
Anyone who has lived here for a year or more cannot fail to have noticed the huge increase in traffic on the roads in and around Pattaya during that time.
Of course traffic is a problem in virtually every town in the world nowadays, Bangkok has for decades been notorious for its jams, but considering it’s relatively small size, the problems in Pattaya do seem disproportionate.
Apart from obvious holiday traffic at weekends and other vacation times, most of this arises from the huge influx of new residents to our ever growing city, and this too is growing at an ever accelerating rate - so, if nothing is done, the traffic situation is going to get worse - a lot worse.
So what are ‘they’ doing about it? In this case ‘they’ refers to our city administrators at City Hall.
Well they are having meetings. And as most meetings at City Hall, to judge from reports on the media, the only decision made is to postpone any decision to a further meeting.
In this respect our ‘city fathers’ appear to be no different to most public administrators the world over, seeming to work on the principle that of you don’t make any decision you can’t be accused of having made the wrong one.
We have however heard reports of grandiose schemes being proposed.
These include suggestions such as building a top level deck on top of the Sukumvit Highway, the main road leading from Bangkok to Pattaya and beyond, building flyovers to replace the level crossings on the railway line, presumably to reduce the hold-ups caused by the one train per day in either direction, and tunnels under the main highway for traffic turning in and out of all the roads leading down into the town.
This particular scheme was provisionally costed-out at several billion (Yes billion) Baht - which alone guarantees it less than the proverbial snowball in Hades chance of ever even being started.
So why are they wasting their time even discussing it - well presumably so that they can be seen to be doing ‘something’.
And even if it was in any degree undertaken, which would take decades, it would not address the core problems. The largest traffic problems are not out on the Sukumvit Highway and most certainly not anywhere near the railway line, they are down here in the middle of the city and on the inner road between Pattaya and Jomtien.
And these could be vastly improved by simple measures, readily to hand, capable of being implemented in a short time and at a relatively low cost.
Such as:-
Enforce the existing traffic laws - Bangkok, for all its problems, seems at least to make a better effort to do this.
Make traffic in right turn lanes, turn right, not when the traffic lights turn green, cut across the bows of vehicles in the straight ahead lane and thus delaying everybody and reducing the number of vehicles clearing the crossing in one turn of the lights.
Similarly make traffic in left turn lanes, turn left, and not block those behind who wish to do so. Also clearly indicate which junctions it is permitted to ‘turn left on red’ (preferably all unless there is a good reason) and which it is not - at the moment this causes a lot of confusion.
Ban double and even triple parking on all the inner roads of Pattaya, at times the 4 available lanes of the one way Second Road are reduced to one or even nil.
These existing laws could be enforced either by better deployment of the traffic police or by as in many Western countries, creating traffic wardens with proper enforcement powers.
Provide alternative off-street parking - at present there is virtually none. This will cost money but a possible solution would be to make all new major blocks being built provide vehicle parking facilities, and not just for their residents.
Reduce the number of unnecessary vehicles cluttering up the roads. In particular the number of ‘Baht buses’ on Beach and Second Roads - we have all seen the queues of them at the Walking Street end of Beach Road, mostly either totally empty or with only one or two passengers. Either allocate the remainder to other routes (Third Road and Thepprasit Road are currently virtually unserviced), or pension then off so the remainder can make a decent living.
Similarly the huge tour buses that completely block the Beach Road especially when disgorging their passengers for a boat trip or collecting them back from same - make them go to Bali High where all boats are supposed to disembark from anyway. If possible keep these oversized vehicles out of the town completely by providing a bus park on the outskirts from where their passengers can be ferried to their destinations by minibuses.
And do something about the totally inadequate single track road up the hill from Pattaya to Jomtien, either by widening it as a matter of urgency or better still by providing an alternative route - a cut through from Third Road just after it’s junction with Pattaya Tai to Thepprasit Road is almost a straight line and would completely bypass the hill.
Apart from this last item and the cost of providing car parks, these suggestions could be implemented with minimal expenditure and could be implemented quickly.
They alone would not make the traffic disappear, nothing will do that, but they could greatly improve our ability to cope with it.
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