Bangkok wants to lower the speed limit in built-up areas
The municipality of Bangkok is fed up with the number of accidents within the city limits and wants a reduction of the speed limit within built-up areas to 50 kilometers. The Land Traffic Act of 1992 must be amended for this purpose.
This year, 17.619 traffic accidents have already been registered, most of them due to speeding. A Johns Hopkins University study found that 20 percent of drivers violate traffic laws (including speeding and drunk driving) and 30 percent do not wear seatbelts. Only 20 percent tell their children to fasten their seatbelts. Only half of motorcyclists wear a helmet.
The chance of dying in a serious accident with a speed of 80 km per hour is almost 100%, at 30 km per hour it is much lower at 10%.
Taste at Bang Sue
At Bang Sue, the municipality will start a test with a 'safe speed zone', in which the maximum speed of 50 km will be strictly enforced. Director Suthon of the Traffic and Transportation Department says the trial will start within two months.
Between 18 May and 18 July, the AIP foundation held the 'Slow Down Save Lives' campaign. Motorists surveyed supported the campaign and also thought the plan for safe speed zones, in seven other places, was a good idea.
Manager Oratai of the AIP Foundation Thailand says the traffic police do not have enough equipment to fine speeders. She wants the government to buy more.
Source: Bangkok Post
Good plan, and then also comply and check in the long term.
Then let them start with real speed bumps every 100-150 meters and not those about 6 white bumps on the road.
It may be difficult for rescuers to drive, but if those thresholds limit speed and cause fewer accidents, rescuers will also have to drive less.
@Bertje, just read in the Telegraaf on-line that in the Netherlands, for various reasons, the speed bumps are being removed. Not economical, higher CO2 emissions, more fuel consumption. So why start it here in Thailand? I personally think it's dangerous stuff.
Sounds like a very good plan to me. Those 4 lane roads in villages where the two middle lanes are full of stoves are deadly!
Must enter them very quickly!
Lowering the speed won't do much. First make sure that the motorbikes are driving in 1 lane. The zigzag causes many accidents.
On the adjacent lanes for bus/taxi and tuktuk.
Use the other lanes for other traffic. Stricter action against motorcyclists who go against traffic.
More organized driving, observing traffic rules and also giving pedestrians a status.
Now it's a disorganized mess. Road safety is not only achieved by reducing speed.
Traffic flow will become a bigger drama with lowering.
And like many things, the Thai will laugh about it.
Measures such as no people in the pick-up in the trunk. Seat belts etc are now hardly checked.
It's easier to make money by catching the motorcyclists if they don't have helmets on. You see this every day. The wrong parkers also get a wheel clamp.
Other violations are hardly dealt with.
In many places the agents are watching.. But on their smartphone.
How about this, a multiple daily occurrence. A three-fork and u-turn with traffic lights, all in 1. There is 1 lane for turning right and making a U-turn at the same time. The light turns green and I want to turn right but another car drove past the cue and made a U-turn in front of me. As I expected this sort of thing I was able to brake just in time. I went on a rampage and now the Thai thoughts come in. My Thai spouse then said “what are you worrying about, he is in a hurry and certainly needs to be somewhere quickly, leave him”. So change the law? Never fails as long as the Thais think like this and police officers are also Thai, so the same thoughts. Nothing to do. Pay close attention and guess what another Thai road user wants to do.
! I want to say one thing and that is that I am afraid of those motorcyclists. Can't guess what their upcoming maneuver will be. When I get close to 1 I am extremely careful and so is the gross of Thai motorists. Happy motoring.
I'm allowed (I can't reach the 50 kilometers with my bike) but I thought I read somewhere that the average speed of the car in Bangkok on an annual basis is 8 kilometers. The speed is 0 in the traffic jam.
Chris,
Have a look at this source:
https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/dam/ltaweb/corp/PublicationsResearch/files/FactsandFigures/Statistics%20in%20Brief%202015%20FINAL.pdf
It states that the average speed in Bangkok during PEAK HOURS on the 'expressway' is 60 km/h, and on the other roads it is almost 30 km/h, which I personally think is on the high side.
In large European cities, that number is between 20 and 25 km/h.
Bangkok needs to start working on bike paths. I admire you for always riding your bike. Very good!!
Using a bicycle in Thailand is dangerous. It is also forbidden to cycle on the main road outside the sois. The maximum speed is 80 km/h in the city and 60 km/h in the sois, etc. The speed limit on the expressway is 80 km/h. On the highway 90km/h for sedans. Pickups 80km/h. Regular buses 80 km/h and trucks 60 km/h. Motorway, if indicated 120km/h. This is the law.
8 km should be 15 km per hour
http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/807204/
is a statistic from Singapore, not Bangkok.
How about strict checks on pedestrian crossings and a fine of 500 baht in case of misuse. No motorist and moterbiks never comply.
What you often see, and not only in Thailand, is that after a traffic jam or slow traffic, people often drive very fast in an attempt to make up for “lost time”. Partly out of frustration?
You can hardly make up for lost time. So it is fruitless.
Professionally, I often drive 70 km/h. People are often overtaken like crazy: too fast, winding road, trees on both sides of the road, speed limit of 70 km/h: eight kilometers further we are queuing together at a roundabout. Time savings: 20 seconds at most.
As devil's advocate, I'm against it.
50 km/h is a snail's pace. Back to ox with cart.
Europeans and security, I don't have to. Nice collecting fines, bullying people.
If you really want it: force car manufacturers to make slow cars.
Can't you louder. But nobody talks about that….
Please note: tomorrow I leave on a journey, in total about 1800 km from north-east to south Thailand. And I drive according to feeling. Sometimes only 60 km/h in heavy traffic or heavy rain, often 150 km/h when possible. So danger on the road.
Here that can still be a pity for those who envy it.
Remember that we are talking about the “built-up area” here. what happens out there is not the issue here.
Sorry Inquisitor 50 km/h within the city limits is not a snail's pace, and has nothing to do with bullying and making rules. Moreover, the traffic density in Bangkok, for example, is usually such that you do not reach 50 km/h at all. Outside the city limits it is also allowed faster, but I would like to see that people do not adjust their speed by feeling, but with reason, and by observing traffic rules. Most who drive while drunk usually do so by feel alone, and unfortunately are the cause of the most fatal accidents. My wife is Thai and is very satisfied with all the rules and controls in Europe, which have proven to make traffic a lot safer.
Dear Rudi,
are you coming to the South? If you are in the Chumphon area, please give us a call: 080 144 90 84. You are very welcome as a “fellow blogger”. Don't have a Duvel in the fridge, but do have Chang.
Pay attention because between Ban Sapaan and Chumphon there are "sometimes" speed checks. I don't know how they do it because there are no fixed cameras, so it will be done with mobile cameras.
If you wish, you can spend the night here in a bungalow on the beach of Bo Mao: OTHB/n, Belgian breakfast included. Offer only valid for the “insquiqitor and fellow travellers”.
Always criticize compatriots who find it necessary to impose laws and regulations of the Netherlands on Thai society, however, the 'strict' policy in the Netherlands regarding traffic enforcement and especially the use of alcohol in traffic are exceptions, which cannot be strict to me are enough and would like to see that taken over by the Thai authorities.
I don't think anyone is forcing anything.
It is a statement that everyone has an opinion on.
Please note that when it comes to road safety, it is chaos.
Everyone does what he likes.
It is true that the Netherlands has gone crazy in terms of Enzo fines.
However, they are 2 extremes.
I have contributed a lot to the wrong road network in the Netherlands.
Drive an average of 130.000 km per year..
And that for 15 years.
However, I don't drive in Thailand.
Do not use a motorbike.
Taxi, bus, boat, tuktuk and as a co-driver in the car.
Also me as the devil's advocate..I too am against !!
Europeans and security I don't like their fines that start to look like monthly salaries.
Thailand is Thailand and I embrace the thinking of the Thai people, otherwise I would stay in the Netherlands.
Recently a car rear-ended my car. considerable damage and therefore the police were involved. The Thai was very drunk and did not have a driver's license and was not insured. The police knew this man and told me that this man had many private problems and therefore often drank. The police thought, just like me, that you don't belong behind the wheel.
The police understood his problems, he was not fined and was allowed to continue on his way, by calling family who had to take him off the road. He also just got his car keys back, only he was not allowed to continue driving himself….could not, because his car was well put together.
These are typical Thai settlements and I understand it very well...The Thais are open about it, you learn to drive a car through experience and driving licenses are not proof of skills in many Asian countries. It is not about what we think about it, but whether we respect all their differences that make Thailand so unique... their way of driving, their way of thinking... it is so not western and I, like the Inquisitor, accept this differently are.
You can't pluck a chicken without feathers so the damage to my car was my responsibility, but I knew that before I bought a car and so I accept their Thai settlements.
I even wished that that man could get out of his troubles. Fortunately, there were no injuries or deaths, but that too could have been the case and the outcome probably wouldn't have been much different. The life of a Buddhist is already predestined and a drunk driver doesn't change that.
By doing a lot of “boens” (doing good things for fellow human beings), your spirit can continue in the next life, in the animistic/Buddhist part of Thailand, a beautiful bush or a good tree, chicken or cow or human being. By doing bad you will get “bats” and you will do worse in the next life.
Death is not determined by a drunk driver, but whether or not it was your time and you can never prevent that.
Many Thai accept death and are not afraid of it. We Westerners fight against it and are often afraid of death and the unknown.
I love Thailand and I have come to understand and accept their way of thinking.
For me it took some getting used to...a police officer who understood a drunk driver, who had private problems and wanted to see it through the eyes.
To be clear...I will never drink a drop of alcohol if I have to drive, because I cannot justify it, but this is in my Western system/thinking and a Thai will think differently about this in terms of responsibilities and I accept that thinking differently .
Danny
If a drunk Thai kills your child / grandchild, do you still have so much understanding for him?
This is not about the Netherlands or Europe at all, the change comes from the Thai government, which thinks it will make traffic safer in this way. The paradox is with this new rule, which is really just an attempt to make something safer, that some immediately feel deprived of their so-called freedom While on the other hand they often want to convince people on this blog of much more absurd rules and laws, where just by opening your mouth you can spend the rest of your life in prison. All this is simply accepted, as long as it is not about 10 km more or less, because this is too European. Such an opinion raises the question, what effect can too much sun have on the human mind?
If you had hit that Thai drunk, the police would have shown a little less understanding…..And of course he had no money for you…of course to fill up his car or to drink….How can you be so naive… ..Had you driven into his car drunk, there would have been a little less understanding ... ..Whoever has money to drive a car and drink also has money to pay for any damage. You are more than well duped.
In such a case I do nothing and call my insurance…..
Those police officers would have shown a lot less understanding for you if the other way around…..this is pure racism no more or less….
What is the maximum allowed speed in built-up areas of Bangkok? Or from Pattaya? I have no idea.
Well, French anyway…. You cannot post a topic here or you respond after you have investigated in detail what it is all about (or perhaps you carry it all with you as ready knowledge) and you don't know this? 😉
(Within built-up areas the maximum speed is 60, unless otherwise indicated. Where a built-up area begins and ends is often less clear).
In itself you are right, but in that entire Traffic Act of 1992 (which is in fact the second major amendment to the 1978 one) I cannot find any speed limit at all.
Within built-up areas, the maximum speed is 80 km/h and on side roads and unpaved roads, so sois, etc., 60 km/h. Is the same all over and throughout Thailand. Sometimes you see a sign with something like 'reduce speed', so to 80 km/h.
I think all solutions are good UNLESS the Thais adhere to it or the police enforce it.
So they can shout whatever they want about speed bumps and stripes and I know what else, indeed it won't help.
The urge of the people here to do something in traffic is actually nil.
Do they kill people in traffic, ok that's it. Do they kill people in traffic in the family, ok that was it. If they kill people in traffic in your immediate area, okay, that's it.
You can come up with whatever you want, even if they kill people in the immediate vicinity, it won't work.
What actually works, I have no idea, but the Dutch version about driving in traffic is the best (probably the same in many countries) as long as you do not make driving lessons mandatory, as long as you do not make driving license mandatory (I mean that if you don't have a driver's license and still get a fine of 500 bath) it's all about fighting the odds.
I could have had a nice job here in Thailand making up all this nonsense.
50 km per hour within the city limits and I can name many more useless useless.
Are you going to take away a moped rider's moped??? no, of course not, you give him a 200 bath fine.
As long as they apply these rules UNFORTUNATELY it won't work out and I said UNFORTUNATELY
Helmet obligation ? Make me laugh. You can't call such a plastic jar of 79 baht a helmet….
Have you ever seen the police doing mobile speed checks on the Saraburi to Bangkok road.
And in Khon Kaen city there are speed traps. In addition, there are red light checks in Nakhon Ratchasima and Roi Et, other cities I don't know.
Red light checks I mean the automatic ones using cameras.
My Thai colleague was recently very surprised that she received a ticket in the mail for driving through a red light in Bangkok (with photo of course). But it's the first time I've heard it in 10 years.
If you see how many are driving through a red light, it can be introduced everywhere to increase safety. The fine is 500 baht.