Motorcycle taxis can no longer be ignored in the streetscape of Bangkok. Especially the Thai themselves use this means of transport, which is fast and efficient when zigzagging through the stationary traffic.

The drivers of the motorcycle taxis usually come from Isaan in the northeast of Thailand. A lot of them support the Redshirts. During the protests, the motorcycle taxis acted as the eyes and ears of the Redshirts protesters. They know the streets of Bangkok and know what is going on.

In this video report by Al Jazeera's Aela Callan, she talks to the drivers in the orange vests. She also highlights the role of this group in Thai politics.

1 thought on “Bangkok motorcycle taxis and Thai politics”

  1. bkk there says up

    What most people don't know is that those motosy taxis on the main road = for long distances are much, much smaller in number than the "soi drivers" - who only enter the soi from the pak-soi (= mouth of the main road). enter-for prices like 5/7/10 etc. THB. In larger sois there are sometimes huge queues - up to >50. Also often at the larger supermarkets etc.
    Larger sois that are wide enough sometimes also have share tuk-tuks or even red songthaews (pickup trucks), which also have a line no. have-from 1001 to 1555.
    The city moto-sy's only do one-way trips from their base. I once saw a huge threatening fight when a lady (it says on their vest where their place is) just wanted to go that way = so extra for him, and the local people there didn't put up with it. By the way, there are quite a lot of ladies (sometimes unrecognizable as such) who do that work.


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