Thai traffic habit driving you mad

Posted by admin on September 24th, 2007 filed in Safety, Tourist tips, the locals, expat life

We all know about Bangkok’s infamous traffic, and some days it seems Samui is rapidly headed the same way. Traffic problems are endemic to Thailand, mainly because the police and motorists here are so oblivious to observing simple traffic rules and etiquette. It’s one of the worst aspects of an otherwise wonderful place.

Driving in Samui can be both hazardous and annoying. You certainly need your wits about you the whole time as other motorists habitually transgress common road rules and generally display inconsiderate driving. 

As I said earlier in this blog,  here in Thailand you can experience some of the worst driving in the world. Drivers here will barge their way in the traffic and try to jump queues, they’ll run red lights or speed up on amber ones. They’ll park their car in the middle of a busy lane in rush hour traffic to quickly nip into the 7-eleven, or veer across four lanes to make a sudden thoughtless turn.

Motorcyclists ride their bikes on pavements or the wrong way up a busy road, or drive recklessly – dogging cars on busy highways. You can routinely experience vehicles overtaking on blind corners, turning in the face of oncoming traffic, pulling out in front of fast approaching vehicles and forcing motorcyclists off the road.

For such a patient and passive group of people it really is astonishing. Perhaps this is because they can remain anonymous behind tinted windows or feel they are no longer bound by any ‘society rules’ once inside a car. I really don’t know why but it is one of the most deplorable aspects of behaviour here.

So where are all the traffic police among all this. Well, they do act on traffic when it suits them and should you park your vehicle in the no-parking zone of a busy area after 3pm you will almost certainly get wheel locked. But for the most part the police can be seen in regular action commandeering whole intersections to check if passing motorcyclists are wearing their helmets. In fact you’ll probably see the entire traffic police compliment manning one single intersection almost every day, which looks impressive but suggests that there are none left for patrolling the rest of the island.

Of course, there are far more serious offenses than not wearing helmets, but this is bar far the most lucrative activity, for Thai people insistently refuse to wear protection on their little noggins. Frankly, it’s their own responsibility and only they will be harmed from this transgression, what the police ought to be doing is fining others for reckless driving, speeding, unroadworthy vehicles and so on, as this endangers the lives of others. But fining motorcyclists is easy and generates lots of cash from on the spot fines, which invariably end up in their pockets. (Either you can get given a ‘ticket’ and waste an hour going off to the station to pay 400 baht or you can pay 200 baht on the spot, cash in hand ;-).

Meanwhile, all across the island we find inconsiderate parking which clearly obstructs the traffic, when a light turns green you still have to wait at least 10 seconds for the trail of chancers who tag on to a speeding train of cars long after the amber light has turned red. Late in the evening you have to make a habit of slowing down at intersections just in case a drunken driver runs a red light – especially bikes. And all too often motorcyclists simply stop at red lights look quickly, then go.

So why don’t the police see all this? Well, the do but it’s too much hassle and they couldn’t be bothered, in fact I’ve seen plenty of police witness serious traffic transgressions and several times even seen them break the rules themselves. Mai pen rai, this is Thailand where you are free to do as you please.

Furthermore, I doubt whether the majority of people actually have a licence here and if they do it was perhaps acquired with a ‘little payment’. Having a licence here means being able to operate a car, but things like ‘give way to vehicles approaching from right’, ‘never turn in the face of on-coming traffic’ etc are meaningless, and everyone habitually drives their vehicle seemingly oblivious to the right of way of other motorists, expecting them all to be courteous. 

The net result is chaos. It takes twice as long as it should to get through a busy intersection because everyone is cutting corners and dead-reckoning in their direction. Highways hardly make a difference because locals have a tendency to ignore the lanes and drift all across the three lanes, particularly around corners. Slow cars take the fast lane. Motorbikes insist on using the centre of the lane rather than the side and there will always be someone who has parked illegally, causing congestion. Even traffic lights are programmed in a four way cycle because two-way simply causes too many accidents from people turning into the traffic.

Unfortunately no one really cares. Everyone is impatient in the traffic to get ahead but conversely patient enough to accept the chaos without complaining. Law enforcement is abysmal (honestly the money they invested in some cameras would be paid back in fines many times over), the police are incompetent at controlling congestion offenders and the public at large are just ‘dumb motorists’ .