Traffic jams in Bangkok, what are the problems and possible solutions?

When asked “What annoys you most in Bangkok?” more than half of the answers (57%) will be the traffic jams.

The question is: how can we improve the situation in Bangkok?

Congestion problems have been Bangkok's for years, but it is not with the current policy that this could improve (tax gift of 100,000 Baht for the purchase of a first car... useless success that added more than half a million cars to the 7 million or so circulating each day in the city...)

To accommodate all these new cars it seems vital to improve the current infrastructure, build new bridges, car parks etc. Meanwhile pedestrians are forced to crawl, climb and squeeze through these cars to try not to disrupt traffic.

Bangkok today is a gigantic traffic jam, often impassable sidewalks, high pollution, high energy dependence and a huge bill for all the infrastructure works. This is the situation that many big cities like London, Singapore or Paris were facing 10 or 20 years ago.

The alternative solution that most of these cities chose was simple: Encourage people to stop using their cars.

You build more and better public transport. Make sure walking is a better experience than driving (This would require some education for drivers by letting pedestrians cross at dedicated red lights, which currently exists to a limited extent).

Making sure public transportation is a better experience than driving (let cars get stuck in traffic while clean, air-conditioned, fast bus lanes take you there). The whole spirit being, "Hey, if you want to have your own personal vehicle, that's fine, but we're not sacrificing our city for your choices and lifestyle." In short, the city should be optimized for pedestrians, not cars.

Getting to downtown Bangkok, what are the problems?

The problem with this solution is that it assumes you have a choice: either drive or use public transport. Many people in Bangkok don't have that choice. Where they live, there is no public transport (or no good public transport...).

As a result, you can't just ask these people to stop driving. This week I invite you to discover the problems that the metropolis is facing and that make the car the number one mode of transport today:

Problem #1:
“There is no BTS or MRT near where I live”

Given the current network, this is a more than recurring problem, see the slideshow below, the first image is the network as it was when I arrived in Bangkok in 2008, to which were added the bus rapid transit (BRT) and the Airport Link, plus line extensions (2nd image), then major works were started in recent years with the further extension of the current lines (including the opening of 2 new stations on the "Silom" line which will extend to Bang Wa on the other side of the river) and the creation of new lines.

The current network is 96 km long, 83 are currently under construction and the openings will be gradual until 2019 (image no. 3). 2016: Green line (Mo Chit-Saphan Mai, 19km), Blue line (Hualamphong-Bang Kae, Bang Sue-Tha Phra, 27.2km) Pink line (Carai-Meenburi, 21km) Green line (Bearing-Samutprakarn, 16.8km) 2018: orange line (Bang Kapi-Meen Buri, 24km) 2019:  orange line (Talingchan-Cultural Center 17.5km) and the Purple line (Taopoon-Ratchaburana, 43km).

In total, it would be a network of nearly 300 km operational by 2029, among these projects, a sort of resurrection of the "hopewell" project which consisted of a suspended train as well as a fast track leading from the city center to Don Muang airport. Project which was definitively abandoned after the financial crisis of 1997 and which left these famous ghost columns along the road leading to Don Muang.

And I can confirm that this resurrection, the line now named "Dark Red line" has just started since last May, the first concrete sections are being removed. The new project will consist of replacing the current rails (which pass between the pylons) to accommodate the new electric train system which would basically be an extension of the current "Airport link", the goal being to finally offer a direct connection between the 2 Bangkok airports. So there is still a lot of work to be done in this area, especially since it is not certain that this will definitively solve the problem.

Where to park to take the BTS in Bangkok?

There are several problems that add up regarding the excess number of cars (nearly 8 million as a reminder, to which must also be added the approximately 450 motorcycles which do not really help the flow of traffic...)

Problem #2:

After problem #1 concerning the current limitation of the BTS + MRT network, we can add the so-called "park and ride" system which consists of parking at one end of the line to avoid cars in the city center and therefore consists of having a parking lot... which to date is rather largely incomplete, in their defense the ends of the line will change since they will be extended (concerning Bearing and Wongwian Yai) but the existence of other parking lots even if only towards the middle or elsewhere on the line would not be too much, or at the end also like at National Stadium.

For the moment this "system" only offers a crowded parking lot of 3000 spaces at the Mo Chit station (Chatuchak market), certainly free but insufficient since it is a victim of its success, just like the guards, insufficient in number, moreover, the parking lot closes at night so you cannot recover your vehicle if you arrive too late after the last train... There is a second one further at the MRT Lad Phrao (intersection with Ratchadaphisek) also with 3000 spaces but paying at the rate of 10 baht per hour... not cool if you stay there during the day...

In this area, a budget of 43 million baht has been allocated for the creation of a parking lot at the MRT Bang Sue which will become an important hub when the new Pink Line and the Dark Red Line pass through there as well as the Purple Line one station away.

A tro.. what? Walking in Bangkok, why?

Problem #3:

“Walking to work or to the nearest public transport sucks!”

And by that we mean several things, the first being sometimes the poor condition of the sidewalks, even from this point of view I must say that a lot of effort is being made. But unfortunately that is not the only reason, the other being of course the omnipresence of street vendors.

A street can quickly look like this, especially near public transport connection points given the large number of people and therefore potential customers passing by every day. The last reason being the one that annoys me the most because it is dangerous, motorcycles... Yes, because not only do they always want to drive, the road is not enough for these gentlemen who feel the urgent need to drive on the sidewalk, these same guys who will even go so far as to grumble because you don't move over when you are walking peacefully on YOUR property. These are the same people who weave their way through traffic with surprisingly little consideration for their safety or that of other drivers. I find it shocking that given the way motorcyclists already happily use the width of the road (including in the wrong direction...), they still feel the need to endanger pedestrians on the sidewalk.

So today's rant, it's a SIDEWALK, not a road. Even in Thai, the two most common words for sidewalks (well... I tried to put the characters in Thai but I have an encoding problem... basically they are "thong deun" and "thong thao") which translate to "walking path." or "foot path" (respectively walk path and foot path in English which simply translate to sidewalk in French) I checked... no, I don't see anything in one of these words that says "motorcycles". Did I miss something? If only the police did their job, but that's another problem...

Now let's be honest, Thais are not known for being fervent supporters of walking, hence the existence of local transport such as tuk tuks and motorbike taxis... It is true that it is not always pleasant to walk with the humid heat present 3/4 of the year, now to be frank, outside of the hot season itself from March to May, it remains bearable, and then there is "winter" too...

After that, it's certain that between that and the pollution (which is a consequence of the excess of cars, even if it has diminished in recent years) it's not much fun to walk in Bangkok...

Taking the bus in Bangkok, good luck…

Problem #4:

Buses have this reputation of being outdated and uncomfortable... The city has some 7500 buses, of which a little less than half, 3500 to be precise, are operated by the city's organization, the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA). Of these 3500, 1600 are buses without air conditioning, with the heat in summer I'll let you imagine the trip...

The rest of the 4000 buses are operated by private companies, including the famous little orange buses (before they were green but they are still the same crazy ones). Those with air conditioning are sometimes in a pitiful state, sometimes spitting out totally shameful black smoke... On the positive side, an order for 3000 new modern buses running on gas (NGV) has been ordered. Knowing that recently quite a few buses have been replaced by the new yellow buses with air conditioning.

But the other problem that goes with it is the very space that these buses use, namely the same as everyone else... only worse because they think they have priority and will suddenly cut across the lane to go to the lane on the far right when, driving on the left, the bus stops are on the other side, sometimes forcing them to stop between 2 lanes, dropping their passengers on the middle lane... Not very encouraging for using this means of transport, right?

Not to mention the bus system is strangely screwed up, such a number normally takes you to such stations but not that day... or the confusion of numbers between companies (orange buses for example, same number as the BMTA or other but not the same destination) I have Thais themselves found themselves confused and got off when they realized that it was not the right bus...

To return to the problem of space, the problem is a question of education. In a part of Bangkok they have set up a rapid bus (the BRT) with its own lane. The problem is that if the lane is marked there is no barrier or anything to prevent a car from entering it and if there is traffic the temptation is too great, I have seen many who did not hesitate...

Cycling in Bangkok… not easy…

Problem #5:

Taking your bike, that's a good way to avoid it! Yes, but you forget that you're in Bangkok... and when there are lanes for cyclists (yes, they do exist here!) they are totally ignored by other users, not just the cars that park but the local merchants who spread out, the trash cans lying around. If you ride on the road, you have to face cars that despise you even more than motorbikes. Sometimes it's just the edge of the road that has bumps etc...

Despite this, there are more and more brave people who take their bikes. Awareness days are even organized regularly as in the photo below, at the "Bangkok car free day" in 2012, they did not dare to close all the roads through which the circuit passed from the Dusit district from the Rama V statue square in front of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall palace to the Lumpini park, needless to say that it was a bit of a mess, the motorists looked at us as if we were parasites...

Solutions ?

Well, I mentioned them a little bit as I went along. Things are moving forward, more trains (they are even 4-carriage trains compared to only 3 before) by extending and creating new lines, more buses, more bridges. All the leads are good. Bangkok has a whole network of canals, they are thinking of improving the existing water bus service, this involves cleaning the canals and clearing them to create new routes, unfortunately many have been permanently blocked to create streets (hence the problems of water flow and therefore flooding) A system similar to the famous Vélibs is also being set up for lovers of 2 wheels, 50 stations initially, totaling 500 bikes will allow you to discover Bangkok differently.

A solution that everyone is also waiting for is to harmonize transport. BTS, MRT, BRT, buses are all operated by different companies, therefore different means of payment and accumulation of fares. For my part, I dream of a Thai-style Baron Haussmann who would not hesitate to raze neighborhoods (preferably ugly ones) in order to create new arteries, because for me one of the problems is the lack of choice.

Bangkok is a gigantic canvas with only a few main axes, the few other alternatives are only small streets, sometimes even alleys, and the rest are only mazes of streets leading to canals, therefore no exit... All this while redesigning the streets to give everyone a space, buses, cars, bicycles, pedestrians.

Let's hope that future governments will maintain this desire to really change Bangkok in depth in order to make it a truly modern place in terms of transport management and urban planning.