Late night, waiting for the BTS (Skytrain). Bangkok, Thailand.
“Bangkok, is trying to solve traffic problems by elevating all of its transportation routes above the original street.” a saying that I heard from many of my friends. The way they said it was more like sarcasm, as if it was a bad thing. In their understanding, which I also agree, that Bangkok should have solve traffic problem from the core of the problem which is… the way that people drive, the traffic lights, the law and regulation that should be enforced more strictly to keep Bangkok’s streets in order.
A taxi driver would stop their car anywhere to pick up a passenger,
a bus would stop anywhere and make a u-turn anywhere it see fits,
while a motorcycle-taxi and a tuk-tuk are trying to drive pass thru the gap between cars in traffic,
street vendor are taking up the space on the road, turning a lane into a street market.
Unbelievable ! It’s a good idea for us to solve from the core of the problem but how can we when what we perceive as a problem is the culture and the way of life on how people are living. We simply can’t tell them to re-live their life… but what we can do is, adapt to their culture… and renovate from with in.
Bangkok… city of life!
I get irritated enough in U.S. traffic, I’d be so stressed out driving there…
You got to try it for yourselves… Bangkok traffic is not that bad. You just park your car on the street for about 30 minutes before it move again (for another 100 meters) and then park your car again… That’s why we use Skytrain.