Phasakorn Channgam
Complaining about traffic in Pattaya is like complaining
about the weather: It doesn’t get any better. Traffic, however, continues to
worsen and perhaps government leaders need again to hear some constructive
criticism as their attempts to solve congestion while continuing to grow the
city have only made things worse.
What is the cause of area’s traffic woes? While there are
a number of factors exacerbating gridlock, the underlying reality is the
city’s network of sois and sais is simply too narrow for the city’s
population.
Local, provincial and national government officials have
attempted to alleviate pressure on the streets, but all their efforts have
been failures. Why? Because even when one hand works to reduce traffic, the
other hand feverishly offers development incentives for new hotels, shopping
malls and tourists that only increase the number of people in town.
Pattaya City encompasses less than 50 sq. kilometers and
had a registered population of only 107,406 people in April 2010. But the
numbers lie. The non-registered Thai population is estimated to be as much
as 500,000. Pattaya police officials estimate that during high season, the
addition of tourists and a resident ex-pat population of about 150,000
people put Pattaya’s actual population closer to a million people.
At best, city density comes in at 2,000 people per sq.
kilometer. More likely it’s ten times that.
Now add in the number of privately owned motorbikes and
cars. Then add commercial and government vehicles; then tour buses and
traffic vans. That’s already a lot of cars. Then you have the baht buses
and, most recently, 100 meter taxis.
Pattaya’s Baht Bus Cooperative operates 700 “songthaews”
in the city, most of which run empty or nearly so much of the time. When
there’s a backup on Beach Road at night, you can blame the songthaews, which
can be seen bogging down the left lane with long strings of empty trucks.
Empty trucks lead to irritated and idle drivers, who
sometimes drink and often fight with tourists, besmirching the good image
the city is trying to foster.
The biggest thing Pattaya could do to improve traffic
congestion and its reputation would be to cut in half the number of baht
buses. Traffic would flow faster, taxis would have higher occupancies and
drivers would make more money. Everyone wins, except for the 350 drivers
who’d have to find something more productive to do with their time.
City leaders, however, aren’t likely to ever cut the
number of baht buses. If anything, they’ll keep increasing them. So,
instead, the city installed 42 traffic lights with the stated goal of trying
to improve pedestrian safety. It was an admirable goal as even infrequent
visitors know those same baht buses are as likely to run down anyone using a
zebra crossing as actually stop.
Someone made a windfall off the installation of those
lights, as there are far too many spaced far too closely, some separated by
just 100 meters, or less. And, as could have been predicted, the project has
been, from Day One, an abject failure.
From the moment they were turned on, the lights were
ignored by drivers and police largely refused to write tickets for blowing
through them. Indeed, YouTube sports numerous videos of Pattaya Police and
Tourist Police cars running the red lights.
Eventually, some people did start to heed the red lights,
which created even more traffic. Badly timed and too close together, the
signals ended up helping pedestrians by making traffic so slow along some
roads that people could simply walk between stopped cars. Pattaya’s police
eventually demanded the city simply turn off the lights on high-traffic
weekends and holidays.
The city needs to yank out most of the lights and place
them in other spots where they are actually needed. Then they need a better
automated control system; not the same one that leads to interminable waits
at Third Road intersections with Central and South roads. Signal placement
and automated light systems are core ingredients of city planning.
Like Pattaya’s hot weather, its growth is not going to
abate anytime soon. If city officials are genuinely serious about solving
congestion, and not just shooting the breeze, they’ll tackle the two biggest
factors slowing cars down: too many baht buses and poorly placed traffic
signals.
Editor;
In too many schools, the 3 R’s have become Rote,
Regurgitation and Repulsion, requiring 3 additional R’s: Reinforcement,
Remediation and Relearning. Misguided compulsive-obsessive robots are unduly
programmed to teach for standardized exams, thereby meeting unrealistic
prescribed targets based on test results that have little to do with actual
intelligence, innate talent or capability to achieve. Standardized mindsets
are, in fact, antithetical to the spirit and purpose of education.
Test scores as the dominant measure of educational
success undermine the need to incorporate standards or goals that allow for
freedom of expression, know-how readiness, logical problem-solving savvy,
everyday coping skills, as well as abstract and creative thinking.
The most durable way to improve schools is to improve
basic skills mastery, progressive methodology and IT-focused materials
within a stimulating self-access, discovery learning environment. Emphasis
should be on solid and secure well-run community schools offering a coherent
set of clear options and achievable expectations of what children need to
know to become contributing, responsible citizens making sound moral and
ethical choices.
The challenge is how to design fairer and more effective
testing procedures that can demonstrate student knowledge and understanding
without the exam process becoming a dehumanizing experience. The role of
teachers, as facilitators, should be to guide, enable and empower motivated
students to respect multiversity, appreciate the unique autonomy of others
and to treat everyone with respectful, compassionate dignity.
Dr. Charles Frederickson
Bangkok
