Paint-happy Pattaya street workers again are bewildering motorists, this time with confusing diagonal lines near intersections.
Pattaya street painters have had a field day since the city’s last mayor left office, painting garish crosswalks on alleys with no traffic, waffle-like patterns in intersections and, now putting diamond shapes on Soi Chaiyapruek in Jomtien Beach.
Photos posted to social media again left netizens scratching their head as to the meaning and intention of the lines near the intersection of the railway-parallel road.
A chicken vendor working near the artwork said June 11 that the lines were painted three days earlier.
Pitsinee Kullaeaksoracha, a planning and policy analyst with Pattaya’s Traffic and Transportation Office, said the zig-zagging lines are painted on raised surfaces that, while not speed bumps, are meant to cause people to slow down.
She said the pattern is used widely overseas, including in the United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong. The first time they were used in Thailand was 2015.
The newly elected Pattaya City Council, meeting June 9, harshly critized the traffic department for its willy-nilly street painting, done supposedly without any plan or oversight.