Editor;
Well its funny time in Pattaya again. The City Hall committee set up to investigate the traffic congestion has come up with the startling idea to reduce the ‘public’ transport system. Well done. The traffic problem as perceived by City Hall is that there are too many songthaew baht buses and to prove it they show a photograph of some parked up.
I live on the Thappraya Road between Jomtien and Pattaya and wish to report that the songthaew baht buses are full to overcrowded and in short supply. On the other hand many songthaew have moved over to being for private hire. My first step when addressing the number of songthaew would be to make more baht buses and less private hire ones.
The baht bus is the preferred choice for the Thai as it is cheaper and safer than a motorcycle taxi. Thank you City Hall for proposing that a Thai should have to pay more and then get a more dangerous form of transport. If a Thai gets 300 baht a day and has to pay 80 baht for motorcycles then their take home pay reduces by 60 baht or 20%.
Anyone with any eyes can see that a photo of a songthaew taxi rank pales into insignificance when seeing the white busses parked up all the roads all night. Then try watching the road intersections and to see how many of these white monsters are jamming the roads and the traffic. But of course these faceless tourists don’t use baht buses. I guess the backhanders from baht buses are less than the big white jobs. But we are supposed to believe that reducing the ‘public’ transport system is beneficial.
My opinion is it’s a diversion. Someone in City Hall wants to increase the number of saloon taxis, the so called meter taxis. Cut down on the cheap transport system and leave room for a more lucrative one. Its not the songthaew baht bus that is being watched its the songthaew private hire, but as the drivers seems to switch at will between the one and the other then to ease the private hire out both will have to go.
Congested traffic sufferer
