Pattaya drivers – including police – ignored dozens of pedestrian-crossing signals and are infamous for never respecting zebra crossings. But Pattaya City Hall says it thinks it finally has found a way to make drivers yield for people on foot: Paint bigger crosswalks.
Anuwat Thongkham, director of the city’s traffic department, unveiled a huge zebra crossing on Second Road by Central Center and the Siam@Siam Design Hotel. Measuring 13.5 meters wide and 20 meters long, it’s hard to miss.
Anuwat said that the “transverse pavement marking” is so big, that it will be obvious to drivers that they should stop.
The city’s traffic department has unveiled a huge zebra crossing on Second Road by Central Center and the Siam@Siam Design Hotel. Measuring 13.5 meters wide and 20 meters long, it’s hard to miss.
Second Road sees at least 35,000 vehicles a day, or 1 million a month. The Traffic Department has marked the North Pattaya mall area as “Class E”, which means that the road is considerably busy all day long and is not as wide as what the department would like to have.
He acknowledged that crosswalks, especially on Beach Road, are generally ignored, with tourists sometimes having to run for their lives to avoid being hit. The problem is even worse for the disabled.
Authorities thought that by making this crosswalk bigger, wider and obvious, road users would be aware of it and related traffic laws.
City Councilman Rattanachai Sutidechanai said the new zebra crossing cost the city 170,000 baht. It won’t take long to see if the city has wasted more money on traffic measures that are ignored by drivers and unenforced by police.
