I have said many times before that I actually prefer the overall aspect of Thailand over my home country of USA so please, don't anyone out there think that I am bashing the Kingdom of Thailand. I have a great deal of respect for this place and think it is a wonderful country to live in. I would stay if it wasn't economically stupid for me to do so. I haven't left yet, but will do so soon and honestly, I am not looking forward to it. It is necessary though.
This doesn't meant that I am just going to agree with everything that Thailand does though or their methods for society in general. One of the things that I am kind of shocked never changes is the ever-dangerous wild-west that is the roads all over this country.
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From a western perspective, the roads here seem like chaos. Lines on the roads are not observed by anyone and while a double yellow might seem like something that you would never cross in the west, I don't even know why they bother using the paint on the roads here because nobody pays any attention to them.
The same goes with speed limit signs. There was a book I read a long time ago where the author said that "if you see a circular sign with an 80 in the middle of it, that means the speed limit is 80km/ hour... but it may as well say 800 miles an hour because nobody cares."
This is true with drivers as well as police. I have never heard of anyone getting pulled over for speeding in this country and that is probably why everyone treats every road as if it were the Autobahn. Once you get outside of a gridlocked area like the one pictured above you will have cars and even huge buses and trucks passing you at a pace so fast that it feels like you are standing still.
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This ends in disaster for a lot of people and despite the prevalence of road deaths and injuries, the government doesn't really do anything about this. Sure they make some signs about how they will bust you but it never actually happens.
I live in a suburb to the north of Chiang Mai. It is quiet and the roads are winding and filled with community-installed speed bumps so this keeps people from driving crazy. Once you go a few blocks to the main road though, it is a free-for-all.
Then there is the question of motorbikes safety - and this country has to have one of the highest concentrations of motorbikes of anywhere in the world.
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No matter where you go, if you are looking you can find bits of motorbike on the side of the road because accidents are so common. There are tons of deaths by motorbike in Thailand yet so many people absolutely refuse to wear helmets. It is very common to see a motorbike with many more passengers than said vehicle should contain cruising down the road with children mucking about on them as well.
The people are very aware of how head injuries are the number one cause of road deaths in Thailand, yet they still don't wear helmets. In most cases of a motorbike accident it is actually a car that is the cause of the accident, but you don't have the benefit of airbags and seatbelts on a motorbike. No, quite the opposite actually. You are wearing shorts, a t-shirt, flip flops, and have zero safety equipment. Most of the human body can take a tremendous amount of damage but your head can take almost none.
I really can't understand why people would willingly take this risk every single day.
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I don't know what year this is from but from what I hear, it may as well be any of them. Thailand routinely is in the top 3 for road deaths of anywhere in the world.
I have a scooter but I am honestly afraid to go anywhere of substance on it, especially on any sort of highway because that is where the people in cars, trucks, minivans, and buses turn their vehicles over to hyper-drive. Sometimes when I am moving down the road at a reasonable speed like 90km/hour - which is actually a bit fast for me, I get jump scares from how fast other vehicles are moving past me.
You also have the added bonus of the fact that motorbikes frequently drive on the incorrect side of the road in order to save themselves a few minutes by not going to the legal U-turn up the road. Therefore, getting all the way over to the left (they drive on the left here) is very dangerous as well.
To make matters worse, people tend to merge into bigger roads without even pausing at the corner and expect the traffic on the main road to accommodate this very irresponsible merge. This is another fantastic way to end up with your motorbike in the back seat of a car in front of you.
So you can't drive in the middle of the road because someone is going to plow you down at near 200 km / hour and you can't drive on the far left because of improper merging and motorbikes driving the wrong direction on the side of the road. Basically you are taking your life into your own hands anytime you drive anywhere.
I don't like the government being all up in my business the way they are in the states but here in Thailand there really seems to be no enforcement of any rules whatsoever. The only time you ever see police is at a checkpoint where they are stealing money from the population during certain times of the month.
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This is where they pull everyone over, find something wrong with their license or bike and then charge you a small fee that is so common it is just called "tea money" and this corruption is kind of accepted by the population.
It's so bad that I don't really know anyone that doesn't at least have some sort of road-rash scar somewhere on their body. I am one of the last ones but this is because I keep my head on a swivel and if I can avoid driving my bike that is exactly what I will do.
I love this country, but this aspect of it, is just insane to me that it can stay this bad for decades and nothing ever changes. One thing I do enjoy about the roads here is that they do in fact tend to be very well maintained. So I guess there is a tradeoff.
Same as Philippines lol. Sometimes, the problem why the country is struggling is not only because of the government. Most of the time, the problem is about the citizen living that country. I would also like to visit Thailand if I finally get the financially stable life!
Yeah I have heard it is like that all over the place in this part of the world but Thailand for some reason manages to have a lot more deaths per capita than all the others. I too would like to visit Philippines one day!
Some of the roads in Borneo are in quite bad condition. But what is more dangerous are the drivers who drive dangerously.
Gosh. I thought it was just in the Philippines. I have not heard about this from Thailand, but the road scenarios there were really scary and dangerous. I feel scared and nervous for those kids in the pictures you attached. And the van? It was damned!
I think it is most developing countries that appear dangerous to outsiders. I haven't been to a lot of places but having the roads be hectic is in my mind, preferable to having police everywhere and you get fined hundreds of dollars for very small infractions that perhaps people didn't even know was a law. I think the death rate is so high here because of the fact that so many people don't seem to think that helmets are necessary or they would rather have their hair look nice than be protected in a crash.
I see we are just behind you on the stats and have had some horrific truck crashes lately. The condition of the roads are a problem and how the workers work on them as most of them don't drive or have a lienee and are clueless. I avid road works on the freeway as their signage is a death trap which is the cause of fatalities. Last month some poor chap drove into an unmarked pile of sand which just happened to be there and resulted in his death.
that's terrible that the road works are a cause of problems but it is kind of similar here. That is one thing that I think back in USA they do correctly. The safety for road works seems a bit over the top at times but very few people just crash into their stuff because of their rather excessive focus on safety.
Inadequate firmness with small fine results in people being less concerned with the rules that have been set. After all, it was all for his own safety. but they don't realize that the regulations are for traffic
in trafficsafetyy even though many of the accidents that occur due to not complying with the regulations result in death.but this is not used as an example as a motivation for us it doesn't mean I like it when people break the rules accidents happen I really hope something like this never happens
I suppose the funny thing about Thailand is that they will make big news stories and a lot of signs about what the rules are and how you will be punished if you don't obey them.... but then they never enforce it. It's kind of difficult to take anything that they say seriously when nobody ever gets in trouble for not following the rules.
It's the same with Indonesia. If the traffic police enforce the rules, people will only obey the rules when the police conduct raids. It is difficult to enforce the rules if it is not self on the awareness of the benefits of the regulations applied
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That was well written and well said. I'm very happy to be sailing in a yacht rather than using roads through Asia. That said, we do jump on bikes or into cars to see the land sights of the different islands we visit. Kinda hard not to 🤔
Yes, bikes are a necessity and I think that if people just be extremely careful to the point of being nervous on them that everything will be fine. You really have to keep a very good lookout though and I would bet that this is exactly what you do.
I put my trust in my husband,😁 he's ridden bikes for years. Luckily we tend to explore quieter areas/roads.