Challenge the car culture

Published: 26/05/2012 at 03:10 AM ... 

It is understandable why the Thai Shopping Centre Association chose this week to launch a vigorous campaign to get the government to set up proper park-and-ride facilities throughout greater Bangkok to ease congestion.

Traffic jams have been particularly bad due to the beginning of the new school year and, unless traffic police can perform miracles, the capital could sink into gridlock next week. That's when 700 people arrive to attend the World Economic Forum East Asian Summit. The associated motorcades will include the presidents of Indonesia and Myanmar as well as the prime ministers of Laos and Bahrain.

For their part, the operators of 50 shopping malls are willing to provide park-and-ride facilities with access to public transportation. At least half have the advantage of being located near BTS Skytrain stations and the Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT) lines and a standardised parking fee would be set for use of their secure car parks. That leaves the problem of persuading commuters to use such facilities while, at the same time, improving the skytrain service to make it a more attractive alternative. People have grown weary of the massive overcrowding on the trains at peak hours. The system has become too popular to continue to get by with many trains limited to three carriages. Expanding capacity throughout the network is now urgent.

Clearly no car driver would want to exchange one ordeal for another. But soon they may not have a choice. The Transport Ministry has already warned everyone in greater Bangkok to expect "nightmare" traffic jams for the next two years due to the construction of seven mass transit rail lines. Those living in the suburbs were told to expect to spend four to six hours a day commuting up until 2014. And that assumes that construction work will finish on schedule.

The good news is that by 2019 electric railway lines should cover a catchment area of 525 square kilometres and serve 3.8 million commuters a day. By 2029, all 12 electric railway projects for greater Bangkok should be completed. They will have a combined distance of 509km, cover a catchment area of 680 sq km and serve 5.1 million commuters a day. But this is a very long time to wait and might not even keep pace with population growth in the capital. Even so, mass transit is the only answer. We cannot keep on building more roads to accommodate the many single-passenger cars clogging the streets. There have been several proposals for inner-city congestion charges and selective bans but all have fallen victim to political expediency.

Worsening the traffic snarls has been an apparent decline in driver discipline. There is a strong case for buying more towaway trucks, speed cameras, breathalysers to test for alcohol and wheel clamps to immobilise illegally parked vehicles. In the busy days ahead, traffic police will also need to get tough on red light violations, one-way traffic offences and motorcycles driving on pavements. Positive action such as properly synchronising traffic lights and introducing compulsory driver education programmes for offenders would also help. And if the penalties do not produce results, they should be strengthened, as has been done for drink-driving.

There is nothing new about park-and-ride. The concept has existed ever since the skytrain made its debut 13 years ago. The trouble is that many commuters refuse to accept the lifestyle changes involved. If the mall operators can work with the government and City Hall to make it a reality, then they will have done more than increase their customer base. They will have helped to remove some of the stress, noise and air pollution that plague Bangkok's streets.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/295101/challenge-the-car-culture