11 replies to this topic

[Bumblebee]

Apparently Pattaya City recently spent a handsome sum of money on this failed project. Be careful when crossing the road guys. Funny in a scary way.

[eddy1925]

for what this people are installing traffic lights when (nearly) everybody ignore it?

[xyzzy]

I read elsewhere that one day they gave out some jaywalking tickets to tourists that crossed the street near the crosswalks but didn't actually use them.

Recently at a few crosswalks they tried workers with hand held stop sign that tried to stop the traffic when the lights were red. They apparently almost got mowed over by traffic.

Another TiT disaster.

[james2035]

I find as long as u are sober u can cross any road when u want why the hell do you need a crossing anyway if you old and frail you should not be in pattaya

[petesie]

I think you magnificently and absolutely miss the entire point.....

Thank you BB for your continued valued input and humour... ;-)

[Rossco]

The new lights are the talk of the town.

They installed so many in one go that the electric bill may prove a problem!

The lights will give a false sense of security to Westerners visiting - they press the button and then the lights turn red for traffic with a countdown number displayed - I think the Thais use this to select lottery numbers! The countdown is also an invitation for the traffic (if it stopped) to rev up in anticipation.

The pedestrian now sees a little Green Man (too many Singhas) and proceeds to cross. There is the start of the problem...

The majority of the traffic, in Pattaya, is motorbikes and, if the rider is wearing the normal Thai style helmut, the visor conveniently blocks out their view of the lights on the high up gantry. SO if he raises his head to look he will drive into the back of somebody else.

The lights are on overhead gantries and not in direct sight line.

The button is placed high up to stop Thai kids playing with the lights - unfortunatly so high up that someone in a wheelchair cannot reach it. Before there are any ageist jokes there are a number of visitors who end up in wheelchairs having tried to be Evil Knieval on a motorbike.

So the new crossings, and there are a great deal of them, are likely to create mayhem for some months to come.

Driving in Thailand is appalling and the motorcyclists are the worst - no rules. I stopped at a new set of lights to allow 2 foriegn families to cross, one each from either side. Not one motorcycle stopped.

I always compare crossing the road here to that wonderful old video game called "Frogger" where Mr Frog needed to jump from one log to another in order to cross the stream.

Of course, any Farang killed on these crossings, will probably be reported as a suicide - well it probably was if you depend on the safety conscious motorbikes

[CL]

Getting to know my Thai colleagues, they may have forgotten a minor detail, to communicate properly about this change :-)

[Rossco]

The Thai solution is at hand....

Thay are placing pedestrian crossing patrol men at each crossing - as the lights change he will proceed into the road with a flag to alert drivers that the signal is Red.

TIT

[batman4ever]

this is why i love thailand... just as i think they cant surprice me anymore...they manage to do it anyway...