City Hall jumps the gun on raised pavement rider fine

City Hall has begun enforcing the new fine for motorcyclists who ride on pavements, instead of waiting until tomorrow as announced earlier.

Bangkok deputy governor Sakoltee Phattiyakul said yesterday Bangkok’s surveillance camera network will also be used to monitor pavements across the city and catch violators.

The fine, imposed under the cleanliness law, has been doubled from 500 to 1,000 baht in the hope of stopping motorcyclists from riding on the city’s pavements.

Mr Sakoltee said the decision was made to enforce the new fine immediately instead of Dec 1 as initially announced.

The decision to raise the fine was made because the old rate failed to reduce the number of motorbikes travelling on pavements, despite the fact about 10,000 riders had been fined about 4 million baht in total since May, he said.

The problem was especially bad in areas not supervised by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s inspectors, he said.

“If the raised 1,000-baht fine still fails to have any impact on the number of violations, it will be further increased,” Mr Sakoltee said.

Inspectors would impound the motorcycles of riders who could not pay the fine right away. The motorcycles will be kept until the fine is paid.

The BMA would also identify motorcyclists seen on surveillance camera riding on pavements and send them letters demanding payment of the fine, Mr Sakoltee said.

The sudden flurry of activity over a practice that has inconvenienced and endangered the city’s pedestrians for decades comes after a schoolgirl was knocked down and injured by a motorcyclist who rode on the pavement on Lat Phrao Road in Wang Thong Lang district on Monday.