Thumbing your nose at traffic signs
The other day a friend of mine asked a taxi driver to drop her off near an intersection. She planned to cross the road to get to the other side, but the taxi driver, being the dear sweet gentleman that he was, insisted on dropping her off on the side she wanted to go, though it meant going a long way further to make a U-turn. To her surprise, he made a quick U-turn right at the intersection. “Wasn’t there a No U-turn sign there?” she asked. “Well, it’s drizzling, and there weren’t any cars coming the other way!” he said gleefully, happy to be of service.
What do you say to someone who is being so dedicated and service minded? Are you supposed to applaud his resourcefulness and be happy to not have to cross a busy intersection and get wet in the process? Or do you despair at their sheer lack of respect for the law?
Yet this is somewhat typical of the Thai laissez-faire attitude. In the tourism industry, it works because tourists love our laid-back attitude to life, our easy-going Thai smile. It has become a unique selling point in the “Visit Thailand” brochures and advertising campaigns.
Ignoring traffic signs is the least of the offences that happen every day, at any given opportunity.
“Didn’t you see the No U-turn sign there?” asked the patient policeman of an errant driver after he had been pulled over.
“I did krub, but I didn’t see you standing there,” was the innocent reply. I swear this is true. I was in the car, though not the driver.
In most cases, the system of honouring the law is lacking in Thailand. We can’t be “trusted” to not take shortcuts simply because it’s honourable and the right thing to do. Doing a U-turn is not going to hurt anyone, when there are no cars coming. What’s so dishonourable about that? That’s why poor Ja Choey, the dummy police sergeant who keeps a painted eye on traffic violators, is never going to make any difference to our attitudes. In a way, I sympathise with the traffic police. Do we need a living, breathing policeman to keep an eye out on every street corner, like a teacher with a cane at the back of the classroom during exam time? Are we that childish that we can’t even respect simple traffic regulations? That’s going to require a lot of uniformed personnel, who should be better off doing other more useful things like catching the thief who stole my bicycle.
The area that sees most violators in my neighbourhood has to be the crossing at the Phloenchit expressway entrance. Apart from public buses, all other vehicles are barred from going straight from Phloenchit onto Sukhumvit. You all know that. Don’t you? Signs indicating this traffic rule begin from the Ploenchit Intersection, in front of the glitzy new shopping centre. Several more signs are lined up just before the expressway tollgate. Yet inadvertently, there is going to be some driver who has probably been talking to his/her sweetheart on his/her speakerphone, too engrossed or lovestruck to see the signs. Or they saw the signs, but just didn’t see the nice policeman standing on the corner.
Another regular traffic violation in my neighbourhood is the right turn on Asok Road. If you drive from the Asok-Phetchaburi Intersection up towards Sukhumvit Road, you will see No Right Turn signs at intervals along the entire length of the road. Yet there are cars turning right into office buildings or sub-sois with the blessing of the police who have actually opened up breaks in the barriers for them to do so. So what are we supposed to believe? On the other hand, there are also different interpretations of what the traffic regulation is, such as the speed limit on various roads and highways. This has often offered fodder for lengthy lunchtime debates. It is said that the speed limit for highways is 90kph — though police make allowances for up to 110kph — and 80kph if you’re driving through residential communities. The speed limit for the motorway is 120kph. Don’t quote me on any of that. Speedsters have been fined f or doing 105, 110, 121 and anything else in between. In short, speed limits seem to be just a rule of thumb and each policeman’s thumb is a different size. And if there is a speed limit, why offer allowances for extra speed? Why not just fix the speed limit at 110kph?
By the way, if any of you wonderful boys in brown are reading this, a year or so ago my son received three separate tickets sent to our house, for violating traffic regulations in remote parts of outer Bangkok that he never set foot in, in a car that he does not own. In fact, he has only been using the Skytrain for the past five years. What should he do with those tickets?
“Are we that childish that we can’t even respect simple traffic regulations?”