Apps and sites take edge off daily stresses of living in the capital
More and more residents are tapping on a growing array of technologies, writes Pattramon Sukprasert
Before starting off from her house in the Ramkhamhaeng area every day, it has become a ritual for Kanokphan Ornrattanasakul to check Google Maps on her smartphone — to find the best route of the day to get to her office in Pathum Thani.
But on the days Ms Kanokphan doesn’t want to drive, she normally grabs a ride from one of the apps that haven’t yet been approved by the Transport Ministry (yes, Uber and GrabTaxi). It’s much more convenient given that she lives deep down a soi, well off the main road.
Whenever she feels like eating at a popular barbecue restaurant chain, she will again consult the QueQ app on her smartphone, to avoid the long queues.
“This is basically to save my time to do something else,” said Ms Kanokphan.
A better network for public transport ation in Bangkok makes life in the capital seem more convenient as traffic congestion and crowding have also become an ordeal for city residents.
However, more and more mobile apps and websites have come to the rescue to ease the nightmare being endured by millions of city residents — especially for commuting as a large majority spend several hours on the roads each day.
“Beating Bangkok’s traffic is impossible, but at least I can plan for it. Or if it’s really bad, I sometimes decide to stop at some restaurants before hitting the road again when there’s less traffic,” explained the 24-year-old scriptwriter.
Apart from navigating maps, Bangkok residents have enjoyed a number of apps by local developers. The BMA Live Traffic app shows real-time traffic conditions, road conditions and closures, as well as accidents.
On bad days when accidents take place, you can consult Claim Di. This app is used by a certain number of insurance companies. Once you provide information on the accident, you and the other car owner involved can leave the scene without having to wait for an insurance representative to show up causing even more traffic on the road. The insurance representative will subsequently follow up on the case, based on the information provided.
Not all the apps have been developed for private car users in Bangkok. The lives of public transport users have also been eased.
Cityglide.com provides the locations of buses on 35 routes, and is extremely valuable to commuters who once had to wait for a bus without any clue as to when it would arrive. With this site, commuters can see the current location of their bus so they know if it’s worth the wait.
The Chaophraya app helps on routes for the Chao Phraya express boat service for non-regular users to find the right boat to hop on.
In recent years, highly utilised and increasingly popular apps are those offering delivery with special services making this an emerging frontier in the app world. For example, people can buy items from some shops on request.
Pattranit Puapongsakorn, a 25 year-old food reviewer, often uses the service to buy different things she needs without having to go an do the shopping.
“While the fee for the service can be high, compared with the time and energy I can save, I’m willing to pay,” said Ms Pattranit adding that if there is more than one application that offers a similar service, she
would pick the cheaper option, or the one that has promotions on offer.
“These tools really help me live more effectively in a fast-paced world where I am always on the go,” she added.
Platforms that help match facilitators and clients are also available with other services, not just delivery and transportation, and include home maintenance or makeup for which the service is provided right at home.
While most applications are launched for commercial purposes, there are crowdsourcing tools that are specially designed to solve city problems such as YouPin.
YouPin is a platform that allows people to report any problems they find in Bangkok. The problem is submitted directly to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to get fixed. Those who pin a problem will be notified when the relevant issue is resolved. The platform is now in the developing stage.
“Data should be collected and utilised to improve the city,” said Thitiphong Luangaroonlerd, one of the developers. “The channel to complain to the BMA already exists but we want to make it easier and also want people to take part in providing data for the city.”
The Punmuang app, designed especially for bike users, also works quite similarly. The app provides important information for bikers such as nearby bike shops, suitable bike routes, available bike facilities. Road conditions can also be marked by the community.
Mr Thitiphong said there was a surge in applications in recent years as the start-up trend has become popular and because the technological cost for people to develop a new app or site is low, so this is definitely a plus for users and city residents.
“This directly benefits users as they have more choice. And the more competitors the better the benefit and engagement for users as costs usually decline when there are more developers in the market,” he explained. “But the heart of these services revolves around the need to improve people’s lives — otherwise people won’t pay for it.”
However, when it comes to developing a platform dealing directly with the government sector, like the one he’s working on, it can take quite some time to succeed due to the lack of data.
This is backed up by Sutheera Putheeranurak, professor of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, who advises computer engineering students on developing applications that tackle some such problems.
“They’ve made interesting prototypes but as no proper data has been previously collected, it’s hard to develop them for actual use,” she said.
However, she sees the potential for these applications to improve the lives of residents in Bangkok.
“These technologies and applications make life more predictable. Some are designed to prevent or reduce risks that may occur. So they’re definitely advantageous to our urban lifestyles,” said Prof Sutheera.