Traffic is one of Bangkok's biggest problems. It can often take an hour to go less than half a mile. Thai culture, with it's easy-going and laid-back people (albeit crazy driving) is perhaps ideal for this situation, but the hours lost in transportation could easily transfer into business hours lost and investment lost. Traffic strongly deters people from living outside of the city, as it is almost too much trouble to drive anywhere. Traffic also is starting to deter foreign companies from locating within the city. This loss of foreign investment could become a major problem in the years to come.
In 1963, 14% of the urban area was dedicated to
streets. The road layout was due to the network of the klongs, which had
been the primary mode of transportation before 1900. Klongs were simply
filled in and a road was built on top of them. These roads were not derived
for vehicle convenience as a whole. Efforts to improve and widen them failed
mainly for financial reasons. Land is expensive in Bangkok and therefore
it is even more expensive than usual to build roads. Roads also were not
built because of the blocked character of many land ownerships within the
city. As of 1996, only 8% of Bangkok's land area was road space compared
with 20% in other major cities. There is a surplus of cars as their popularity
rose. Many side streets lead to nowhere and divided streets force drivers
to make U-turns often to get going in the right direction. Basically, too
much traffic is concentrated on too few major roads.
Other problems include unequal street widths, bottlenecks, awkward intersections,
poor links to main arteries, an absence of bypasses over intersections and
expressive driving habits. Also, inadequacies of public transport (buses,
taxis, motorsais, and tuk tuks) encourage private vehicle use. These form
of public transport are inadequate, primarily because of the age of the
vehicles. Buses especially are a problem because they are often crowded
and follow a bus route rather than a bus schedule.
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