Important rules and behaviours for driving in Thailand

[JamesR]

4 hours ago, Transam said:

The Swedes do not have Thai logic drivers in Sweden, in fact, very few countries have the Thai logic/mindset when they get in their ride and close the door.

It is you that doesn't accept it is the main problem in LOS, coupled with no police presence and low fines....

You, will not convince me otherwise, as I see something daft everyday since I have been here, in fact I have used the hooter three times today, the worse was a Grab rider sail straight through a red light in front of me...

Open your eyes chap, stop making excuses for daft road stuff coupled with crazy road death tolls.......

I totally agree, I have seen all this sort of stuff in Thailand over the last 30 years.

I did not see this sort of poor driving on a daily basis while working in Sweden, Holland, Germany, Denmark and the USA.

The French drivers in Paris are a bit mad but as we have seen this with our own eyes @Khunwilkowill say it is not valid, only what he sees in his hundreds of thousands of miles of driving is valid.

You have to laugh really.

[JamesR]

3 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

^ As we all know the 5E's or 'safe system' mean SFA to Thai's, Government agencies or drivers.  They do it their way ... (almost a song title) ... anyway, in rebuttal to JamesR ...

I've just returned from 6 days away in deepest darkest Isaan - Khon Kaen, Roi Et, Yasothon, Ubon Ratchathani and almost to SiSaket.  A mere 2,200 km round trip, but one I used to do more frequently 5 to 10 years back.

Observations:-  

Road infrastructure is generally well maintained and there are many re-surfacing projects underway all across the route.   They produce some great roads and new concrete surfaces are smoother than many Aussie highways.

Major works include under & over passes at major junctions, some already complete.  The door to door trip from home to the wife's baan has 40 km's shaved off it as a result of road upgrades.

Unlike JamesR, in 11 years I have never witnessed an accident.  I have seen the aftermath of a few, and perhaps this is what he refers to (?)  I vividly recall passing a dead body in the middle of an intersection in Phitsanoluk, a motorbike rider having been (apparently) thrown from is bike ... must've just happened as no rescue vehicles on site.

This trip we saw only 2 incident sites, no fatalities.  One was a truck and trailer on highway off ramp, the trailer full of glass (bottles?) had flipped on its side, a possible jack knife or mechanical failure.  The other was kind of funny, middle of remote national forest and single lanes, an old overloaded pickup sat astride the west bound lane on its diff!  The rear suspension had collapsed.

It was a good trip and we encountered the usual idiots.  The only potential idiot-accident being of a a pickup passing on double lines, down hill on a blind corner at ~ 90 kmph.

Edit:  Never saw any Police presence the entire trip!  Not even tea-money collections.

I will re-word my comment, yes I see the evidence of an accident many times, not the actual accident happening, I am assuming the accidents were not stunts and were real accidents.

I have seen lots of near misses though through bad driving/riding. 

I see the aftermath of an accident in the UK every few years, one thing I notice though is the cars in Thailand seemed to be completely wrecked on many occasions due to speeding I assume.

Yes, in the south around Phuket and on to the Krabi area going onto Surat Thani there has been a huge number of country roads turned into dual-carriageways (highways in Thailand), they are great and cut the journey from Phuket to the Nakhon se Thammarat region by 1.5 hours.

That has not caused any improvement in the driving ability I see on a daily basis.

[Guest1]

3 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Road infrastructure is generally well maintained and there are many re-surfacing projects underway all across the route.   They produce some great roads and new concrete surfaces are smoother than many Aussie highways.

One of the advantages of Covid: Lots of money into road projects NOW.

Despite the fact, that most of the workers are not Thai, the government did not let the road construction companies go dry!

In best case, at least here in Phuket, they just did already planed re-surfacing a year or so earlier. In worst case: They just thrown out the money to the "pals" with the brown envelopes!

[cowslip]

7 hours ago, JamesR said:

I will re-word my comment, yes I see the evidence of an accident many times, not the actual accident happening, I am assuming the accidents were not stunts and were real accidents.

I have seen lots of near misses though through bad driving/riding. 

I see the aftermath of an accident in the UK every few years, one thing I notice though is the cars in Thailand seemed to be completely wrecked on many occasions due to speeding I assume.

Yes, in the south around Phuket and on to the Krabi area going onto Surat Thani there has been a huge number of country roads turned into dual-carriageways (highways in Thailand), they are great and cut the journey from Phuket to the Nakhon se Thammarat region by 1.5 hours.

That has not caused any improvement in the driving ability I see on a daily basis.

so same number of accidents - what is the difference?

[cowslip]

still didn't read what I said about "experience" - still clinging to the same archaic ideas

 

 

The key differences between the traditional and Safe System approaches have been summarised in Figure 2:

http://www.towardszerofoundation.org/thesafesystem/

 

[AmySukwan]

The rules seem to be use your own judgement to stay alive. I sometimes marvel at the lack of foresight in many high traffic areas...

[KaptainRob]

9 hours ago, JamesR said:

Yes, in the south around Phuket and on to the Krabi area going onto Surat Thani there has been a huge number of country roads turned into dual-carriageways (highways in Thailand), they are great and cut the journey from Phuket to the Nakhon se Thammarat region by 1.5 hours

Highway 44 is a favourite of mine though not a good one for night driving.  Owing to the wider separation between East & West carriageways and few u turns, locals drive the wrong way between villages.  Why did they not build simple underpasses.

Due to the high build up with poor fill, some of the undulations on #44 can almost send a car airborne at high speed. 

[JamesR]

11 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Highway 44 is a favourite of mine though not a good one for night driving.  Owing to the wider separation between East & West carriageways and few u turns, locals drive the wrong way between villages.  Why did they not build simple underpasses.

Due to the high build up with poor fill, some of the undulations on #44 can almost send a car airborne at high speed. 

Yes, it is great fun to drive on during the day. I have by choice not driven on it at night for years as many of the people using it are bad drivers. Bad as in the way they use it.

It is mostly straight and very easy t drive on but the locals make it dangerous at night. 

A few years ago I was driving at night and I saw two white lights in the far distance on the left hand side of the road, as they got closer I saw it was a car as you say above driving the wrong way, I have since seen lots of cars doing it over the years.

I was twice involved in serious near-misses at night.

One of them involved a motorbike with a large steel side car driving in the overtaking lane, I was in the other lane and passed it, I had not seen as it had no lights at all and there were no street lights so it was lucky I did not hit it as I was doing 100kmh and it was doing about 30kmh.

The second time I was approaching a junction which allowing cars to come onto the highway, there was also a  U turn road in the middle of both carriageways, as I was almost level with the junction a car came onto the highway but did not stop or slowdown as though it had the right to do so, it went across the highway in front of me to the U turn, I had to drive with it side on by veering right so we were driving parallel until I could stop, it just carried on as though nothing had happened. 

Initially years ago there was not a single garage, house, shop on the highway but now there are many, they also ride motorbikes/cars the wrong way, cut trees etc on the side of the road as though it was a tiny village road.

 

[JamesR]

9 hours ago, Transam said:

You will love this one, I was going quite fast down a dual carriage way, I could see a heavy goods wagon at a side road up ahead, as I got closer it decided to pull out, it had a trailer.

I braked heavily as it would block the road it was so long, then what happened.....

He turned towards me, I was flucked, after a lot of evasive action I managed to avoid a very bad situation.

Now the funny bit, looked in my mirror, there was a U-turn point a bit before the turning, the guy drove his rig on the wrong side of the carriageway to use it, too lazy to do the right thing....  

I could probably write a book on daft stuff, but Wilco will say they do that in farangland too....

In LOS I go by the 5 F's, it's got me out of a few scrapes....

Yes I have come across that too, I now only drive at 90kms hour on highways in Thailand as you never know when you need to do a quick stop or swerve to avoid such things.

Of course none of these things really happen as Wilco will say we are using biased anecdotal observations but as we know they are very real and happen so very often.

The only time I have seen a car driving the wrong way down a highway in Europe was once in Switzerland.

I drove the wrong side of the road on a countryside road once in England, I was used to driving in Germany from Monday until Friday as I worked there and weekends in England as I used to fly back, I once thought I was in Germany when I suddenly realised I was in England, so I pulled over sharply to the correct side of the road, the expression on the drivers face driving a car towards me was sheer horror. 

[Benroon]

On 1/24/2022 at 6:39 PM, Khunwilko said:

20 years and half a million KMs -  you're just gainsaying because you don't understand.

confirmation bias—a bias that results from the tendency to process and analyze information in such a way that it supports one's preexisting ideas and convictions.

I understand your bias - it kind of stands out a tad

[Philly]

On 1/25/2022 at 5:01 AM, Khunwilko said:

You say the high death rate in Thailand is because “Thais are bad drivers”

You say you see lots of evidence of this

However the number of collisions in Thailand is about the same as in the UK

So what you think you see is not backed up by the facts

Next you rely on one statistic only to back up your “bad driving “ hypothesis

Well using that statistic we find that UK has one tenth or more the number of fatalities than Thailand with th same number of crashes.

You don’t explain why you think that is.

You claim “experience” of driving as a back up – Well, I’ve had more “experience of driving than you in both UK and Thailand (and other countries too) ….but I’ve told you why I don’t consider that important on it’s own. You may also notice I seldom resort to personal anecdote to back up my argument as I know how misleading it can be

What is important is an understanding of road safety and an ability to use critical thinking rather than “seeing is believing” – which quite frankly verges on the naïve and banal.

So what you have to do is define “bad driving” and then explain how it leads to the same number of colliosns as in UK but ten times s many deaths.

I was sitting in a bar last night I heard an almighty scream from a girl in the bar and I was like wtf. Some guy was driving a motorcycle no traffic and crashed it on an empty road. Within seconds the locals ran to assist him a foreigner I may add. He got himself together and drove off. I’ve witnessed this in Pattaya before same thing helped the guy get back up to his feet and he was paralytic drunk in hind sight I should have taken the keys of him. Another one in Pattaya a thai delivery driver driving up one of the soi’s crashed into every motorcycle on the left hand side he fell out of the van and the police arrived and took him away

[JamesR]

10 hours ago, Philly said:

I was sitting in a bar last night I heard an almighty scream from a girl in the bar and I was like wtf. Some guy was driving a motorcycle no traffic and crashed it on an empty road. Within seconds the locals ran to assist him a foreigner I may add. He got himself together and drove off. I’ve witnessed this in Pattaya before same thing helped the guy get back up to his feet and he was paralytic drunk in hind sight I should have taken the keys of him. Another one in Pattaya a thai delivery driver driving up one of the soi’s crashed into every motorcycle on the left hand side he fell out of the van and the police arrived and took him away

It happened in Phuket a few years ago, a Thai lad drove over a drainage grid and his front wheel went into a ridge and he flew off over the bike.

Blood on his face and head, a crowd of Thais gathered around, one was a security guard and I told him call an ambulance etc as I did not know the name f the street etc where we were. He didn't 

The Thais just laughed as he tried to get his bike up, he managed it after a few minutes and drove off in a wobbly way.

[Grant]

Question:

Are these driving rules being portrayed to Thais?

I live on a beach road and at least 50 cars a day ravel at 80 Kms an hour with no regard for Pedestrians dogs or children that may enter the roadway?

I se Thai in the back of Pick up trucks and trucks and side cars ?

What is it with seat belts for front driving if Police turn a blind eye to Passengers on the back of pickups and sitting on trucks?

We see many children driving Motorcycles as young as 7 Yo

whats going on there?

Trucks regularly change lanes without looking or at the same time as indicating?

Most Thais pull out from the curb in cars and motorcycles and then they look?

Speeding through villages and beach areas with no regard for anyone or anything is normal practice for most Young Thai drivers under 30 Yo

Most accidents are caused by speed and lane changing at incorrect distances , bends and just no regard for other drivers?

I hope this article is not just pointing at foreigners for causing accidents?

We have to get our licences and have had tests and watched videos?

I doubt wether 50% of Thais actually have sat for an exam or been tested or even hold a licence?

As nearly every rule you list here is broken by Thais in just a 10 minute drive to the local shops?

 

 

[cowslip]

On 1/26/2022 at 2:49 PM, Benroon said:

I understand your bias - it kind of stands out a tad

So - what is it? Can you say?

[LoongFred]

3 hours ago, Grant said:

Question:

Are these driving rules being portrayed to Thais?

I live on a beach road and at least 50 cars a day ravel at 80 Kms an hour with no regard for Pedestrians dogs or children that may enter the roadway?

I se Thai in the back of Pick up trucks and trucks and side cars ?

What is it with seat belts for front driving if Police turn a blind eye to Passengers on the back of pickups and sitting on trucks?

We see many children driving Motorcycles as young as 7 Yo

whats going on there?

Trucks regularly change lanes without looking or at the same time as indicating?

Most Thais pull out from the curb in cars and motorcycles and then they look?

Speeding through villages and beach areas with no regard for anyone or anything is normal practice for most Young Thai drivers under 30 Yo

Most accidents are caused by speed and lane changing at incorrect distances , bends and just no regard for other drivers?

I hope this article is not just pointing at foreigners for causing accidents?

We have to get our licences and have had tests and watched videos?

I doubt wether 50% of Thais actually have sat for an exam or been tested or even hold a licence?

As nearly every rule you list here is broken by Thais in just a 10 minute drive to the local shops?

You must live near the beach area. Although there are kids on motorscooters it generally in the village to run to the store. Most people drive very slow in the village because there are kids out.

When school's out the high school students pretty much storm the highway so we avoid the 4 -5 PM time to travel anywhere. It's not bad driving as much as the volume that matters