Bangkok Traffic

In almost everything you read about Bangkok, you learn about two things: the nightlife, and the traffic. Even though I had read about it, and heard about it from our Thai students, I don't think I really got it; I am not sure it is possible to get it!

The traffic is horrendous, horrific, terrible, frustrating, (fill in your own adjective here)! I realize that I walk to work, and that my longest commute (in my life) to and from work has only been 15 minutes and for that I am lucky. I really do know that. My father has driven 50-70 minutes one way to work as long as I can remember. I know I am spoiled. I can tell you though, I have seen a tremendous amount of Bangkok out of the windows of a car. It is nearly impossible at different times during the day to move at all in the city. Many of the traffic lights have a countdown so you can see how long you have to wait. The shortest one I have seen is 90 seconds, followed by a 25 second green light! Talk about road rage! It is not that the roads are to small, most of the main roads are 4-6 lanes in one direction. It is not that there isn't public transportation, there is the sky train, a subway, buses, and taxis. It is just too many damn cars! They estimate about 4 million cars in the city! 4 MILLION! No wonder it is crowded!

They have these boards to tell you which roads are congested. If the road is really bad, it is red, then yellow, then green. Any way you look at it, I have estimated even in off peak times going place to place in the city is about 45 minutes. I will try to remember this as I complain about having to wait for a minute as I cross Route 75 to work.