I have said many times before that I actually prefer the overall aspect of Thailand over my home country of USA so please, don't anyone out there think that I am bashing the Kingdom of Thailand. I have a great deal of respect for this place and think it is a wonderful country to live in. I would stay if it wasn't economically stupid for me to do so. I haven't left yet, but will do so soon and honestly, I am not looking forward to it. It is necessary though.
This doesn't meant that I am just going to agree with everything that Thailand does though or their methods for society in general. One of the things that I am kind of shocked never changes is the ever-dangerous wild-west that is the roads all over this country.
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From a western perspective, the roads here seem like chaos. Lines on the roads are not observed by anyone and while a double yellow might seem like something that you would never cross in the west, I don't even know why they bother using the paint on the roads here because nobody pays any attention to them.
The same goes with speed limit signs. There was a book I read a long time ago where the author said that "if you see a circular sign with an 80 in the middle of it, that means the speed limit is 80km/ hour... but it may as well say 800 miles an hour because nobody cares."
This is true with drivers as well as police. I have never heard of anyone getting pulled over for speeding in this country and that is probably why everyone treats every road as if it were the Autobahn. Once you get outside of a gridlocked area like the one pictured above you will have cars and even huge buses and trucks passing you at a pace so fast that it feels like you are standing still.
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This ends in disaster for a lot of people and despite the prevalence of road deaths and injuries, the government doesn't really do anything about this. Sure they make some signs about how they will bust you but it never actually happens.
I live in a suburb to the north of Chiang Mai. It is quiet and the roads are winding and filled with community-installed speed bumps so this keeps people from driving crazy. Once you go a few blocks to the main road though, it is a free-for-all.
Then there is the question of motorbikes safety - and this country has to have one of the highest concentrations of motorbikes of anywhere in the world.
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No matter where you go, if you are looking you can find bits of motorbike on the side of the road because accidents are so common. There are tons of deaths by motorbike in Thailand yet so many people absolutely refuse to wear helmets. It is very common to see a motorbike with many more passengers than said vehicle should contain cruising down the road with children mucking about on them as well.
The people are very aware of how head injuries are the number one cause of road deaths in Thailand, yet they still don't wear helmets. In most cases of a motorbike accident it is actually a car that is the cause of the accident, but you don't have the benefit of airbags and seatbelts on a motorbike. No, quite the opposite actually. You are wearing shorts, a t-shirt, flip flops, and have zero safety equipment. Most of the human body can take a tremendous amount of damage but your head can take almost none.
I really can't understand why people would willingly take this risk every single day.
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I don't know what year this is from but from what I hear, it may as well be any of them. Thailand routinely is in the top 3 for road deaths of anywhere in the world.
I have a scooter but I am honestly afraid to go anywhere of substance on it, especially on any sort of highway because that is where the people in cars, trucks, minivans, and buses turn their vehicles over to hyper-drive. Sometimes when I am moving down the road at a reasonable speed like 90km/hour - which is actually a bit fast for me, I get jump scares from how fast other vehicles are moving past me.
You also have the added bonus of the fact that motorbikes frequently drive on the incorrect side of the road in order to save themselves a few minutes by not going to the legal U-turn up the road. Therefore, getting all the way over to the left (they drive on the left here) is very dangerous as well.
To make matters worse, people tend to merge into bigger roads without even pausing at the corner and expect the traffic on the main road to accommodate this very irresponsible merge. This is another fantastic way to end up with your motorbike in the back seat of a car in front of you.
So you can't drive in the middle of the road because someone is going to plow you down at near 200 km / hour and you can't drive on the far left because of improper merging and motorbikes driving the wrong direction on the side of the road. Basically you are taking your life into your own hands anytime you drive anywhere.
I don't like the government being all up in my business the way they are in the states but here in Thailand there really seems to be no enforcement of any rules whatsoever. The only time you ever see police is at a checkpoint where they are stealing money from the population during certain times of the month.
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This is where they pull everyone over, find something wrong with their license or bike and then charge you a small fee that is so common it is just called "tea money" and this corruption is kind of accepted by the population.
It's so bad that I don't really know anyone that doesn't at least have some sort of road-rash scar somewhere on their body. I am one of the last ones but this is because I keep my head on a swivel and if I can avoid driving my bike that is exactly what I will do.
I love this country, but this aspect of it, is just insane to me that it can stay this bad for decades and nothing ever changes. One thing I do enjoy about the roads here is that they do in fact tend to be very well maintained. So I guess there is a tradeoff.