People’s expectation that traffic jams would lessen in Bangkok once the underground and sky train opened also did not take into account the Thai obsession with the car. Owning a car is a status symbol and even the lower middle-class, who can barely afford to get through to the end of each month, are spending all their money on buying a car. This is causing an even larger congestion of Bangkok’s roads, and it’s expected to continue. Every year, more cars are added to the capital cities roads and less people use public transportation.
Bangkok’s government is also to blame. Before September 2006, Thailand was headed by Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. He promised again and again to solve the traffic jams but not much was done to solve the problem. Then after the military coup in 2006, the problem got worse. The military government slashed spending on programs like public transportation, so they could increase spending on the military by more than 30%.
Adding to the problem is this – the people in power in Thailand, the mega-wealthy, really have no incentive to improve the traffic problem. After all, it doesn’t often affect them. They pass through Bangkok traffic with the aid of police escorts, so why would they care that the average Thai spends half his day sitting in traffic?
This also shows how short-sighted many Thais in high positions are. They don’t think about all the productivity lost, while Thailand sits in traffic jams or equate it with their falling business profits. Nor do they seem to question why Thailand is falling further behind countries like Malaysia and Vietnam in productivity and exports.
Bangkok has to solve its traffic jam problems in order to compete with the rest of South East Asia.. Neither can the half-hearted public transportation system continue to be left the way it is. Bangkok’s government must increase the spending on public transportation and expand the present sky train and underground train systems. They must also come up with a workable plan to persuade Thai citizens to forgo buying that expensive car and instead support the public transportation system.
Only then will Thailand’s economy keep up with and hopefully surpass the more efficient countries in this region.