53. Recommendations of the ADB-funded summary EIA, which provided input to the project design, reduced adverse social impacts in two key ways. They improved PWD’s handling of the relocation process, and limited the environmental impact of the road when operational on neighboring communities through installation of appropriate mitigation measures.
54. Time savings constitute the equivalent of 94% of the benefits of the road. Bus passengers32 in central Bangkok received 45% of the estimated time savings that accrued to occupants of all vehicles. Lower-income groups and the poor, on average, account for a larger proportion of bus passengers than car drivers or car passengers. The UTDM database shows that bus passengers value time for travel decisions on average about 50% lower than car drivers and passengers. This suggests that their incomes are on average less than half of car drivers. Savings in travel times for bus passengers are likely to benefit them by providing greater opportunity to access employment opportunities and activities of personal importance.
55. As cities grow and expand, traffic speeds tend to remain stable with moderate to high congestion in the central area. However, the congestion spreads outward geographically and temporally to the off-peak periods, including weekends. The transport modeling undertaken by the PPER shows that benefits of the project road are experienced by the area in the vicinity of the project road, as well as in Bangkok’s central area. The project road is expected to have an ongoing positive benefit on Bangkok’s traffic, as described in Appendix 8.
56. The Project road increased network vehicle speeds in Bangkok slightly, though not to the extent that would change the number or type of accidents (Appendix 9, para. 23).33