Driving in Thailand is challenging and dangerous. Due to the mad volume of traffic and the fact that its roadways are not well maintained and rather confusing, many accidents occur. The World Health Organization reported a 38.1 road traffic rate (per 100 000 population) in Thailand for the year 2010. The only country to have a higher rate is the Dominican Republic.
Organizations such as the Thailand Accident Research Center (TARC) analyze the causes for these accidents and how best to circumvent them. This organization conducts research studies, analyzes crash scenes, and offers training to educate people about road safety.
The Thai government is aware of the chaos that is driving in Thailand and is trying to improve the conditions. However, this usually only creates more confusion, as one of their approaches is to manipulate the flow of traffic simply by switching the direction of one-way street signs. This then, and rightly so, confuses everyone and one-way streets become two-way streets and sometimes with three lanes! Thai drivers also have to be extremely flexible because the length of this change varies by the length of the current government’s stay in office.