East Pattaya traffic woes

December 10, 2011

Sir,

The traffic chaos situation in Soi Khao Talo is becoming increasingly ridiculous. I have sent you some pictures I took of the bottleneck at the train tracks which had the traffic backed up as far as the turning from Sukhumvit Road and went for lengthy distances in all the other directions as well. And this was early in the afternoon.

The situation is no better when the traffic lights are in operation. Thankfully the lights don’t seem to be turned on any more. Soi Khao Talo has become incredibly busy over the last couple of years and building of new townhouses and villages never seems to stop.

Do you know if the local government has any plans at all to address this rapid growth or if they have any idea just how bad things can get at times?

Name and address supplied

We contacted the relevant authorities and asked to speak to the person in charge of planning. After carefully explaining that no, we weren’t joking, the phone mysteriously went dead.

Coming from Soi Khao Noi, heading south.

We tried a different tack and asked for the department dealing with public complaints and suggestions. We were told that since it was Friday afternoon they were all out to a long lunch at the Hand Relief Coffee Shop and Art Gallery and could we please ring back sometime between December 2020 and the end of the world. We think they were serious.

On a serious note, look at traffic in Bangkok. Basically, a shambles where the local authorities seem to operate by patching away at the problems. The same situation seems to apply here. Pattaya’s rapid growth has caught the authorities offside and they’re playing a constant game of catch-up.