THAILAND 4.0’S TRAFFIC TORMENT
Suthida Chanachaisuwan 19 years old singer. Posts last month to the internet with a series of now deleted tweets expressing her displeasure with the public transportation network in Bangkok – no doubt a common frustration among commuters.
(TEEN SINGER’S CRITICAL TWEETS SPARK NATIONALIST BACKLASH A singer’s hard-truth tweets about the underdeveloped state of Thailand has sparked debate online Thursday along predictable fault lines. Suthida “Image” Chanachaisuwan, 19, tweeted Wednesday a series of now-deleted tweets about Thailand and its underdeveloped transportation system.)
As someone who uses public transportation on an almost daily basis in Bangkok, I often marvel at the cleanliness, timeliness, and convenience of the BTS and MRT. They are the gems of the capital’s public transportation system.
However, my elation quickly falls off when I have to step away from the trains and take a bus to get around the city. Though the network of bus routes around Bangkok is extensive, they have to contend with the evil that most large cities are familiar with: traffic.
Among the unique challenges to Thailand’s initiative to digitize its economy are those facing transportation infrastructure, and the role it will play in the future of the country. As Bangkok is the capital – and where most digital workers will be concentrated as we get closer to what the government has dubbed Thailand 4.0 – let’s focus on the City of Angels.
While the Department of Land Transportation and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, or BMA, are currently in the process of revamping the bus system in Thailand to optimize the routes, that won’t change the fact that those buses still need to contend with traffic. Khao Sod
