Bangkok drivers need to learn to leave their cars at home

Pichaya Changsorn, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

The toxic emissions of cars, trucks and other vehicles are a major cause of air pollution. Yet seldom is serious thought given to ideas that might curtail our use of them. Indeed, the options for people who live and work in the Bangkok area are limited. Public transport systems are so inadequate that most residents prefer to go to and from work by private vehicles.

But try we must to lessen our reliance on vehicles, which besides damaging our air are also increasingly costly in a world of high oil prices. In that respect, promoting a car-free day at least once a week would be a practical and effective way to assist Thailand reduce its trade deficit, much of which has been incurred from skyrocketing fuel prices. There's an urgent need for better ways of getting around than cars, especially with the domestic petrol price approaching Bt30 a litre.

The idea of car-free days, which has been popularized by comedian Charaspong "Sumo Tu" Surasawadee, and is certainly worth being taken seriously.

For those who have a car, driving has become addictive. Driving is generally more convenient than using public buses or taxis, even though it may not be necessary to use a car each time we leave our home. There's a great sense of freedom there when you're charting your own course and in control of a powerful vehicle.

Yet Charaspong has noted that in time we could even get to like leaving the car at home, and letting someone else do the driving, as when we use public transport.

So perhaps the government could initially set one car-free day a week, and then slowly increase the number of car-free days until eventually every day is seen as a good one to leave the car at home.

Even one car-free day a week would produce positive results. Sunday is already a day with comparatively little traffic and resultant noise pollution. So I would suggest the government choose Saturday to have more impact.

The impact might seem a negative one for people who have their own cars, but it would be positive for those who don't own one but have to work on Saturday.

They would enjoy less traffic and could get to their workplaces faster. Certainly, there are many more people in the latter group than the former. The number of empty roads would double (from just Sunday to Saturday and Sunday), and Bangkok would enjoy much less emissions and noise pollution.

Obviously, this would require having a lot more public buses on Saturdays. The government would also have to organize an effective public relations campaign to get people to ditch their cars for mass-transit systems so the goal is achieved. Taxi drivers would increase their income as well as the loss-making Bangkok Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the city's public buses.

The car-free rule should be applied on all main roads within the city, with the exception of small roads and sois that have no public bus services. BMTA may even consider extending their services so residents get better coverage.

Department stores could help offer public van transport or goods delivery services if they fear more people would choose to stay home rather than go out. This would help customers shop with similar convenience.

As a gimmick to gain some popularity from this, the government could even waive bus and mass-transit fares on the car-free day. To soften the impact, the government could also trial car-pool measures, and allow the use of passenger vehicles provided they carry at least a certain number of people on Saturdays.

Reforming the country's costly logistics system could also make a big difference in terms of energy saving and national competitiveness. One may wonder why six-wheel and 10-wheel trucks dominate Thailand's highways as well as in the outer and inner city (as if the country has the same level of commercial activity as major economies like Japan or the U.S.).

Having too many trucks on the roads causes economic inefficiencies, as well as road accidents. It also wears down roads and leads to high road maintenance costs.

Market mechanisms do not work so well in this regard as most companies finds using trucks much cheaper than using trains or marine transport; just as people tend to find driving their own sedan more convenient than riding in a taxi or a bus. The government should consider setting up a fund to penalize unfavorable modes of transports by, say, levying a truck surcharge and using the fund to subsidize more environmentally sound transport modes. This would also yield more economic and non-economic returns to the public.

Investing in mass transit and improving public transport systems is also important. The government could levy a surcharge on passenger vehicles or on oil products, and use subsidizes to keep fares low for public buses and mass transit systems.

In the near future, I hope we have an IT system which can track and charge cars and trucks using public roads. Eventually, we may not need to have car-free days if an incentive system manages to discourage the use of passenger vehicles. Due to the titanic costs of the country's logistic system and the hefty oil import bills, it may be worth thinking about the setting up a national logistics agency, with the specific goal of reducing the country's logistical costs every year.