In a conversation with Mr. Sandy Yu from the BTS, he mentioned that Thais are very gentle and this is ironically causing a capacity constraint. He elaborated that for Thais, it is very rude to touch or being too close with other people in a train. Usually, in Asia, there is on average a maximum capacity of 10 people per square-meter of space. In the BTS system however, the average is 6 people. Thus, the train is usually run below its design passenger-space capacity. On another issue, when there are two arrows for queuing to get into an arriving train, the Thais have a tendency to only use one line. For them, going to the second line is like cutting the queue. In certain stations, the BTS hired some part-time students to manage the queuing to reduce the train stopping time.
2. Honking on the Road
When you happen to drive in Hanoi, don’t feel intimidated when every single vehicle passing you or behind you keep on honking. In Hanoi, the most popular mode of transportation is with motorcycle. This accounts for more than 60% of daily commuters. I suspect because of so many of these bikes on the street, horn has been used as universal signaling and warning systems. Upon arrival at Hanoi Airport, I took a taxi to my hotel. I was a little perplexed because the driver kept on honking to get into the main road, when the cars at the front were too slow, when there were motorcycles at the front or besides the taxi – it’s practically all the time. As the room I stayed was on the 4th floor facing a busy junction, you can imagine how hard it was for me to catch a sleep on my first night. Crossing the street is a challenge too. There is practically no respect to the traffic lights. You need to be pretty agile and fast and sometimes direct the motorcycle traffic yourself to let you cross a street.
3. Double Parking
Among all, this is the most unique thing I discovered in this trip. I will use a series of photos to explain it. It is about double parking, apparently common in all crowded parking areas in Bangkok. In the photo below, we can see how crowded a park-and-ride area at the BRT Mo Chit station.
Imagine that the circled car in the photo below is yours. You went to work early in the morning and then decided to go home at 3pm. How do you get your car out once you arrived at the station?
Look carefully at the zoom-in of the double-parked car’s gear box below. It’s in Neutral. What you have to do is you need to push the double-parked car, or sometimes several cars to get your car out, and then push back the double-parked cars. Look at these cars again. They ain’t 1984 Le Baron!
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