Police commander suggests people in Bangkok work at home once a week to reduce vehicle emissions

7 Comments

1. 

   J West

   Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 1:06 pm

   Excellent proposal, except 99% of Bangkokians are not elite technology workers empowered to work from home.

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2. 

   Preesy Chepuce

   Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 2:17 pm

   The question is what is most traffic comprised of? Taxis? Mopeds? Lorries? Buses? Private Cars? How much air pollution is from factories? What effect does all the aircon and heatsink and lack of wind have on the situation? Perhaps there needs to be more radical ideas about greening the city?

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3. 

   Issan John

   Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 2:21 pm

   Maybe they could “crack down” on factory emissions. I live up in the hills, generally above the smog, but when it’s sugar cane season (just starting) the local sugar cane factory belches out enough smoke so that you can barely see the town 10 kms away.

   … and locally they haven’t started burning the sugar cane fields yet, and only started cutting cane last week, so I’ve got some doubts about how much the burning is to blame in Bangkok, although it has a noticeable effect locally….

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4. 

   B.T.

   Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 2:53 pm

   Why not The police commander move his arse and enforce the law. In this case go after farmers and factories. Or conflict of interest again?

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5. 

   Toby Andrews

   Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 4:13 pm

   They are still not treating this continuing problem seriously enough.
   If they want tourists, this foul sir will deter the tourists . . .

   Reply
6. 

   Manu

   Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 5:54 pm

   “last month” was also the end of the rain season so less rain would explain the rise of air pollution since rain washes away polluants (in Europe, pollution peaks in all cities are always in the summer). The last few months, pollution in BBK was actually not so bad.

   This policeman’s idea is not sutpid at all, every little helps, I am pretty sure that it could be more than 1% as J West suggests above. But on its own, it is obviously pointless. Greener public transports (replacing the old stinky buses), more skytrain lines. Decisions and investements are in the hands of politicians…

   And why not, closing traffic one or two sundays a month on some busy roads on big chunks of Downtown Bangkok? I bet during the curfew months, so therefore empty streets, did help to reduce pollution a lot.

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7. 

   Kevin

   Friday, December 18, 2020 at 1:23 pm

   Yes Thailand has an agricultural burning problem and the brick factories have literally driven my wife and I from our home. But I don’t understand why the Thai government doesn’t talk about being stuck right in the middle of the top 3 air polluters on the planet. The amount of cross-border air pollution from China, India, and Indonesia is staggering and something that is completely unmanageable. When the air blows in from the north-east like it has been all of that industrial pollution and PM 2.5 from China enters Thailand without a passport or visa. It makes us just as sick as our own pollution does.

   Reply