Governor to introduce intelligent transportation system to resolve Bangkok’s endemic gridlock

Newly elected Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt intends to introduce an innovative “intelligent transportation system” to fix the city’s endemic traffic congestion.

The 56 year old governor says he is going to introduce a highly sophisticated technology program to put an end to Bangkok’s perpetual transport problems and resolve the outcome within a year.

Chadchart is in the process of putting together a joint working group and wants to have the program in place and up and running by next summer.

The Bangkok governor revealed the working group will consist of officials from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Ministry of Transport, and the Traffic Police Division. He added that over 30 organisations will be consulted by the group, including the Mass Rapid Transit Authority, Bangkok Mass Transit Authority and the Expressway Authority of Thailand, and says their input is welcome

Speaking after a meeting with the TPD Chadchart insisted traffic congestion is an urgent issue.

“A joint traffic command centre already exists at the TPD’s headquarters but it cannot respond well enough to handle the city’s traffic problems.

“BMA officials will be transferred to work at the centre to coordinate efforts in the event of floods, trees downed by storms and similar incidents, which are the responsibility of the BMA. In the case of a broken BMTA bus blocking traffic, the BMA will promptly coordinate its removal from traffic lanes.

“Executives of the BMA and TPD will now meet once a month to review their efforts to improve Bangkok’s traffic woes and discuss future measures.

“As information technology has become a part of people’s daily life, only about 100 of more than 50,000 security cameras operated by the BMA are being used for traffic management purposes.”

Chadchart says that one of the key factors hindering the improvement of Bangkok’s traffic management is that the traffic flow at major intersections is still manually controlled by traffic police who are not updated on traffic conditions in connected areas.

“The intelligent traffic management system will help plug this gap and improve the efficiency of the traffic command centre as a whole.”

SOURCE Bangkok Post