Motor Cycles in Hua Hin

[Borsch]

Where to put.. Ask Expats, Lifestyles, etc.. or here?
Having lived for some time in trafic orderly Singapore, I am quite amazed by the number of motor cycles in Hua Hin.. mostly which appear to be driven on the wrong side of the road.

And I get very apprehensive when I see 4-5 on a bike with 1 or 2 toddlers squeezed in. Are many accidents where kids are badly injured or killed? Do not see any reports (are they hidden?).

[VincentD]

Many Thai families do not have the resources to buy a car, so the motorcycle becomes the main mode of transport. This is especially so the further from Bangkok you get, as public transport outside the capital is almost non-existent. Many innovative carrying devices have been designed with this in mind, so you will see it's not just meant for passengers.

The guy delivering gas cannisters will have a rack that can mount at least two full-sized ones. Fabric shops also have motorcycles that can take up to ten bales at one go. Kiddie seats that fold down are common. Newspaper vendors manage three stacks at up to a meter in height each. No kidding.
Get used to seeing them on the 'wrong' side of the road and avoid them.

While Singapore is 'orderly', you can't just park anywhere, you pay for parking 24 hours a day (unless you have landed property) and the taxes to own a car are sometimes more than the cost of the vehicle itself. You have a device mounted on your windscreen that deducts an amount from a cash card every time you pass a gantry (Pay-as-you-drive - seperate from road taxes) Public transport there is so efficient that you don't really need a car most times, anyway.

[STEVE G]

To be honest, the motor scooter is the main form of transport in the whole of SE Asia outside of Singapore.
The other day I saw seven adults on a Honda Wave with a sidecar carrier which isn't bad for a 125 engine!

[Dr Mike]

I was asked to give a talk in Australia on the health dangers of SE Asia--they suggested Mosquitoes and Malaria. I told them, thats all very well but you have the wrong M & M a MUCH bigger danger are Maniacs and Motorbikes.

[Bamboo Grove]

Dr Mike wrote:

I was asked to give a talk in Australia on the health dangers of SE Asia--they suggested Mosquitoes and Malaria. I told them, thats all very well but you have the wrong M & M a MUCH bigger danger are Maniacs and Motorbikes.

That's an excellent idea, Dr Mike.

[Homer]

And I get very apprehensive when I see 4-5 on a bike with 1 or 2 toddlers squeezed in. Are many accidents where kids are badly injured or killed? Do not see any reports (are they hidden?).

Not hidden if you Google the following terms: thailand children motorcycle accidents

I found:

Quoted in 2005 from Chaing Mai Mail (no link to quoted source)
"Road and transport accidents were the second major cause of deaths among children after drowning, with 65% of the road accident deaths involved children as motorcycle passengers."
http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16320


The WHO says transport accidents are the second leading cause of death among Thai children (drowning is the first).
http://preview.tinyurl.com/23v7rgb


An NGO says "Annually, traffic accidents kill 4,200 children in Vietnam alone". http://www.asiainjury.org/main/helmets-for-kids.html


A paper published in a scholarly journal stated "In 1996, a total of 4153 Thai children died of injuries, of which two-thirds were due to drowning or transport crashes."
http://preview.tinyurl.com/27jlp6h


Thai Government report "Current Accident Situation and Motorcycle Safety Measure in Thailand".
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ard3rf

[johnnyk]

I'm sure the gory details can be found in the daily Thai newspapers.
There is no "wrong" side of the road in Thailand, just the side the driver is on!
Best not to come here wearing glasses from another country, TiT.

[BaaBaa.]

I see 4-5 on a bike with 1 or 2 toddlers squeezed in.

Relax, they were obviously going to pick the dog up from the vet.

[johnnyk]

Like this...

[poosmate]

^The above would be soon stopped in Hua Hin - There is no numberplate

[crazy88]

VD wrote

"public transport outside the capital is almost non-existent."

Bucket of ballcocks IMHO. Please justify with examples.

Crazy 88

[pitsch]

Where I live the next busstation is more than 20km away and there live several thousand Thais in this region.

[STEVE G]

From our place in Issan the nearest bus station is about 15kms away as well.
There is plenty of informal transport of the type where someone will take a truck load of people to town, if enough want to go but there isn't any scheduled service.
In those sort of areas where people get away with running old unregistered motorbikes, nearly every family has access to at least one anyway but it's a problem for elderly people who can't ride them.

[johnnyk]

^The above would be soon stopped in Hua Hin - There is no numberplate

and the driver has no helmet!

[VincentD]

VD wrote

"public transport outside the capital is almost non-existent."

Bucket of ballcocks IMHO. Please justify with examples.

Crazy 88

C88,
When I wrote that, what I had in mind was *not* the city-to-city transport, i.e. BKK to HH, etc. That interprovincial public transport is efficient. But only up to the bus station. Once you get there, you're at the mercy of your local tuktuk or motosai taxi, and usually only during normal operating hours of the bus station.
You'd be lucky to find even the normal songtaew service running after 8pm (perhaps Pattaya being the sole exception).
If your destination is off the beaten track and you don't have your own wheels or someone to fetch you off hours you're not going anywhere. Unless it's walking distance.