Udon Traffic

[Barney]

You won’t need all these shortcuts if you ride a scooter.
Need to take more cars off the city roads.


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[Niggly]

^ I can’t carry the armfuls of tat from Mr DIY on my bike. I’ve tried, but my wobbling fat ar$e keeps over balancing me.

[mak]

Got the full measure this morning: Phosri, Nittayo, Nong Bua, Nong Sai, east Ring Road and then Nittayo back into town. What a mess.

[Niggly]

Just cut along Si Phinit to get to UD Town from Thahan Road. My grand plan of joining Nittayo Road with a left at the level crossing shambles was thwarted by the car in front of me trying to turn right. He blocked everyone coming down the road behind him because he couldn’t even edge his nose out into the traffic

[Niggly]

Coming home from supper we went down Nittayo Road southbound. I duly merged across into the middle lane at the contra flow & stopped at the red light. At least a dozen motorcy's went through the bollards behind me to come to the front of the queue which would have been okay if they'd pulled in front as usual. Instead they queued in the contra flow forcing on coming vehicles to merge back across on the Soi Nong Bua crossroads.
Luckily there wasn't much traffic so they were able to do this, but still.
I think I'd have just driven straight up to them & continued down the lane.

[tamada]

^ During off-peak hours, I have seen these guys in quasi-police garb waving batons half-heartedly at the traffic that mostly seems to have worked out Nittayo's F1 chicane. Maybe these guys clock in 8 a.m. and out at 4 p.m.?

WRT the other F1 chicane on the ring road after Tool Pro and PTT, this has had the same effect on peak traffic as it does at the Monaco GP. It slows traffic at the fastest part of the track, spreads them out and reduces the chance of a shunt. The peak time queue southbound at the Global lights is less than half what it used to be. Maybe the shouldn't bother replacing the bridge and leave it as-is.

[Khun Paul]

Most of us have been here long enough to be able to circumnavigate most of the problem areas and know quick ways around them. The problem here is that only one road from Big C down to the Railway crossing , supplies the main route in from my side of town, when not used in the school run the Phon Phisai road also supplants ingress into the town centre but that is bedevilled now , by the Ring Road works, so unless you can get onto the San Phrao road and just cross straight over , it is a problem BUT NOT all hours of the day to be honest between 1000 to 1400 , traffic is not that bad .
Directions using road names are helpful, but who the hell has time to learn Thai to read the majority of the street name signs and then plan accordingly. I do not that is for sure .
I timed myself the other day leaving my house, turned left towards the airport and then then eventually right for the Airport and dropped into that side of town. Only 4 minutes longer than normal ( keeping to all speed limits ) and never stuck in traffic apart from the lights on that stretch of the Ring road.. As the centre of town is no longer normal probably saved considerably longer .

[Niggly]

^ I was there about 8pm last night & no sign of any police/security/uniform fetish chaps waving their arms about & blowing whistles. It was basically a free for all

[Niggly]

This might be old news to everyone else but it was new to me.

Went to see the Dino Fair thing at Central earlier & we normally park downstairs & go in via Robinsons (Central). As the fair was at the front, I drove up the ramp to the left of the main entrance fully expecting everywhere to be full until the top levels as usual but when we reached level 2.5. I then discovered you could drive through a little manned barrier where they snap the car & time then give you a slip to park for 2 hours only & charge 50 baht an hour thereafter. I guess most people visiting Central don't trust themselves with the length of time as it was mostly empty.

I'm making this post on the traffic related thread as you've usually got to park somewhere haven't you

[Niggly]

Most of us have been here long enough to be able to circumnavigate most of the problem areas and know quick ways around them. The problem here is that only one road from Big C down to the Railway crossing , supplies the main route in from my side of town, when not used in the school run the Phon Phisai road also supplants ingress into the town centre but that is bedevilled now , by the Ring Road works, so unless you can get onto the San Phrao road and just cross straight over , it is a problem BUT NOT all hours of the day to be honest between 1000 to 1400 , traffic is not that bad .
Directions using road names are helpful, but who the hell has time to learn Thai to read the majority of the street name signs and then plan accordingly. I do not that is for sure .
I timed myself the other day leaving my house, turned left towards the airport and then then eventually right for the Airport and dropped into that side of town. Only 4 minutes longer than normal ( keeping to all speed limits ) and never stuck in traffic apart from the lights on that stretch of the Ring road.. As the centre of town is no longer normal probably saved considerably longer .

Thank for this contribution, its a great help

[tamada]

Yesterday morning, a sink hole opened up under a bus turning from the ring road onto the Samprao road at the Global lights.

Single-lane only headed to Samprao at the junction causing rush hour bottlenecks.

Picture below was taken 5 p.m. yesterday. Looks like a bigger hole today as they need to find the extents of firm ground for repairs.

Mind the gap!

[Khun Paul]

Not really surprised they have been faffing about with that junction for years, when they decided to move Ratchabat up towards Sam Phrao many thought they would then enlarge the junction and the road correctly before opening up the campus. But they just made it wider with almost no unpinning .

[tamada]

Not really surprised they have been faffing about with that junction for years, when they decided to move Ratchabat up towards Sam Phrao many thought they would then enlarge the junction and the road correctly before opening up the campus. But they just made it wider with almost no unpinning .

Since south-bound rush hour traffic insists in using the left-turn filter lane to go straight, traffic legitimately headed for Sam Phrao have had to use the dirt shoulder that has only had a relatively thin shell of bitumen laid over it compared to the concreted main lanes.

I squeezed past mid-afternoon today and the hole is now L-shaped and they have installed (or replaced) a new ~12 inch concrete drain pipe (or water main) that does a 90-degree from north to east in the middle of the enlarged hole. Looks like maybe the original pipe may have broken (it wasn't there yesterday) which turned the subsurface into soup, leaving a bus-sized void under the concrete pavement.

[Khun Paul]

Yep as I said faffing about , a bit here bit there and NOW done correctly . Did they expect a DRAIN installed for domestic use to be able to deal with 15 ton lorries, Noooooooooooo!

[FrazeeDK]

Eastbound on Rte 22 (Sakon highway) past the Shell station. The One way (eastbound only when obeying the law) U-Turn has been blocked off with 55 gallon drums in the turning lane and concrete barriers in the median break. Guess we'll see no more idiots travelling westbound with the asses sticking out into traffic as they make an illegal U-Turn.
[url]https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.35997 ... ?hl=en[url]

[Khun Paul]

Eastbound on Rte 22 (Sakon highway) past the Shell station. The One way (eastbound only when obeying the law) U-Turn has been blocked off with 55 gallon drums in the turning lane and concrete barriers in the median break. Guess we'll see no more idiots travelling westbound with the asses sticking out into traffic as they make an illegal U-Turn.
[url]https://www.google.co.th/maps/@17.35997 ... ?hl=en[url]

That is exactly WHY it has been blocked off, not only cars but ten wheelers with trailers were also doing the illegal U turn. Just goes to show that drivers cannot read or are just plain stupid.
Whjy when they widened the road, did they not put a two way U turn, Fails me,. but as usual a knee jerk reaction when thought and planning would have avoided what I believe was a disaster waiting to happen ( maybe it did ) I am not privy to that info.

[FrazeeDK]

note that all those who were making illegal U-Turns were being videoed from the overhead camera about 70 meters down the road from that U-Turn. All of them should have been getting those 500 baht fines in the mail... Actually the illegal U-Turns occurred so often I was flabbergasted that the BiB didn't set up a fine collecting station about 150 meters east of the U-Turn. They'd have made bucket loads of money in a day..

[Khun Paul]

note that all those who were making illegal U-Turns were being videoed from the overhead camera about 70 meters down the road from that U-Turn. All of them should have been getting those 500 baht fines in the mail... Actually the illegal U-Turns occurred so often I was flabbergasted that the BiB didn't set up a fine collecting station about 150 meters east of the U-Turn. They'd have made bucket loads of money in a day..

You are right,, however you are assuming the obvious but I add a rider to those observations,
1 Does the camera actually work?
2 Does anyone look at the film if it is ?
3 Unless High Definition ( which I do not think it is ) another useless bit of kit I expect.

19 years never seen anyone maintain or even check the camera . However on a further note the road layout at that one-way U turn is bad as well, the road curves slightly coming from the Nonghan, direction thereby making viewing the oncoming traffic at times difficult , maybe it was this rather than accidents that eventually made someone realise that was poorly designed and dangerous.
Like other problems we see, poor planning and thought made a situation worse and possibly cost people their lives or their long-term health.

[stereolab]

I drove through these areas twice yesterday, frankly I got through faster than I normally have done, cars were behaving themselves, no idiotic manoeuvres. No sign of any illegal u-turners. Still it is an area to avoid, where possible.

[FrazeeDK]

ah Khun Paul, you are right about that camera being inoperative. If you download the app "Thailand Highway Traffic" from the Google Play Store it gives access to a number of Highway Traffic video feeds throughout the country. The camera in question is one of them, but not operating. There is one near the Highway Patrol Station on Rte 2 south of Udon and one north of Udon that were operating a few minutes ago. The video comes up rather small and I don't see a way to go full screen so can't tell if it is clear enough to distinguish license plates.