[sustran] Re: Bangkok Transit System ('Skytrain')

[Jain Alok]

Craig,

The point you note is indeed a valid one but you have to consider the
peculiar characteristics of Bangkok "CBD" where the landuse is not
categorically defined. First of all, tell me what is considered as CBD of
Bangkok - Silom area or Sukhumvit area? I did some work few years ago as a
part of my masters thesis and used Silom as CBD (a number of people differed
in opinion). Both Silom and Sukhumvit has a high level of residential
landuse unlike Hong Kong and Singapore (I guess Tokyo too). This is one of
the reasons why parking ratios are higher in Bangkok CBD. High car ownership
does not necessarily mean higher level of car travel. Car ownership is a
reflection of affluence, nothing else but car travel is certainly an issue
which affecting sustainability of transport systems.

Again, I somehow do not agree that providing car parking in private
developments (most of the parking in question, I think) represent subsidy
from poor to the rich because if it were not car parking it would have been
something else (of course not for the welfare of the poor). The investment
in roads can be viewed like this. Providing high degree of car parking can
just be a waste of useful resources and uneconomic activity.

Having said all this (which is for the sake of arguments), I personally
think a lot needs to be done to manage the travel demand in Bangkok. This
transit system is just the beginning.

Alok Jain
Hong Kong
-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Townsend [mailto:townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au]
Sent: November 24, 1999 2:20 AM
To: sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org
Subject: [sustran] Re: Bangkok Transit System ('Skytrain')


>I think that the explanation may be that the new mass transit system in
>Bangkok currently does not extend beyond the inner area of the city which
>is densely built up.  There is also a danger that by putting park n' ride
>in such dense, mixed land-use locations could possible even reduce
>ridership by reducing the amount of human activity in the vicinity of
>stations. I imagine that Park and ride in Hong Kong would only be in the
>outer New Town areas (please correct me if I am wrong).
>

I can't comment on the Hong Kong situation, but Paul is correct that
Bangkok Transit System's inner city routes (it runs down the middle of
Bangkok's busiest inner city roads) make park n' ride unfeasible.
Furthermore, I would argue that parking supply should not be increased in
any manner or form in inner city Bangkok. In 1990, parking per 1,000 CBD
workers in Bangkok was 397 spaces. By comparison, in Singapore it was 164,
in Tokyo 43, and in Hong Kong 33. Bangkok's "American levels" of parking
provision have contributed to Bangkok's high private car use and hostile
conditions of the public environment, and in many cases represent a subsidy
from the poor to the rich! Building park n' rides in Bangkok would cancel
out many of the benefits that will be derived from its first mass transit
system. 

Craig
________________________________________________
Craig Townsend
Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy
Murdoch University
South Street, Murdoch
Perth, Western Australia 6150

tel: (61 8) 9360 6293
fax: (61 8) 9360 6421
email: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au