Dear all,

I was just asked a question that I think is worth asking to more people before answering it. I have been in the (rather difficult) process of helping Bangkok officials try to organize a car-free day in their city. They have posed may questions, and most of them are basically “textbook”, so there’s no problem. But after a while of discussing they asked me if motorcycles should or should not be allowed to move during a car free day. My inmediate answer would be no, since a motorcycle is also dangerous (more than a car, I would say), polluting (mostly if it’s two-stroke, but polluting nonetheless) and motorised! However, and to a great extent in Asia, a lot of low income people use motorcycles as their main mode of transport, sometimes even taking their wife and kinds (2 or three of them!) in the same vehicle (obviously because they don’t have the means to pay for a very low transport fare).

Also, though officials didn’t ask about it, I was thinking if it would also be necessary to prohibit circulation of tuk tuks (three-wheeled motorised taxis), since they would also be a highly informal service that would pose the same threats of motorcyles (same engine, similar lack of safety, etc).  As I said before, an inmediate reaction to these questions would be a strict “no”, but since current transport conditions and affordability of a transport fare is an issue, I don’t think the answer could come out so lightly.

Another option would be to think that simply Bangkok is not ready for a car-free day, which I sometimes also feel is the answer… but then again it would be backing up too soon. I have also thought that maybe Bangkok could start simply by developing car-free Sundays or car-free areas (if not at the same time), since the complete closing of roads to all cars seems to give heart attacks to all the people whom I have talked to (and most of them work in the “nonmotorised” section of the traffic and transportation division). Also, giving free rides in public buses is almost completely out of the question, unless we looked for funding from an international organisation… difficult to get before September 22^nd.

So, what would you do? I greatly appreciate your comments and/or suggestions, since I thikn these issues should be discussed with all you experts before I give my opinion to the Bangkok administrative staff.

Best regards,

Carlos F. Pardo

Project Coordinator

GTZ Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP)

Room 0942, Transport Division, UN-ESCAP

ESCAP UN Building

Rajadamnern Nok Rd.

Bangkok 10200, Thailand

Tel: +66 (0) 2 - 288 2576

Fax: +66 (0) 2 - 280 6042

Mobile: +66 (0) 1 - 772 4727

e-mail: carlos.pardo@...

Website: www.sutp.org

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