#Philippines - Bangalore and Manila world's worst cities for traffic

As everyone knows, driving would be much more fun if there weren't so many cars on the road. Urban areas are bad for traffic but have you ever wondered where the worst ones are?

The 2019 edition of TomTom's Traffic Index, which ranks the world's most congested cities, has all of the answers. Asia has most of the biggest scores.

At the top of the list, Bangalore, India has the most distressing conditions for motorists, who spend up to 71 percent more time in their cars than they might on a normal journey. Manila in the Philippines is just as bad.

The Colombian capital Bogota, which had the dubious privilege of finishing first in the 2018 table, comes in third in the latest ranking. It should be noted that India has four of the 10 most congested cities in the world. TomTom also reports that the average level of congestion around the globe in 2019 was 29 percent.

The top 10 most traffic-choked cities in the world:

1. Bangalore (India), 71%
2. Manila (Philippines), 71%
3. Bogota (Colombia), 68%
4. Bombay (India), 65%
5. Pune (India), 59%
6. Moscow (Russia), 59%
7. Lima (Peru), 57%
8. New Delhi (India), 56%
9. Istanbul (Turkey), 55%
10. Jakarta (Indonesia), 53%

In the US, the worst city was Los Angeles, with 42 percent, followed by New York at 37 percent.

The TomTom Traffic Index covered 416 cities in 57 countries. The percentages correspond to the level of congestion, i.e., the additional travel time measured for each driver on the entire network, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Source - TheJakartaPost

And they're off! Hundreds of thousands leave #Bangkok for New Year break

Hundreds of thousands of Bangkok residents have already started heading out of the capital, headed to various Thai provinces to welcome in 2020 in the company of friends and family. The long weekends starts from tonight with many Thais being granted a public holiday on Monday, in addition to the Tuesday and Wednesday public holidays. It seems many also took today off to make it a mega long weekend.

Thai PBS World reports that the police are monitoring the highways out of the city, to make sure traffic continues to move smoothly, with CCTV units along all major routes having been checked over to ensure they’re working properly, and road works suspended until after the holiday period.

It’s understood that the Ratchaprasong intersection, in the Pathum Wan district of Bangkok, will be closed to traffic from 2pm on December 31, in order to allow police to carry out security checks ahead of the New Year countdown being held in the busy shopping area later that night.

A number of extra buses are being laid on until December 28, taking the total of state-run buses from 5,419 a day to over 8,200 in an effort to cope with what is expected to be around 160,000 travellers a day over the year-end period.

Transport officials recommend passengers arrive at bus terminals at least an hour before departure, adding that tickets should only be purchased from official ticket booths, to avoid being scammed by con artists selling fraudulent tickets. Alternatively, passengers can book in advance by going to www.tansport.co.th or calling 1490.

Source - The Thaiger

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Bangkok flooding is chronic problem

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BMA officials admit they cannot cope with heavy rains as experts blame infrastructure and lack of preparedness.

BANGKOK WILL continue to experience flooding after heavy rains unless water-drainage problems including roads and canals are solved, water-management experts have said.

Heavy rain was to blame for yesterday’s floods in 25 areas around Bangkok after up to 170 millimetres of rain fell on the capital on Wednesday night, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) stated. 

Bangkok faced the prospect of more flooding as the Meteorological Department predicted more heavy rains last night and this morning.

 The heavy rains turned many streets of the city into canals and seriously worsened rush-hour traffic, causing many commuters to arrive late at work or school. One of the worst flooded areas was the Lat Phrao intersection at Ratchadaphisek Road, where the floodwaters reached about 30 centimetres and seriously disrupted traffic.

“Moreover, we could not drain the floodwater out of the street properly, because the canals were already full of water from the rains, even though we had decreased the water levels in the canals in advance.”

Sitang Pilailar, a lecturer at the Water Resources Engineering Department at Kasetsart University, said the reasons the BMA cited were chronic problems for the city.

“Bangkok will still flood every time after heavy rain, if the water cannot drain from the roads to the drainage pipes and to the canals properly,” Sitang said.

She said the first problem was that the drainage system mixed with the sewer system, so pipes were already full of wastewater. Moreover, during the floods in 2011, sand was dumped into the drainage system that had not been cleared out completely, lessening the capacity of the city’s drainage pipes by half.

Another problem was lack of preparation before the rain, Sitang said, adding the BMA usually received weather predictions from the Meteorological Department so water levels in the canals could be lowered in advance, but this time the BMA had not performed well.

“In addition to these problems, we still have the issue that many old communities suffer from chronic flooding because their location is lower than street level, so the water from the road drains into their communities instead of into the drainage pipes. The garbage in the drainage system is also significant, as many people still throw litter into drainage pipes and canals,” Sitang said.

“This is a task for all of us to tackle. The BMA has to be better prepared for flooding and maintain the drainage system to make sure that it can work properly, while the people also have to avoid clogging the drainage system with garbage if we want to sustainably solve the flooding problem in Bangkok.”

Source - TheNation

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