Silom
road, one of the busiest streets in Bangkok, may give chills to office workers
when the name is heard. Why? It’s disastrous. During rush hours, the traffic jam
is egregious. Cars stay in place without moving for hours. Horns honk
furiously at each other. Statuses posted on Twitter and Facebook how bad the
traffic is. What did you expect? It’s Bangkok! For some reason the notorious demagogues
handed first car policy in which owners that never purchased a car will have
lower prices than the ones that did. As a result, the number of cars increased
dramatically. Because of that, people began to question the government that why
don’t they improve public transportation instead of creating highways or giving
out new policies that will just cause problems? Improving roads and highways
will just result in a higher number of cars. And once again, it will cause
problems.
One of
the very first problems that will result after the improvements in
highways/roads is pollution. With many cars travelling on highways and roads,
carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are released from them into the atmosphere. These
gasses create the greenhouse effect. And with that, the city will become much hotter
and hotter. When the city becomes much
hotter, people rely more on air conditioners. The air conditioners also use
more electricity. Electricity requires more energy. Therefore, coals are being
burned, causing pollutions again. It’s like a cycle. And also, the ashes from
the burnt coals float all around. The area around where the coal is being
processed into electricity is not immaculate. Again, causing pollution.
So this is another reason why we should not improve highway or roads.
The
second reason why government should improve public transportation is because
there would be fewer accidents. Why? Most accidents that happen in Bangkok are
mostly motorcycles and car crashes. It is often caused when people are trying
to outpace the vehicle in front, and they can’t break their vehicle in time.
Why do they have to outpace the vehicle in front? Well because there’s so many
cars and humans have limited patience. So we want to go faster. That’s why it
causes vehicle crashes. But on the other hand, using public transportation like
BTS and MRT will reduce road accidents. There won’t be anything to outpace.
There won’t be anything to crash into (well, of course except for train crash).
With less accidents, less people get hurt. And that’s a good thing for Thai
residents.
Lastly,
convenience and connections. When Thailand’s subway is being compared to other
Asian countries, it’s really pitiful. Sometimes I felt taunted when I go
to Hong Kong and feel the fantastic subway connections. Every subway station can
walk to a place. The underground is totally connected with subways. The
convenience make it possible for every Hong Kong resident to go around without
paying much. It also improves quality life too. People get to walk every day ,
so therefore people tend to have better health too, not sallow looking.
On the other hand, sitting in a car would gain you nothing except for the
building up of fats.
In
conclusion, improved public transportation is a better idea than improving
highways and roads. Developed countries tend to develop a more organized and
variety of public transportation. There are more pros than cons for public
transportation as on the previous paragraphs. Improved public transportations
would most likely be the answer to solve the boring traffics in Bangkok. So,
improved highways and roads are no better than a well-improved public
transportation.
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