Crossing Cambodia

Chasing cars, shortly after Khmer New Year

2011-04-18T10:27:00.004+07:00

Dare I mention, that this be my last entry? Time to move on. Nearly five years (just a month short) and over 400 entries no less, so if my readers have failed to pick up the essentials of travel and traffic in Cambodia and Phnom Penh in particular ... well, more postings won't help!

To sum up, getting about here is anarchic, lawless and down right reckless. Then again, I haven't had an accident in the nearly 6 years I've been here, so driving around with caution helps. But I also know of many others less fortunate....

Oh well, the news

I's have liked to start with a posting on tripadvisor concerning poor services rendered by a local bus company, but tripadvisor have deleted the thread. Huh.

It is the time of the year for accidents to be more commonplace. More movement, more alcohol. But even before the festivities started accidents happened. Phnom Penh Post (6 March 2011) reports on a horrific accident near Sihanoukville where a container truck hits a minivan (with 25 persons, hows that possible?). Nineteen deaths. The said accident lead to NGO's
'expressing concern'.

Travelfish have added their own entry on traffic accidents in Cambodia:
'Getting into a traffic accident anywhere is serious, but in Cambodia it's particularly so .... only to find out that there's generally no enforcement and no punishment ...'.
Their advice is Get insured, Be prepared, Have all kinds of emergency numbers at hand and wear a helmet.

More air traffic. Besides the (re-) launch of Air France flights, Korean Air will deploy bigger aircraft on Cambodia, effectively increasing capacity by 50% to Seoul (Phnom Penh Post, 9 March 2011). There are also
'feasiblility studies'
underway for finding out whether or not direct flights can be made to the UK or Turkey (Phnom Penh Post, 23 March 2011).

More news on the fight of Hun Sen vs. the trucks:
'“I’m very concerned about trucks loading containers. It seems that accidents would happen easily and the issues repeated again and again. Therefore, you must be cautious, and you who don’t work on this have to resign from your position,” Hun Sen said. The Ministry of Commerce needs to shut down some transportation companies that continue to violate the law.” Hun Sen also appealed to provincial governors to stop illegal road checkpoints and ensure that roads are repaired and maintained'.
Wish him luck with that. Also with his appeal to ensure all involved adhere to the traffic law, which has proven to be impossible. Not worth the paper it's printed on.

But, presto, a day later 25 trucks were
'seized'
(Phnom Penh Post, 18 March 2011).

A first hand experince with the new Monivong parking fee collectors from Khmer 440. Lots of questions.

Cambodian electric vehicles? Possibly, according to Phnom Penh Post (March 22, 2011). A local company in conjunction with
'local inventor Nhean Phaloek – who once reportedly claimed that the doors to one of his prototype vehicles opened telepathically'
will seek to produce at least 500 cars on an annual basis.

A nice blog entry on Lto Cambodia on road signs in Sihanoukville which actually encourage road users to go up the wrong way of a one way street!

Walking

2011-03-22T09:27:00.006+07:00

The government has designated Street 130 as the number 1 street for tourists to walk along between the nearly renovated Central Market and the Mekong Riverside. The four lane road has been made less wide with broad sidewalks and a green central divider. See the picture below.

A good example of the government trying to stimulate (and protect) the most vulnerable of traffic users, pedestrians.
Why on earth no one walks in this city is beyond CC.
But good intentions aren't enough, what happens then is that the wider sidewalk is used for parking of cars and motorcycles, not only by small businesses but also by the phone company Beeline. Thank you.

Street 130, walk if you dare. Extra space intended for public use, used by businesses and through-way clogged up by cars and moto's.

Sihanouk Boulevard: looks nice but is at odds with function. Potentially dangerous?

In spite of that effort it seems the walking street will be the lower part of Sihanouk Boulevard. The past two years has slowly seen the street evolve from small shops selling everything to modern air-co shops selling high-end goods. Naturally these poor citizens can't be expected to walk and certainly not to cross the road.
The amount of detail shown in street 130 is completely devoid on this section where they have replaced the divider of cement blocks by a meter high fence with no gaps.

In the light of last years Diamond Bridge catastrophe one could actually question why this sectioning of the road will not possibly result in another. The crowds which wander up and down the Boulevard during the Boat Racing period are tremendous, and one can foresee problems. But is it just me?

How to cross the road?

Chasing Cars, Cambodian style, February 2011

2011-02-24T12:54:00.003+07:00

Deaths on Cambodian roads only make the news if there are many. Phnom Penh Post (20 Feb.) reports 5 dead after a truck with musicians (!) collides with a tuk-tuk with gasoline.

Cambodia's traffic makes international headlines. An article in the Guardian (15 Feb.) echoes the underlying flow of this blog:
'Everything you want to know about Cambodia's city society is found in the traffic of Phnom Penh – social conformity mixed with anarchic individualism, the confidence of young Cambodian women, the indifference of the police, the motorbike as an extra limb attached to the body, the inability of old cultural ways to cope with the modern world.

If I were a Cambodian policeman, I too would just stand and watch'.

How weird can it get? A former official (who should be have been in jail at the time) manages to create an accident in Ratanakiri province. Solution? Pay a pittance for disabling lifes (PPP, 27 Jan.).

Lot's of flight information so much so that the Cambodia Mirror (21 Jan.) has a special on Cambodian Airlines (note that most do not operate anymore ....).
Other airworthy news: Cambodian Angkor Air will start breaking Bangkok Air's monopoly (though there must be considerable profits falling to Cambodia) between Siem Reap and Bangkok (PPP, 4 Feb.). CAA will actually start to fly more flights out of Siem Reap. The article in the Phnom Penh Post (30 Jan.) includes the insinuation that Bangkok Air are making huge amounts of cash on this flight. A response, points out that per km Siem Reap - Phnom Penh (serviced only be CAA) is actually more expensive, while CC believes that Phnom Penh - Saigon is even more expensive (only operator is CAA's major share holder Vietnam Airlines).
In response the Thai are emboldend to demand their share of the spills (PPP, 11 Feb).
Tonle Sap Airways takes off (PPP, 7 Feb.) as will Indochina Airline.

Despite all the war like situation with the Thai, Cambodia's PM can go out of his way to lean on a freight company for
'claiming its trucks often caused collisions on Cambodia’s roads and bridges'. (PPP, 24 Jan.).
Mystified? Soi seems the company in question:
'So Nguon Group chairman So Nguon said yesterday that the company had been upgrading its vehicles in recent months, adding “I don’t know who instigated Samdech [Hun Sen] to be angry with us like this.” The firm, thought to be the biggest trucking firm in the Kingdom, had bought 60 new trucks to be used for frieght transportation in recent months, he claimed, and said it had sold most of its older vehicles'.

Tourists though take aim at busses. Tripadvisor's forum includes a warning concerning Paramount:
'We had a lot of material damage and medical costs but even after dozens of mails (and visits to their office) they don't respond. Even their insurance company, (Caminco Insurance) stopped responding. Almost 6 months later they are still not taking their responsibility!'

Take a boat instead. PPP (7 Feb.) has an article on Compagnie Fluviale du Mekong company. It's not cheap:
'a typical 10-day cruise can cost about US$4,000 for a double cabin'.

Chasing Cars, January 20 2011

2011-01-21T07:30:00.006+07:00

Happy New Year. Just a couple more entries to go and I'll be drawing the curtains on this blog.

Flights are set to take off between Cambodia and Burma, but not from Phnom Penh, according to an article in this weeks Phnom Penh Post. There's a huge market, that's for sure:
'Cambodia received 2,614 visitors in 2010 who claimed Myanmar as their country of residence, according to Ministry of Tourism statistics'.
Seeing how much effort is needed to get flights to countries even closeby it's a bit strange that
'Officials also requested that Russia and Japan begin regular direct flights to the Kingdom during the ongoing ASEAN Tourism Forum in Phnom Penh.“We are hopeful that if we have direct flights with Russia and Japan, tourists will increasingly come to our country,” said Thong Khon'.
More air. Two new airlines approved in Cambodia (PPP, 28 Dec. 2010). But only for domestic destinations, which means between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. That's what the market wants?

Victims of a plane crash (PPP, Jan 16 2011) are waiting for insurance pay-out for 3,5 years now, how much longer? Avoid using Cambodian airline(s)? Btw, it was a domestic flight ....

The new Siem Reap airport will be constructed whatever anybody else thinks (PPP, 7 December 2010).
'A government official has claimed work on a new US$1 billion Siem Reap airport is set to begin next year, after the project was approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen'.
Green light by the government.

Ung Meng Hong and Kasem Choocharukul have tried to revive the idea of a Phnom Penh bus system (Phnom Penh Post, 18-01-11). Apparently 72% of the respondents might just switch if the prices would be less than nothing. The report also noted that it would be required to see if there is economic viability...
One problem is that a bus system will help solve traffic conditions, but if traffic conditions require public transport then it is often too late to introduce bus service, nobody is gonna pay for sitting in a bus in a traffic jam.

Another bus station in the planning. Currently there is none and buses just drop you off wherever they feel like. A senator thinks that a bus station is just what the doctor ordered. The bus station will be 20 km from Phnom Penh. The Phnom Penh Post (13 Dec. 2010) adds:
'Ly Yong Phat [senator] has been involved in contentious land disputes in Oddar Meanchey and Kampong Speu provinces with villagers who claim to have been displaced by his development projects'.
Bus companies are already well versed with the consequences.
'Sok Chan Mony, general manager of the Rith Mony bus company, said the terminal would ease congestion in the city, though he also said that both passengers and transporters would see rising costs if all companies are forced to relocate'.
The money going where?

The roadsafetyawareness blog gives us another viral video. In it ,two ladies are asked to pull over, but go ballistic towards the police for the notion that they might just have done something wrong.

Road rage even in Sihanoukville, with trucks (PPP, Jan 10, 2011).
'Prum Davuth, 28, and Plong Sokhen, 26, were arrested after they were accused of threatening to run over a number of traffic officers with their truck in Sihanoukville town’s commune 3, said Prum Pov, chief of the provincial traffic police. “We released both of them after they made apologies for their mistake,” he said'.
End of story.

The curious world of Cambodia. Sihanoukville, the world's most expensive place for taking a tuk-tuk, is seeing a response. Hotels are now providing transportation to their guests, so they don't fall prey to the tuk-tukers. Makes sure they get to their hotel, and to the beach. But that's not fair cry the tuk-tukkers. And protest. Expat Advisory Service has no less than 42 posts on the issue. In general, the best advice is to stay away of the place altogether. It's a dump. Beach, just head to one of the islands. And why else come to Sihanoukville?

Over the holidays just another accident to add to the list. Five dead were reported, high official and his family who were overtaking on a blind corner ... Anyway over the holidays the was a controversy in Thailand when a young lady managed to rear end a van which then lost I think 8 passengers who tumbled over the edge of the 30m high road. She was 16. And after the accident needed to text. In Phnom Penh, that's not controversial at all:
'Koeun Sotharaneth, the 16-year-old son of a general in the National Police, has been charged with manslaughter after he killed three people in a car accident in Kandal province on Friday night'.
Since (21 Dec. 2010, PPP) have not heard anything on the case. Personally I know two persons who were hit during the holidays while using their bicycles, a trend?

Elsewhere the metered taxi's are not doing too bad a business (PPP, 9 Jan 2011). Though still not enough that you could hail a taxi, they are increasing in number and are not a bad alternative to tuk-tuks which are growing exponentially in the capital by the looks of it. The owners report slower than expected business but are making a profit.

Road construction leads to electrical problems (PPP, 5 Jan 2011). Someone needs their wiring checked anyway. The company responsible for the damage, AZ Investment has a reputation for not paying up.
'He [electricity company representative] did not comment on the extent of the damage, but said AZ has attempted to evade responsibility in the past'.
Another case of not holding your breathe.

The Phnom Penh Post (January 5, 2011) reports that there are really persons being apprehended for failing the breathalyzer. It also adds this police citation:
'“At night time, if there is no presence of police, the respect of law is low,” he said'.

Phnom Penh has witnessed a couple of new bridges which enable to move from one in-going traffic jam to another. But one needs to pay. That's fine (the roads are great), but elsewhere in the country one also needs to pay for
'... toll along a road with numerous old bridges in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district'.
Truck drivers incensed.

Other bridges take more time. Already in the pipeline for ages, a groundbreaking ceremony will take place for the bridge needed to cross the Mekong between Saigon and Phnom Pen, according to todays Phnom Penh Post.

Rent seeking. The old weapon of the corrupt. In Koh Kong province according to the Phnom Penh Post (3 Jan 2011), the eco-tourist site (Chipat?) was serviced by many smaller boats.
'Men Sopheap, 39, a representative of 18 boat owners in Chiphat commune, said Moeng Sophea, a commune official, was set to introduce a tourist ferry service and that boatmen were informed that they would have to wind up their business this week, since their boats were “unsafe”'.
It will only be for a few years. The site will either become a titanium mine or disappear under a hydropower lake. Progress?

Congestion spreads to river? The Phnom Penh Post (11 jan, 2011) reports that a tourist boat sunk after hitting a sand barge. No word about how that could happen.

Discussion topics. Are tuk-tuks safer? Khmer 440 has the answer, tuk-tuks are perceived as safer (but have their own issues) but better still take a taxi.

For those of you wondering which street is where and whether house no. 24 is next to no. 22 or no. 543b, apparently street signs will return (Phnom Penh Post, Dec 27).
'City officials have announced ambitious plans to reorganise the numbers of the capital’s buildings and install street signs that will be uniform in style across the city.
...
He said the Chinese Chung Hong Company had been commissioned to manufacture the aluminum signs, but that businesses and homeowners in the capital would be required to pay US$4 each to cover the costs. The scheme received a mixed reaction from residents yesterday, with some expressing concern about the fee they would be required to pay'.

Big plans not always materialize. A second flyover in Phnom Penh (PPP, 14 Jan 2011) will be downgraded, with somehow the width less than ideal. Another highlight: it will be 50m high. Mistake?

Chasing Cars, December 2, 2010

2010-12-02T14:52:00.003+07:00

It's inevitable to mention last weeks tragic bridge affair. Though traffic deaths and carnage are an increasingly familiar part of modern day life in Cambodia, it's mindboggling that a simple bridge and in-numerous amounts of people can lead to more than 350 dead.
What could be have been a watershed for the country seems to have been put behind us all. No one is accounted for blame, no one to share responsibility. And certainly not the owners of the bridge. And certainly not the government. Responsible behavior is not Khmer and hoping to improve the future by learning from past mistakes seems a tactic foreign to the local culture.

One of Phnom Pen's more peculiar traffic exhibits (and tourist attractions), Sambo the elephant, is destined to be evicted from the city. From Cambodiacalling: 'Sambo's owner Sinsorn was told on the 11 November that Sambo must leave Wat Phnom and never return because people complain Sambo disrupts traffic'. Sambo disrupts a fraction on the traffic, I bet the PP's govenor disrupts the traffic a lot more than Sambo!

More past haunting Cambodia. The Phnom Penh Post reports that 14 persons were killed when a tractor ran over an anti-tank mine.

Despite all the romanticism concerning the soon to disappear rail norries, accidents can also be deadly. Again the Phnom Penh Post:
'Thnoat Chhrum commune police official Hong Savon said that a mix of heat and long-term use caused one of the norrie’s wheels to break. One of the passengers, Kong Tit from Kandieng district, was thrown from the norrie and fell in front of the cart. He suffered a fractured skull, a severe leg injury and several injuries to his arms. He died due to blood loss on the way to hospital'.

Expat Advisory service has a couple of traffic related threads. Letter to the Mad Bitch Driving a Prado.
'Yes, you know who you are'.
A traffic related anger management issue? Strange why the letter hasn't been sent by mail. Then Bus Driver is Nuts. It elicits quite a few reactions, though it seems that most drivers are nuts.

Over on the Khmer 440 forum, there's no less than 4 pages on hit and runs. How common are they? A.:
'Though disturbing ... it is standard practice in Cambodia'.
Hot off their website. The police are using their speed gun on a less busy stretch of road beyond the airport. And manned by 20 cops no less.

Chasing Cars, November 14, 2010

2010-11-14T10:56:00.003+07:00

Going viral. Probably the most talked about traffic issue at the moment is an everyday occurrence on Cambodia's road. Car travels down the wrong side of the road, hits a moto, tries to evade police. The difference is that this time someone his uploaded it onto YouTube and everybody has been talking about, especially on Facebook.

Deaths reported: three monks in one go, a professional boxer accidentally. Two girls by a soldier who was briefly arrested by police before letting him go because he had not intended to hit the girls.

Then in Banteay Meanchey a dead cow was arrested / confiscated:
'He [province's chief of traffic police] said the corpse was detained for two hours at the station, but the owner failed to appear and the owners of the cars decided not to wait any longer and negotiated to pay for the damage themselves. “They [ the aggrieved damaged car owners] took the dead cow with them,” he said. “I don’t know what they will do with that cow.”'

China mending bridges? No, building new ones for Cambodia's railways (Phnom Penh Post). Other rail news. New reopened routes will lead to the costs going down for road transport.

There's an upswing in tourism meaning more flights, none of the aforementioned promises (Hanoi, Manila, Jakarta), but more of the same. Also no flights to Sihanoukville. Which is quite pathetic. TCambodia's national airline (CAA) should be opening up routes to here, but is in a bind as the operator of the airline is none other than the Vietnamese government which has no interest at all in opening Sihanoukville up as it competes directly with Vietnam's own plans for making Phou Coc the beach destination of the neighbourhood. Talk about a neighbourhood bully.
'Developers and real estate agents have again emphasised the need for regular flights to Sihanoukville airport, with one party calling it “possibly the single most critical issue affecting tourism” in Cambodia',
is just one of the lines Phnom Penh Post uses to highlight the case. The final sentence in the article?
'Mai Xuan Long, an official at CAA, declined to comment'.
Stephen Finch's comment also focuses on the situation. He asks some poignant questions.
'Why isn’t CAA supporting these newly emerging destinations, especially given that Cambodia’s new flag carrier is understood to be partly government-run? The surging prices on CAA’s route from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh amid nonexistent carrier competition is equally debilitating for Cambodian tourism. Whereas the new airline offered special promotion fares between Cambodia’s two biggest tourism destinations after launching in July last year, now a round trip for foreigners usually costs more than US$200 when airport tax is factored in. That route across the Kingdom must rank as one of the most expensive internal flights in the region per kilometre'.

The government is planning more overhead bridges (Phnom Penh Post) despite current ones not fitting the bill.
'is it me or are the road exits around the overpass at Chbar Ampeouv another classic piece of local planning ? It seems that if you're traveling south on Norodom and want to turn left across the Chbar Ampeouv bridge then you can only do this by turning right for a few hundred metres until you can execute an illegal u-turn around the concrete lane dividers ? And similarly if you're traveling north from Takmao and want to turn left onto the southern end of Monivong, it seems you now have to turn right to go across the newer Chbar Ampeouv bridge before turning round to come back over the old Chbar Ampeouv bridge'.
More discussion on Khmer 440.

Khmer 440 also mention that there is a radar gun in Sihanoukville working ...

Chasing Cars, a month later

2010-10-22T08:56:00.003+07:00

Air France are coming this way. Bye, bye Bangkok. (That's if there are no strikes ....).
More from the Phnom Penh Post ( 11 October 2010) Airberlin and Bangkok Airways sign deal to allow good connection via Bangkok.

The airport in Siem Reap. To relocate? To enlargen?
'Airport management company Société Concessionaire Des Aéroports believes Siem Reap’s existing aerodrome can cope with future traffic demand, despite recently approved plans to build an alternative US$1-billion facility'.
So there.

Trains are riding, analysisi are written. Keeping the iron silk line on track. Quite. But things are only starting. Analysis in Phnom Penh Post (21 October 2010).
Elsewhere Khmer 440 forum has this:
'Went the back way to kep last weekend and crossed the new rail line at several spots.
I was astonished to see wagons loaded with ballast being unloaded onto the tracks.The line looked nearly finished and it actually opened yesterday.
The new line means that trains can now carry cement from kampot to PP which will save the roads.
But today we read that only hours after the first train ran it collided with a cement truck and was derailed!
Toll holdings say that the train did all it could to warn the oncoming truck'.
The final word on this thread:
'Cambodian government will solve the problem, by passing a law that requires everyone to wear a crash helmet'.
Hilarious.
And here a more business like article on the train going forward.

Crashes results in arrest. In Kampong Cham.

More accidents, more expensive cars, more claims at insurance companies. Progress. It must be a good business:
'Cao Minh Son, chief executive officer of Cambodia Vietnam Insurance, has seen the firm’s premiums total $750,000 over the first nine months – while paying out less than $8,000 in claims during the period'.
More car business: sales are up (Phnom Penh Post, October 6, 2010). Quote:
'“People are becoming more fond of new cars because they’re thinking about the quality and safety,”'.
As opposed to the good old days when buyers were just thinking about a set of wheels ...?

Letter to Phnom Penh Post's Editor ( 19 October 2010):
'Nowadays, a lot of traffic lights have been set up in Phnom Penh. The traffic lights help people to avoid traffic jams. Violators are always disobeying the rules.
Some of the traffic lights cause traffic jams because they don’t have the left turn signal. I think the government should set up the right traffic light'.
Get right, get left.

And the answer to those drunken drivers who drive around carefree in Phnom's streets ignoring all the rules? A SMS.
'Gary Foo, marketing manager for Hello, said the company began sending out anti-drunken driving messages to subscribers last week at the behest of the National Police.
The messages state: “If you drink, do not drive. If you drive, do not drink”'.
More in the article:
'On October 1, municipal traffic police established nighttime drunken-driving checkpoints in all eight districts of the capital, and pulled over nearly 100 drivers in three days. The checkpoints were suspended, however, for the Pchum Ben festival, and Chev Hak said yesterday that this week’s flooding had prevented police from setting them up again.
“We planned to restart on October 11, but because the weather was not good, we decided to suspend. We will carry on from this week after there is no more rain,” he said yesterday.
...
Prach Chanthou, Kampong Speu’s traffic police chief, also said checkpoints had not been set up there, citing the weather and a “lack of street lamps”'.
And thus prior to Pchum Ben:
'Municipal traffic police established nighttime drunken-driving checkpoints in all eight districts of the capital over the weekend, stopping nearly 100 drivers and fining four of them.
...
The law calls for fines ranging between 6,000 riels and 25,000 riels (about US$1.50 to $6) for drunken driving, depending on vehicle type'.
Another long discussion on the merits of parking guards on the khmer 440 forum. The starter:
'I always hate those parking guys who put the piece of paper on the vehicle and then deamand the return of the other half when one returns.
I hate it when they try and demand three thousand riel for parking a car at the night market.
I went to meta house last night on the moto,quite a nice venue but with a crap movie on.
Imagine our surprise when we came out for the parking guy to demand 500 riel for each moto.
Why a barang business would get into charging for parking is beyond me.
I wont be going back'.
The discussion then goes on and helps readers dealing with parking here, esp. for free.

Big festival, big toll:
'Preliminary figures indicate that there were more road deaths during the final three days of this year’s Pchum Ben festival than there were last year, despite the fact that fewer collisions were recorded'.
Phnom Penh Post ( 10 October 2010)

Prior to the festival, big prices too:
'... bus companies and taxi drivers are set to increase their fees by 25 to 100 percent during the five days of Pchum Ben, a festival in which Cambodian people commemorate and honour dead ancestors'.
The quote:
'But many passengers remain disgruntled over doling out extra cash. Svay Rieng University student, Phok Marady, 22, who recently came to Phnom Penh to visit his uncle, said he had been charged more than usual. “It is difficult because my mother gives me only a little money,” he said'.
22?

Anarchy in the kingdom:
'Dangkor district governor Kit Sopha said he had ordered police to arrest eight wayward cows on Saturday and another four on Sunday. The bovines are being detained at the My Chance Centre, a drug rehabilitation facility in the city’s Sen Sok district.
“This is not the first time we have cracked down on roaming cows,” Kit Sopha said.
He added that the animals had been detained in connection with the Kingdom’s Land Traffic Law, which prohibits animals from “walking in a disorderly manner on a public road”. Their owners must now write letters to City Hall in order to get their animals back, he said'.
Advertising for free on Expat Advisory Services:
'Just seen the tuk tuk limo,all black with a uniformed driver.
He has free water,face towels,masks and a small library.
Call mr limo on 077 33 77 01'.
A library?

New developments: a new bridge. Old one is now off-limits to some. And the new bridge costs money. Phnom Penh Post (24 September 2010):
'Trucks and vehicles with 25 or more seats have been prohibited from crossing the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge across the Tonle Sap and must instead pay to use the newly finished Prek Phnov Bridge on the city’s outskirts, Phnom Penh municipal authorities said'.
Finally blame the messenger. According to OECD the past decade has seen a rise of over 300% . The government response:
'Tin Prosoeur, deputy chief of the Traffic Department at the Interior Ministry, yesterday questioned the accuracy of the 328 percent figure. “We acknowledge that traffic fatalities are still increasing, but they have not jumped up to these high statistics,” he said'.

Chasing Cars, Mooncake day 2010

2010-09-22T14:30:00.005+07:00

Highlighting Cambodia's inability in providing safety for road participants, no less than the DG of the Transport Department has explained that if Cambodia is to attain the ASEAN goal for reduction of road fatalities (in 2010), it's the international communities concern, not Cambodia's.

'“We will not achieve the goal because our capacity is still young,” Ung Chun Huor, director general of the Transportation Department at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said at a workshop in the capital on Friday. “We have insufficient funds and a lack of human resources to promote traffic safety.”'

He also had no clue on how much funds were already attributed to traffic safety but rest assured, traffic safety concerns are only donor driven, so what can he do? How about enforcing the law?

Talking of which, police are now enforcing a one way traffic sign on street 130 in Phnom Penh. It's more newsworthier than the above.

Along with the stoppage on major construction projects in the capital, Cambodia's first assembly plant is getting a bit late.
'Camko finance director Lim Visal said yesterday that the plant would be ready to assemble cars by the end of the year, but declined to specify a date'.
And Camko are not a real estate developer ....

More development, a new airport in Siem Reap. Just last week a pipe dream, now awaiting construction. Logic: big airport, more and bigger planes, more tourists = more money.
But is it a good investment? Could be, but again Camko involved as well as another until now unknown company. Maybe it's still a pipedream ....
Btw, who saw that they believe that the new airport will result in a 4 or 5 fold increase in passengers? Does it mean they don't know?

Again the Japanese are announcing the construction of their bridge over the Mekong. It seems to be taking for ever.

From the Phnom Penh Post (14 September 2010) :
'Two technologies dear to the heart of Phnom Penh’s expat community – the tuk-tuk and free Wi-Fi – have been combined. Mobile-phone provider qb has launched 15 special tuk-tuks that are set to travel around the capital offering an internet connection to “anyone in the area”. The vehicles will also act as showrooms for qb'.

Khmer440.com has a discussion on songteaws. Why possible in Thailand, not in Cambodia? Next week they will have a discussion on the use of old Mercedes buses. Why in Vietnam, not in Cambodia?

Flight information. India is just another country which probably won't start flights to Cambodia even though their intentions are well-meant. In the meantime Cambodia Angkor Airways (CAA) is on the way to expansion.
'It also plans to expand operations to South Korea, China, Singapore, Bangkok and Hanoi.
Cambodia and Vietnam are also preparing to open a new route from Da Lat, in central Vietnam, to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, a move already approved by Cambodia’s Council of Ministers'.
And with loads of just over 60%, a year after taking off, it's can't be deemed to be making money despite officials naming it a success. I also heard on the grapevine that CAA are still no way near to starting up flights to Sihanoukville, despite massive interest from Bangkok Air. Being a state run enterprise though means they can block that interest ...

An exposition of photo's of Phnom Penh communities who until recently lived on the rails.

To finish off with where we began, Phnom Penh Post had a fine article (not literally!) on the stealth tactics used by the traffic police.

'“It is important that traffic police keep safety on the road. Make sure that people respect you and the law,” Touch Naruth [Municipal Police Chief] said yesterday as he relayed a message given during his Tuesday meeting. “Don’t just stand under trees and jump out to crack down on drivers without helmets or mirrors. It’s dangerous for you and drivers on the roads.”
...
However, it appears not everyone agrees with the police chief’s strategy. Him Yan, director of the public order department at the Interior Ministry, said hiding behind trees is “an unavoidable strategy”.
“This strategy is to make people cease their bad habits,” Him Yan said. He said other countries also employ such measures to enforce the law.
But Long Chy, a 34-year-old motorbike-taxi driver, said that he blamed police for causing traffic accidents when trying to surprise rule-breakers.
“Police activities are much more anarchic than regular people’s,” he said'.

Well, as trees are slowly disappearing from the city, will traffic police follow?

Chasing cars, September 2010

2010-09-02T12:06:00.008+07:00

Somehow I had in mind to stop this blog after 5 years, which I believed would be soon. Just found out that I have just passed the 4 years! So no end in sight?

Rail news. Besides the news that the railway rehab is ongoing there is the news item on the company involved ordering carriages and loco's. It also seems that the company working in Cambodia has taken on a new investor in the form of local firm Royal, but that news seems to have eluded most.

The Phnom Penh Post once more highlights the lack of interconnecting railways in Southeast Asia.
'The only missing link on that route is between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh'.
Elsewhere in the same newspaper is an op-ed on the same subject:
'In terms of trade the benefits are obvious. The new network would provide links to some of the Kingdom’s most important trade partners – China, Vietnam and Thailand. With Cambodia beginning to see large increases in its exports in recent years from a small base, this rail project could provide added impetus to the development of these industries. Furthermore, a new rail connection provides an additional transport link to key deepwater ports in Singapore and Cai Mep in southern Vietnam. Economic opportunities associated with completion of the project, therefore, also benefit industries like the garment sector, as most exports flow to these ports and on to Cambodia’s primary export markets in North America.
Given these clear benefits to the economy, why is the government not making this project an absolute priority? Instead of resorting to the type of mentality that expects others to front the capital, Cambodia needs to consider ways it could help finance the project'.

Stan Kahn gives his own thoughts on the same subject.
'... our August 20 coverage of the Mekong railway project, which included a front-page picture, an opinion column and report leave a lot to be desired. First, the opinion piece by Steve Finch lays the blame for not finishing the project solely on Cambodia, which is quite unfair considering Vietnam is also required to build new tracks. Furthermore, the huge US$1.09 billion cost of the new line, more than half of which comes from the need to construct two very expensive bridges, including one over the Mekong, is not something Cambodia could tackle on its own.
... it would be clear why the cost is so high. That new line starts just north of the capital, heads east and a bit north to Kampong Cham, then east all the way to Snoul, where it then makes a sharp right turn and heads south to connect with a short line in Vietnam, which should also be on the map, which comes due north from Ho Chi Minh City.
The connection between the two major cities would be much faster and shorter if it were routed generally along Highway 1. In that case, Vietnam would be responsible for close to half the cost. The present, less-desirable routing places about 95 percent of the cost onto Cambodia, which is much less capable of shouldering the burden'.
Maybe the Vietnamese are just smarter.

New rail, new roads. Not always so easy to undertake. Phnom Penh's road to the north was to be widened but after that virtually knocked down all that needed to enable the widening, PM has stepped in and said that the widening was a bit optimistic. A new problem?
'It would now appear, however, that at least some of these families were forced to tear down their homes unnecessarily'.

Bridges galore. The bridge over the Mekong to make the road to Saigon seamless is to be tendered. The bridge has been waiting for ever to move forward. Scheduled date of completion 2015. Don't hold your breath.

New roads open, others are being blocked.
'Around 300 villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a sugar company owned by a prominent senator blocked National Road 52 in Kampong Speu province yesterday in an effort to prevent the company’s employees from tearing down villagers’ homes'.
With frustration with the near daily reports on land conflicts increasing, expect more of this.

Air transport. The national carrier has received it's own country license only a year after operation. Furthermore an as yet unidentified airline will seek to fly between Indonesia and Cambodia. Not direct but via Singapore, so that's no better than Silk Air, Tiger, Jetstar or Air Asia ...

Now we are moving into the more whacky part of Cambodia's traffic.

First of all a sorry tale:
'23-year-old security guard has been seriously injured after he was crushed by a luxury SUV in front of a popular city cafe, according to the man’s family.
Mom Chamroeun, who worked as a security guard in front of Gloria Jean’s coffee house in Chamkarmon district, was hospitalised after the Wednesday incident.
“His left leg is seriously broken and has to be amputated,” said Sam Sokla, the man’s sister. “His kidney, liver and intestines are also damaged.”
Ney Sokhay, a security guard nearby who saw the incident, said Mom Chamroeun was sitting in front of the cafe when a van collided with a Lexus. The crash sent the Lexus veering into the guard, he said.
Gloria Jean’s Managing Director Michael Albert said the business is soliciting customer donations, which will be matched then handed to Mom Chamroeun’s family'.

Bricks thrown from vehicles (see also here). Police will drop the case(s) according to their own logic:
'“We have not found the suspect.... We are not in the process of investigation,” he said. “There is no case anymore.”'

Finally there is Cambodia's Pocket Guide Out&About for Phnom Penh which has a section on cycling on page 50. In it besides finding out where you can buy a cycle and what to do without ending up as roadkill it mentions
'there are plans to transform whole swathes of the capital's streets into tourist-friendly, pedestrianized areas with narrow cycle lanes'.
Funny, it as least takes a more serious look at the advantages cycling have. Further along on page 66 a piece on staying alive which is an essential article of how to survive on Phnom Penh's roads. It involves great one-liners such as:
'... as a foreigner you're not supposed to be here and, if you weren't then the accident would never happened'.

Chasing Cars, August 16, 2010

2010-08-17T10:40:00.003+07:00

Really not much to mention over the past few months, only quirky press messages. Or not?

Are crash / fatality rates going up or down? No one seems to know. All they do know is:
'If traffic police continue to enforce the law, I think fatalities will decrease'. However a recent report suggest a rise which has lead to a government initiated new traffic safety action plan. In writing the plan looks excellent: 'The plan, devised by a multi-agency road safety committee, calls for increased funding and the development of expertise in order to improve road safety.
Improved safety will require better infrastructure, better trained drivers and speed and traffic flow management, according to the plan, released earlier this week.
The plan also calls for improved major national roads and the training of engineers for road safety audits and other oversight. It will target major risks, including speeding, driving without a helmet, seatbelt or child restraint and drunk driving. It will also target overloaded vehicles and improve the reaction time for first responders.
Other strategies include public education, road safety curriculum in schools and universities and peer-to-peer education. Education campaigns will be linked to law enforcement initiatives.
Under the plan, the Ministry of Health hopes to strengthen national emergency medical services, including first aid, transport, capacity of hospitals, mechanisms to manage the system and integrated information systems. Physical rehabilitation of the victim post-crash will also become a feature in the plan.
Traffic legislation will also need updated for modern traffic conditions, and the laws must be better enforced, according to the plan. This will include better drivers licensing in a database linked between police and the judiciary'.
But how will this translate in reality ...

Reality check 1. From the Phnom Penh Post:
'A customs officer based at the Bavet international border crossing in Svay Rieng province crashed into an ambulance on Sunday in Romduol district, officials said. Sao Sokun, chief of the provincial traffic police, said the crash injured eight people including the customs officer, but declined to divulge who was at fault in the case. “According to the traffic law, if anyone wounds or disables another, he or she will be caught,” he said. “In this case, [the officer] is not in police custody. In practice, we don’t do like the law says.”'

Reality check 2. Phnom Penh Post report on what it takes to become a gangster in Cambodia:
'45 men and eight women between the ages of 16 and 22 were arrested before daybreak yesterday while riding motorbikes, and that they had been accused of violations including speeding, failing to wear a helmet and using drugs'.
Anyone failing to wear a helmet in the middle of the night (which covers roughly 95% of all road users at that hour!).

Somehow the nations airliner (Cambodia Angkor Air) is going to (over?) expand.
'The carrier, set up last July in a joint venture between the Cambodian government and Vietnam Airlines, plans to purchase two 168-seat Airbus 321s – which according to a price list compiled by the French maker cost about US$95.5 million each'.
Where does the money come from? Confidential. It apparently is making modest initial profits despite the following:
'President of World Express Tours and Travel Ho Vandy, who is also co-chairman of the government-private sector forum on tourism, emphasised that CAA must be competitive.
“On behalf of the tourism private sector, we’d like to suggest that the CAA should set competitive prices to encourage more passengers to use it,” he said. “We also see that service and hospitality on board is still limited. There should be an improvement, and flight attendants’ uniforms should reflect Khmer national identification.”'
So what do they reflect now? Modernity? Vietnam?

What are SUV's good for? Throwing bricks at pedestrians! A rash of incidents on Phnom Penh's riverfront, most of which are as follows:
'“I began to cross the road and a car turned down, and a brick hit me in the back.”' Not only SUVs but also pickups. The official response to this rash of incidents? 'Hun Sothy, the police chief in Daun Penh district, said he did not believe the victims’ accounts because he had yet to receive any reports detailing their cases. “I deploy police officers along the street at night to protect tourists, so I don’t think they have happened,” he said. “If there is a victim, they should file a complaint to a police official that is close to them.”'
More about this on expatadvisory.com's forum.

Cambodia's first fly over has opened. Though it allows most traffic (incl. the PM) going from north to south pass well, east-west is little more tougher. And willing to take a turn? Impossible. Read and try to understand what the architects have done. Courtesy of the Khmer 440 forum came the link to this photo:Caption to the accredited to dap-news.com photo:
'The second case happened in the next morning, the crazy container’s driver want to test how strong will highway could maintain?'
Ripped from Khmerbird.com.

Another photo of the same object from 'Life in Cambodia':
'An unintended (but not surprising) result of the new overpass is the creation of a new tourist attraction in Phnom Penh. Although there is no shoulder or pedestrian walkway on it, the new overpass has been swarmed by gawkers who ride their motorbikes to the middle, stop to view the traffic below, and take photos of family members. One traffic hazard has been traded for another. The interest in seeing a bird's eye view of traffic is understandable realizing that the large majority of Cambodian people have never even ridden in a car'.

Another khmer 440 forum item discusses whether it's customary or not for Cambodian officials to pilfer accident victims. The fact alone that this is in questions already raises serious doubts ...

From Details are Sketchy (so are recent postings) another news item on the impending bridge to Vietnam road saga.

Chasing Cars, mid-June 2010

2010-06-17T07:55:00.007+07:00

There we are thinking life had changed and traffic was not more on the (press) list and along come a number of interesting developments.
Prominent among them of course are the proposals to change Cambodia's traffic law. Press focus on the increase on fines, the most obvious tactic to get traffic offenders to heel. But is it?

Some extracts of what the law can change:

'calls for the addition of two new articles and amendments to 24 of 95 pre-existing articles
...
If the new draft is approved, that fine will be increased to 21,000 riels (about $5), and will also be applied to passengers'.

Basically what the law is saying is that the height of the fine is the maximum amount traffic police can extort from offenders. What's more, the change leads to big discrepancies between offenses, how are the public to know what is the correct fee? As long as it's not transparent....

It also focuses on the cosmetic enforcement. If everybody has a helmet then does that make traffic law abided by? If anything far from it.
Law enforcement is mostly restricted to daylight, at nite nobody has a helmet. What's more certain officials are above the law or too poor to afford a helmet. Then the current traffic law has so much body, there's already so much to be done without changing the law. Wearing helmets the focus of current law enforcement protects current traffic users from themselves, what about the characters dodging red lights which is common more and more standard practice? Or using the phone while taking part in traffic. Or driving down the worng side of the road. Surely we would expect these enfringements of the current law to be tackled before adding another layer of rules which at best will be enforced haphazardly?

The HIB (Handicap International Belgium) are happy nonetheless, their focus is totally on helmets. Quote:

'"We would like the fines to be increased because, based on our experience and regional comparisons, higher fines mean people have more respect for the law, and this leads to fewer fatalities,” she said.
She added that high fines and strong enforcement in Vietnam have led to almost 100 percent compliance with helmet laws'.

So what about the strong enforcement? In Vietnam they drive like crazy, but not in the wrong direction nor do they dodge traffic lights.

And the existing law was mostly drawn up by NGO's ,the new amendments not. What to think of

'One of the two new articles included in the draft would require that drivers only operate vehicles registered in their own names ...'.

A lot of drivers and rental companies will be out of work!

Elsewhere a great article was published on the Guardian by Melody Kemp entitled

'Asia's silent victims of pollution and emissions'.

Focusing on Vientiane, Lao, she sets out to describe that traffic is becoming the number 1 life threatening source.

'Despite Harvard and the World Health Organisation (WHO) both insisting that road and occupational accidents look to outstrip infectious disease as the major causes of death and disability in the south, there is little evidence that donor agencies have shifted their priorities accordingly. Trauma medicine and rehabilitation centres remain rarities. Road and occupational deaths remain like wallpaper on the modernisation agenda: striking when first noticed, then increasingly invisible.
...
Visiting experts advocate rational and linear solutions. But in Asia, the cause and effect relationship is often non-rational. A Thai or Lao surviving a crash is more likely to erect a spirit house than reflect on the use of wing mirrors, or make merit at the temple rather than look before entering a stream of traffic. Passers-by may be reluctant to help a bleeding victim in case they "catch the lousy luck". These are factors that cannot be changed simply with asphalted roads or traffic lights. And infrastructure solutions, such as the new poorly designed major arterial through Vientiane, may actually raise accident rates by enabling greater speed. Systematic corruption, such as enabling a proxy to buy a driving licence, undermines progress. New wealth also enables new drivers to drive powerful cars such as a Maserati (along with Humvees, and Mercedes sports, which are increasingly popular) they are ill-equipped to handle'.

This and more, however as some commentators note the article is a little void of solutions. One comment does though look at Taipei:

'It can be reversed - Taipei, while still a polluted city, is vastly better than it was, mainly through actions designed to curb polluting engines and an emphasis on public transport. They've just finished a fantasic network of cycle paths to try to encourage people to get back to the bike - they even have TV ads encouraging people to cycle.
...
But the idea (possibly with some justification) that pollution and road deaths is just a price you pay to catch up with the west is very deeply embedded in the minds of most Asian policymakers. Maybe it doesn't have to be that way - but sadly nobody seems willing to take the risk of trying an alternative'.

An interesting read.

More mundane:

A Letter to the Editor of Phnom Penh Post earlier this month. A reader complains about the segmenting of Phnom Penhs roads which he believes impedes emergency vehicles.

More complaints on the same situation.
'These [concrete barriers] seem to be aimed at ensuring Khmer drivers stay on the correct side of the road (which they should be doing by law anyway). However, in effect, they introduce a whole new range of problems.
Emergency vehicles can get locked into these one-way “chutes”; In some cases they have blocked former cross streets, and now motor scooter drivers are coming down the wrong side of the barriers toward oncoming traffic.
These barriers have only made already bad traffic far worse. When will town planners in Phnom Penh wake up, and where did they actually get these ideas from?
If the police are going to fine people for anything, why not start with the basics of failing to stop at red lights, travelling on the wrong side of the road and not staying within your own lane'.
Then later a Letter on parking fees.
'I regret that some people are affected by this measure, but they should be conscious that the space is for public, and not for personal use or business. The businesses and parking on the streets frequently create chaos and traffic jams'.
Elsewhere the Post gives voice to the business community which are vehemently opposed. It will effect their biznesses. Yeah so that justifies stealing public property? Me, me, me ... Probably the whole episode is to placate the Japanese so they'll cough up more money for some bridge or another ...

Picture apparently taken in Hoi An, Vietnam.

Statistics are still all over the place. Some say accidents went down, now they are back up. HIB imply that speeding is major cause of accidents but helmets need to be worn ....

Phnom Penh Post has an article on cyclo's.
'“I think that within 20 years cyclos will completely disappear. There are fewer and fewer, and profits are dropping,” he said. Pao Phearum said the challenges of being a cyclo driver include fatigue, competing with more modern forms of transportation like motorbike taxis and tuk-tuks, and having to pay money to security personnel or police to pick up customers'.
True as it may seem, focusing on tourists may extend that lifeline. See many western cities now with cyclo services ...

Chasing Cars, more than 1 month later ....

2010-06-03T10:44:00.007+07:00

I could start of this posting by offering my apologies for not posting for such a long time. But I'm not. Traffic wise there's simply so little to report on. It's been hot so not so much traffic. Everybody is being wearing helmets so no wacky government / law instructions on that. And it seems like everybody is content.

Starting with content. The
'Bangkok/Siem Reap Overland Guide'
has once more reinvented itself. Hardly any problems anymore with the road just with bus company rip offs and border problems. Why the bus companies and border officials can't solve this a la going to Vietnam is beyond me.

An aircraft has been sighted at Sihanoukville airport. That's a huge increase over the past years 0 aircraft.

Phnom Penh City is experimenting (on advice of the Japanese) with charging drivers for parking. Currently you are allowed to park virtually anywhere even to the extent of blocking traffic, who cares. The 'experiment' lasts a full week on a short stretch of inner city road. Wow!
'...the point of the exercise, which runs through June 2, is to reduce the number of vehicles along Charles de Gaulle and discourage “anarchic parking”. Fees are being collected by Sky Security Service.
Masato Koto, an urban planning consultant for the city who dreamed up the scheme, said his long-term vision was to restrict roadside parking along major thoroughfares to designated areas while imposing charges to drive down demand. By doing so, he said, officials could make Phnom Penh more pedestrian-friendly.
“In other countries, sidewalks are only for pedestrians,” he said. “But Cambodia is different. Here sidewalks are for parking cars, so we have to change this characteristic.”'
But the Cambodian side is already whining. Charges are too high. '
Masato acknowledged that the charges had drawn criticism, but said they needed to be high in order to effectively deter parking.
“If the cost is high, then people will no longer want to park here. That’s the point,” he said.
“The number of cars is increasing every day, but the land in the city is limited, so we have to control the demand for parking.”'
Yes, but now the rich dudes end up paying for something which was free. Where's the justice in this?

An article in the Phnom Penh Post presumably about a new bridge north of Phnom Penh across the Tonle Sap river. Content of the article is about the more than 200 lorries Cambodia gets from China packed with 50,000 free military uniforms. This in exchange for kicking out a couple of asylum seekers, it seems.

'A weighty issue. A motodop driver and a security guard try to help a tuk-tuk laden with boxes of bottled water get back on its wheels at the intersection of Norodom Boulevard and Street 214 last week'.
Phnom Penh Post April 28, 2010.

A huge piece in the Phnom Penh Post concerning the history of Cambodia's rail network. Saturady 5 June will see the Chinese House Express, a 3 hour (or longer) trip north of Phnom Penh with a jazz concert in a rice paddy.

What's wrong with bus companies? They all suck?

A new piece of the Phnom Penh city has been revealed. Three of the 12 roads have been approved of this 'secretive' city expansion. Part of the plan will be a flyover for which some city citizens will have to move.

A miscreant in Siem Reap wants to sue the police because he failed to stop when required to do so by police. He was consequently hit on the head by traffic police with a walkie-talkie device so as to enforce the stop signal. It worked. He stopped and needed stitches. Miscreant claims expenses plus
'$1,500 for mental illness compensation'.
But arguably he was already mentally deranged before incident ....

Finally Monument Books have nearly sold out of he Wall & Kemp Carrying Cambodia photo book. One can though still order from others such as Borders or Amazon. Or simply open up the Life in Cambodia website with arguably more interesting photo's.

Chasing Cars, Cambo stylo, 26 April 2010

2010-04-27T13:22:00.003+07:00

Absolutely nothing seems to be going on, traffic wise in Cambodia. One would have expected a lament of the many deaths and injured during the past Khmer new year celebration but nada. Well not technically, I believe the Phnom Penh Post ran a smallish article on the drop of deaths in Phnom Penh, though if you were here during the holidays it's surprising that an accident took place at all, technically the town had turned into Ghost Town as the city had emptied.

The holidays have come and gone and everybody still needs to get into the groove somehow.

A study so says the Phnom Penh Post. A calculation of the cost of accidents. No less than an annual cost of $248 million for 2009, a doubling since 2003. That seems a conservative estimate and considering the number of new traffickers (can I say this?) has risen three / four fold in the same time, it means that the costs are proportionally dropping, good news eh? Funny this estimating the cost. The administrative part cost $43 million, while deaths and injuries $73 million. Life is cheap? the police finally add that it's because the public are ignorant and fail to comply. What about the role of the police in this?

Though we had been hoping for boats to be leaving from Kep for Phu Quoc asap. apparently someone has decided to throw a spanner in the works. The Japanese company has objected to the intended harbor being placed 5 km from the agreed on place (a year before!), according to the Phnom Penh Post:
'Authorities instead proposed a port location in the forest area of Poun Mountain, 5 kilometres from the centre of the town in Damnak Chang Er district, a site the company official said was shallow and choked with seaweed'.
The local government are (literally?) standing firm ...

This morning I picked up the newest scam on the road Siem Reap to Bangkok involving bus breaking downs and extending waits so as to get other buses full. Good advertisement. Anyway, who wants to go to BKK?

Bamboo trains are disappearing laments none other than the LA Times. Never understood why this would anyone would be passionate for this, it's about the same as wishing you could only get to Siem Reap by moto ...

Last week a downpour providing relief by distress to road users as the streets went under. KI Media reports. Despite multi-million drainage system which was clogged up and blamed on the local rubbish collectors ...

Sokha to open a second hotel in Sihanoukville. Newsworthy? Funny they have enough space to develop on at their first site, but to keep land in cambodia you have to build something to really claim it, preferably a wall. Anyways in the Phnom Penh Post article they mention that Cambodia Angkor Airways might start to fly from Siem Reap:
'News of the hotel build follows reports, published in Cambodian press Thursday, that Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) is to offer domestic charter flights to Sihanouk International Airport this year.
The Post met with blank responses when it contacted officials to verify the claims Thursday.
Mai Xuan Long, deputy director of CAA, said that he didn’t know exactly what was happening with the company’s flights to Sihanoukville International Airport.
Kao Sivorn, Operation Director Department of Secretariat of State of Civil Aviation, said that so far he has not received proposals from CAA to start operations to the new airport.
He added that the company does not have enough ability to begin regular flights to Sihanouk International Airport yet.
He added: “If [CAA] begin operation there, it will boost the tourism sector for Sihanouk province, as the airport can link it to Siem Reap International Airport.”
Tith Chantha, director of Sihanouk International Airport, said that he has not yet heard when CAA would begin flights to the airport.
“I have not received any official letter from CAA,” he said'.

Chasing Cars, pre-Khmer New Year '10

2010-04-05T09:01:00.003+07:00

Yesterdays Phnom Penh Post (April 5) has put up an article based on calculations by Handicap International Belgium about what the costs are to the the nation of poor driving (and consequent accidents).
VOA Khmer had already reported on this earlier. Both though delved in the press release by Road Safety Cambodia.
The press release mentions amongst others the relative numbers (deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles) are dropping which is partially blamed by more congestion which means lower speeds = less deaths. However they are still way above regional standards. Though no doubt putting a price tag on this is all part of the pressure the government package but the reality is that putting a price on tragedy doesn't mean that it will compile the government to take action. Tragedies happen. The odd part is that the cost to humans matches the cost to properties, surely that can't be correct.
Why did they they choose blood Friday for the presentation?

Talking about safety, the Khmer 440 forum has a thread on the safety of Phnom Penh's streets. The mostly male crowd who inhabit this forum seem to be OK with safety issues though they mostly focus on muggings ...

Sihanoukville airport back in the news:
'[The airport operators] determined to convince airlines to start providing scheduled flights through Preah Sihanouk province’s fully operational airport ...' then the article harks back on the national flag carrier: 'SCA and the government want the new national carrier, Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA), to begin scheduled flights to Preah Sihanouk, but the CAA is apprehensive. Cambodia Angkor Airlines’ vice CEO Lim Kao told the Post Wednesday the carrier’s three planes are already burdened with their runs, at a time when tourism has slowed. He added that CAA is reluctant to open up a new flight path without knowing if there is sufficient demand'.
If the CAA isn't willing to take a risk in promoting Sihanoukville as Asia's newest beach destination who will? Surely that's why you have designated a national carrier in the first place?

Much in the same vein, a conference on ground handling in Asian airports concluded that liberalization of both handling and awarding flight rights are lagging...

And then there is the Cambodia Daily. On March 27-28 ('Airline Industry set for Recovery as Prices mount') they mention how things are looking up for the aviation industry in Cambodia, but not for the consumers? Witness new routes an/or expended capacity (Siem Reap - Shanghai; Guangzhou - Phnom Penh; KL - Phnom Penh).
They also mention that a comeback of Siem Reap Airways is in the final stages.
One funny thing mentioned is that since CAA have started fares between SR and HCM have risen. Flights between HCM and PP are some of Asia's most overpriced, CAA is certainly not competing ....

More boasts are sinking. Luckily the water levels are dropping drastically ...

Talking about rivers and boats. The annual Mekong River Swim is off. In the Asialife April edition besides a lack of volunteers they also mention that due to the newly formed Boat 'Association' prices for renting a boat have become prohibitive ...

Next up? Cars with tinted windows.
'Police have begun a crackdown on cars with tinted windows, as ordered by Prime Minister Hun Sen in a meeting Friday at the Council of Ministers. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said Monday that police were taking a hard line with owners of cars with tinted windows, forcing them to remove the window tinting “to ensure security and order for the Cambodian people”.“Police will eliminate cars with tinted windows from the road,” Khieu Sopheak said, ...'.
More on Khmer 440. Probably it's Khmer New Year soon ...

Odd news. A general takes revenge on an ice seller for damaging his .... car. According to his own sense of justice, a neck shot was required, the ice seller still lives. Is this odd? No the odd thing is that the general will be prosecuted, at least that's what they are saying ...

Then there is mob rule. Reported on in various media, no less than 400 'residents' killed two motorbike robbers and left another for dead (CD reports: 'regained consciousness just before his body was to be cremated'!) after intervening with police. Gruesome footage with Khmer media.

More odd news.
'A Cambodian taxi driver was arrested after he ramped up an inter-city fare, then threatened to kill his passengers by driving into a lake unless they paid, local media reported Monday. The driver had initially agreed to take 20 passengers to the eastern province of Prey Veng for 2 dollars a head, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper said. However, halfway there, he stopped the taxi and announced the fare had increased to 5 dollars each. When the passengers refused to hand over the extra money and began arguing with the driver, he threatened to drown them by driving into a nearby lake. A passenger then called the police who arrested the driver. Cambodia lacks public transport, and privately operated minibus taxis, which are often overcrowded, are a common way to travel around the country'.
Source according to KI Media is dpa, though the PPP also runs this story ....

Info on a new bus service to Pakse. Elsewhere there's a thread on Tripadvisor.

Chasing Cars, March 24, 2010

2010-03-24T09:49:00.011+07:00

On a non traffic related matter I recently signed up to Smart internet, they offering some of the cheapest internet on mobile phones. Cheap is definitely not good. Needed just 3 visits to their customer service and now it's working, but soooooo slooooooow. And they have blocked access to KI Media, a seemingly unendless amount of news stories.

'While trying to retrieve the URL: http://ki-media.blogspot.com/ The following error was encountered:
Access Denied. Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect [sic]'.

Anyway on Cambodia's traffic front. Yesterday's (23 March 2010) Phnom Penh Post provided an opposition parliamentarian a couple of columns to allow him to publicly complain about the lack of redress within the Cambodian legal system. Remember his son was shot after a traffic dispute in Phnom Penh's center. Though at the time it was a bit ambiguous about the cause of the dispute, it is tellingly that the police have been unable to arrest the killer despite having his name.

' “... the police have not got any clue about the suspect’s whereabouts. I request that the police speed up their work in this case so that justice can be brought to my son,”...'

However it does seem weird that a parliamentarian thinks he can jump the line. Injustice is common within the country and the legal system is only working for the rich and well-connected. If anything this parliamentarian should know this. Or not?

How the law sometimes 'works':
'A 33-year-old man is facing prosecution after he was accused of involvement in a Wednesday traffic accident in Phnom Penh that killed a 30-year-old garment worker and a 13-year-old boy. However, authorities speculated that the man might not be sent to court if he agrees to pay US$4,500 in compensation to the victim’s family. By law, accused perpetrators still face court action even if they agree to out-of-court monetary compensation. But another driver who was allegedly involved in the same accident was not sentenced after he paid up'.

In and on forums on Cambodia one of the most often asked questions regards transportation and if buses run between x and y, and how are they? Andy B. reviews on his blog his recent trip with paramount to Siem Reap: '
If you want to do the bus trip between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap then don't choose Paramount Angkor Express, as their bus that carried me between the two, leaving the capital at 6pm, was one of the most uncomfortable I've ever been on. And believe me I've been on some crap buses'.
After receiving a comment praising the same company he adjusts his views:
'the bus he [bus driver] was in charge of had seen better days and needed some new screws fitted. By comparison the Mekong Express bus to PP was considerably better'.

A small article (22 March 2010) in the Phnom Penh Post on how the number of accidents is up. As usual the article is full of statistic wonders.

The Australian company hoping to earn a buck off Cambodia's railroads has found out that the going will be tough:
'David Kerr, CEO of Toll Holdings Group Cambodia (THGC), asked the government to put regulations and infrastructure in place, which are needed to fix the country’s railways'.
Should have thought that before signing up ...

A promise is what? Cebu Pacific had promised to start to fly to Cambo land this April, but nothing seems to be in the pipeline. This thread on Khmer 440 seems to suggest that it's not such a bad thing ...
'Cebu Pacific Air is the worst airline I have ever flown--huge delays, booking hassles, canceled flights with no advance notice, refunds that never arrive, and horrible service ...'

Promises? That's what they hope what will get the Sihanouk airport up and running.
'Sihanoukville airport is still struggling to attract airlines due to the enduring slump in the regional travel industry, according to an official at Societe Concessionaire des Aeroports (SCA), the French firm that manages the Kingdom’s airports.
Still, not a single airline has agreed to flights to the airport despite the offer of zero percent airport tax.
SCA’s Chief Planning Officer Tanguy Bertolus said Tuesday that new national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA), a joint venture between the government and Vietnam Airlines, was showing reluctance to fly to the recently renovated airport due to the difficult economic climate.
“Cambodia Angkor is a subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines and the Cambodian government, and they are not really keen right now to take risks and open new lines,” he said'.
That's goobledigook. The company has only been existing for 12 months and the situation when they started was probably worse than now. So why are they backtracking?

More tourist related info. As in the previous editions of CC the ... 'boat cartel' ... Though they call themselves a Water Transport Association, they have been trying to cream off the boat owners by imposing themselves and getting the tourists to foot the bill. The way it works:
'Ly Puthy, association president, said a letter thumbprinted by all members would be sent to the Tourism, Interior, Public Works and Transport ministries, and to Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema, requesting that Rin Naran – owner of the Chamkar Sne boat – immediately join the association'.
Talking about boats. Why all the fuss about tourist boats?
'Two women died when a boat sank on the Mekong River in Prey Veng province on Friday, police said, the most recent of a string of such incidents throughout the Kingdom prompting officials to issue warnings about the dangers of overloading passenger boats and other vessels'.
Tourism helps? After visiting Cambodia in 2007 (by bicycle) Dan Austin decided to get help in, by donating cycles to children. In Cambodia of course, in Uganda, in Peru. The organisation 88 Bikes, gets a (very positive) roll call on CBS News. 88 is the cost of donating a bicycle.

Has someone picked up on this? Phnom Penh is to become clean? Cambodian Beginnings has a short blog entry.
'However, as of next month Phnom Penh City Hall intends to rectify the state of it's streets. 5000 riel fines (US $1.20) will be administered to anyone seen discarding rubbish in public places. The boulevards are wide, tree-lined and quite beautiful in some places. Perhaps this fine will go some way in returning Phnom Penh to it's hayday of being the 'Paris of the East' in the 1950's'.

Elsewhere in the city the officials are trying to prevent anarchy from amorous bulls.
'Police in the capital’s Dangkor district have seized 15 wayward cows and bulls after a recent spate of incidents in which lustful bulls have vigorously pursued potential mates, disrupting traffic and endangering passersby, officials said'.
This even made the international press. Or better said the Malaysian press.

A clinic in Phnom Penh was closed down due to complaints following a traffic accident. Or not?
'The Health Ministry has opted to shut down a medical clinic that was accused of negligence in its treatment of a man who succumbed to injuries sustained in a traffic accident last week, the director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Health Department said Sunday.
...
“The association ran a health-care business without approval from the Ministry of Health and was shut down,” Sok Sokun, the municipal Health Department director, said Sunday. “It will be allowed to reopen only after it receives an official license to operate from the ministry.”'

Just outside Phnom Penh

And did I mention that Phnom Penh once more slipped up an opportunity to join in with WNBR? As Byron Bay, Melbourne, Canberra, Lima, Adelaide, Golden Bay, Sydney, Sao Paulo.
This (northern hemisphere) summer then?

Phnom Penh: Streetwise

2010-03-16T10:51:00.003+07:00

Out since February 2010 is the Streetwise Phnom Penh street directory produced by Cambodia Pocket Guides. On sale at various points in the city (amongst others Monument Books and Lucky's supermarket) it costs are $5. For this price one gets a compact 80+ pages street guide as well as extensive description of how one should navigate Cambodia's capital.

The publishers themselves mention on Expat Advisory Services:

'We believe the guide should prove indispensable for anyone seeking help and advice as to how to navigate Phnom Penh’s increasingly congested streets, especially the newer business and residential areas outside the centre of the city'.

But is it any good? Worth it's value?

What others say
Cambodia Beginnings believe's so:

'this map-nut is excited to have another navigational aid at her disposal; I'll now point with a lot more confidence; and the motodops can just drive'.

Andy B, Phnom Penh's premier expat blogger:

'I'm not sure how often I will look at the directory, but it's a good addition to the 'city map scene' and exceptionally well presented. Though I must take issue with the spellings of Wat Onalom and Wat Botumwatdei - I have never seen those spellings before for two of the city's main pagodas. Well done those Pocket Guide folks'.

But's that about the extent of the online reviews, so let's get this expert to look at this....

The maps
Format
First of all, the format is great; the cheap, free, folding maps of town are quite cumbersome, prone to flying away and come with invitations to visit girlie bars. And yes half of the city is off the map anyway.

Coverage
But then, how often does one need to travel off these folding maps anyway? And how does Streetwise Phnom Penh help?
For example I play football a lot and sometimes need to find places such as Khemera field (north of town), Mekong field (behind Northbridge) or the 'over the bridge' places. Streetwise Phnom Penh does cover these areas but though it can mention every one of the exponentially expanding number of Phnom Penh's minimarts, these football fields are still out there somewhere, waiting to be found and correctly identified.

Furthermore with the main part of town shifting west, it seems an omission to miss covering the area uptil and beyond the airport.
Possibly another mapping suggestion to improve on, would be to include a wider overview map; apparently a ring road (with toll) is under construction (see bridge construction site north of PP towards Pursat) but this is outside of the coverage of Streetwise.

Detail
The degree of detail depicting the center of Phnom Penh city is great and much info is provided. This is certainly a boon to local residents seeking something specific and already comfortable with Phnom Penh's lay out. However tourists (and with them the moto drivers) will probably be overwhelmed with the many details and have failure tracking the right street.
Then the advantage of much detail will also result in the disadvantage as changes in the city are so quick; such that they will quickly render the map out of date, at least if you need to find Phamrmacy Y, Restaurant X.

Layout
The layout of side by side maps can be advantageous over folding maps but one needs to beware of the jump between the facing pages, the maps are made to overlap each other, meaning traveling from facing page 1 to another means a slight readjustment is required.

The information
Besides the maps there are another 20 pages of information included, which covers the history of the city, tips for getting around, places of interest, Cambodia's road rules and what the future of Phnom Penh might look like.

History
Certainly adding to most expats knowledge on town, though the section on street names is only for aficionados.

Getting around
Getting around is certainly in too much detail; as always sites of traffic jams change by the hour, day, season or vintage. And traffic lights are cropping up on the alternatives as fast as a crew can set up a wedding tent.

In depth knowledge
This section mentions amongst others that the British ambassador's residence is 'splendid' (cheers to him/her). Covering no less than 4 pages, this is a waste of money. Who is interested in this?

How to get around
Here though pedestrians get a little coverage, the guidance seems to be steering readers to motorized transport options.
Cyclists are seen as crazy so it seems, requiring

'optional knee and elbow pads'

and

'vital face masks'.

Having cycled up and town for four and a half years I've yet to have a scratch. And why would you need a face mask?
Funny though if you see how many motocyclists end getting cut up (and that's the real picture I am getting) that they are not advised to use the optional knee / elbow pads ...
And why to cyclists require a sturdy lock and the motorised version not? I can't even count how many of my (temporary) friends who have had their motocycles stolen ...

Law and Order
No less than 2 pages explaining the difficulties of getting by the Cambodian law. Considering what's included on this blog on this subject 2 pages might be a let off. The publisher could have kept it short, i.e. like the traffic jams, the interpretation of the law changes hourly, daily, seasonally , etc., etc.

The future
Two pages on Phnom Penh's new tomorrow no less. It presents a rather rosy picture of the future. And much info on non-transport issues. It even claims that the

'city fathers'

are busy planning the new city layout, which I seriously doubt. Since 2000 not much activity has been seen other than paving the dirt and accepting the odd gift of a bridge here and there.
There is serious talk of a mass transit system? Define serious. Again these are donors giving advice and hoping the government chooses their option using a soft loan to pay-off the donor's host country companies ...
Bicycle lanes? Dream on, if anything the officials are closer to outlawing pedestrians and cyclists. Anything to prevent your Lexus from scratching ...

Overall call

I like it, it certainly adds info not yet available.
It's shelf life I'm afraid will remain limited and no doubt other publishers will copycat the issue less the 'schmuck' which I'm afraid adds little to the maps.
Possibly a bit too expensive ...
Then again I'm a map freak...

Chasing Cars, mid March 2010

2010-03-11T11:22:00.005+07:00

During the past month steps have been announced to get the general public to comply to a couple of paragraphs of the traffic law as well as suggestions being made to expand the law. Helmet fines would rise 6-fold.

'The fine has been set too low, which means drivers have not stopped their bad habits. They seem to look down on the traffic law,” he [Him Yan, director of the Department of Public Order at the Interior Ministry] said'.

The idea actually comes from Handicap International. The article also suggests that higher fines will lead to more unreasonable police.
Note also in this article the photo with caption implying the offender is paying for a mirror offense. That despite the photo showing that the offender does have a mirror. An editorial mistake?

However some problems are overlooked. Poor compliance is due to poor law implementation. Go anywhere outside the capital and you'll soon see compliance to the law drops to single figures, even police don't care. Nor is there any law enforcement once the sun drops, even in Phnom Penh.

Additionally, much is made of visible law enforcement. Probably one of the biggest dangers is running red lights about which nothing is done ...

The Cambodia Mirror argues the same point of poor law enforcement in Cambodia in general. It uses the recent license plate drama as reference.

Anyway the police are positive:

'.... 10,859 motorbike drivers had been stopped during the first two weeks of February because they lacked mirrors or helmets'.

That said Khmer 440 forum once more adds some real life detail. A forum poster describes how to nail a culprit. Then follows more experiences with law enforcement.

BTW:

'officials have delayed a decision on a long list of proposed amendments to the Kingdom’s traffic laws'.

Officials need more time ...

In a never ending list for regulating everything, the government would like suits for moto drivers in Phnom Penh. Not a three piece though. '
“We want to give safety to the tourists and make the city look good,” Chreang Sophan said, in explanation of the motivation for creating the uniform'.
Siem Reap already has experience with $10 suits:
' ... uniforms had identification numbers on them, and that no moto or tuk-tuk driver had committed crimes against passengers since the uniforms were introduced [in 2002]'.
That's no reported crimes ...

The national airline buys a new aircraft, it's first. No price is mentioned nor who the seller is. Hence, CC believes that the price is too expensive and that the seller is closely involved. Funny though as CC would like to check some recent info, the airlines site is in error (mid day March 11, 2010).

KI Media has a link to a strange article. Apparently a Korean company has been awarded a contract to
'design and supervise the improvement of two national highways and one local road and the construction of a detour'.
The former shouldn't be too hard.

Construction of the road to Pailin is not going according to plan. A Chinese company somehow isn't coughing up the money required according to a Phnom Penh Post article.

Stan is writing again on Kampot. This time he blames paving for flooding after rains. Though the authorities blame clogged drains. Whatever, it's probably due to the local government.

How many times can you make the news with the same project? A signing ceremony was held in March 2010 for a project begun in 2007! A project to improve Cambodia's railways, but that we knew already.
Bigger news though is that something is really happening. I've seen new sleepers in Takeo and disappearing rails between Takeo and Kampot.

Kep station

Possible real news on the rail front for Cambodia comes from China via SMH ( 10-03-10). They know somehow that
'A third network [of high spped trains] would extend south through Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia'.
Is Cambodia missing the train?

Phnom Penh's tourism boats are another recently regulated category. The Association of Phnom Penh Water Tourist Transport (essentially a government organisation) believes in order, not in competition. This contradicted by the Phnom Penh's port director. The Ministry now also wants the boats to be licensed (how much will that cost? All extra costs will be charged to the users ...).
Anyway a few days later 5 members of the association were quitting. There complaint, surprise, surprise:
'business went down'.
The associations reply? Clear off!
Now the government will be stepping in or so says the Phnom Penh Post (4 March 2010).

A spike in car registration? Would the Phnom Penh Post have expected a decrease? Now only 1.13 million vehicles were registered.

Finally, we all know how whacky Cambodia's transportation system is. A photography book by Conor Wall and Hans Kemp gives examples of moto's and their freight. The issuing is accompanied by an exhibition in the FCC.

More examples of whacky moto's are available from Life in Cambodia.

Chasing Cars, mid-Feb 10

2010-02-18T21:42:00.006+07:00

Ferry cross the Mekong. Phnom Penh in the background.

After a longer hiatus waiting for inspiration, a run of the mill entry. Or so it would seem.

How the government works (or not). PM calls minister 'gang minister' Why?
'... the senior official changed the number of National Road 67 to 66, creating cartographic confusion.
...
I beg you, stop changing the road numbers,” Hun Sen said, adding that the minister was behaving like a gangster by changing numbers without consulting the proper authorities. “I announce today to cancel this and keep 67 as its number,” Hun Sen [Cambo PM] said'.

More on the government machine. PM calls for action. Province promises. Sets date. Finds out they are too busy. Postpones and starts just in time for the Chinese New Year when Crossing Cambodia believes there are neither police nor trucks driving around to apprehend. That's the easy part, but the main part is to apprehend trucks carrying too much. So how they do it?
'Officials have not identified a specific weight limit for trucks, saying instead that individual police officers would be tasked with determining which ones were overloaded and could potentially damage roads'.
So arbitrarily imposing non specific limits means ....

What about pedestrians? They need clear paths, preferably shaded. In Kampot the one means none of the other, i.e. they cut down the trees to remove the obstacles. Stan writes a letter to the editor of the Phnom Penh Post:
'While I support the improvements to the sidewalks on the business side of Kampot River Road for safety and aesthetics, I believe authorities should go to great lengths to save every tree possible.
The shade and beauty they provide are far more important than the slight obstacle to walking they might cause.
Furthermore, it’s ironic that they would put so much effort into making the walk along the riverfront safe at the same time as they are widening streets in another part of town adjacent to the market and nearly eliminating sidewalks in the process; there will be no possibility of avoiding walking in traffic there. It’s not just tourists who deserve safe places to walk. The streets in question are now far wider than traffic flows would ever warrant for a small town, and cost a lot more than necessary.
One was already paved and functional. Meanwhile, River Road north of the new bridge, the road to my house, is a very rough dirt track with immense holes in it and desperately needs improvement. Even just grading would be an important benefit to users. The authorities have their priorities askew. There needs to be a way to solicit input before such projects are undertaken'.

And more government. Build an airport and the passengers will come. But that would be a success and success needs a celebration, so we postpone the inauguration until then, meaning that an airport is built but not opened. Understood? Even weirder is this:
'It is hoped that new national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air will run the first flights at the new airport, said Tith Chantha, adding that he would like SIA to become Cambodia’s primary international airport'.
So even the government can not force it's own airline to behave it self and do as it's told?

Well, the government wants to approve a monopoly for a single Toyota dealer. But this is what Toyota want, so as to better control their produce and ease of calling back ... So why the fuss?

More monopoly business. Find an idea (cutting out 'anarchy') and get it done. And the money will flow freely:
'A group of boat owners is preparing to lodge a complaint against a new association that was created to streamline the booking of trips on the Tonle Sap, accusing it of cutting off direct access to customers and charging unnecessarily high fees'.
Let the passengers pay for ..., well for nothing.

Meanwhile in an unassumingly unrelated incident an overcrowded boat sinks and kills seven. Now shouldn't anything be done about that? The Ministry of Water Resources washes it's hands off the case:
'He [MoWR spokesperson] said that the ministry would resume a public-awareness campaign about water safety and urged people to follow the advice given.
“The ministry often used to inform people and publicise warnings for all boat drivers along the Mekong River and the sea to be equipped with life vests to protect their lives from disasters, but people have ignored these warnings,” he said'.
Warnings and implementing the law.

More than 14,000 were fined for not wearing a helmet in January according to official sources. That must have resulted in quite a windfall. And then there's the unofficial fines ..., so no doubt the traffic police have got something to celebrate.
'But road safety advocates say the effectiveness of the law has been hindered by spotty enforcement, a problem that persists in part because Traffic Police rarely work at night.
...
“Ninety percent of people use helmets during the day, but only around 40 percent wear helmets at night,” Him Yan [director of the ministry’s Department of Public Order!] said. “People are afraid that police will fine them, but they don’t wear them at night because Traffic Police do not work then.”'

Chinese New Year means more accidents, so it seems. The solution:
'“I have informed all Traffic Police in the different provinces to reinforce the law during Chinese New Year because many people leave the city to travel to the provinces,” he [director of the Ministry’s Department of Public Order!] said'.
But now the Chinese New Year has passed (Phnom Penh Post, 18 Feb 2010) the police are celebrating:
'the number of people who died on the road over the period matched last year’s figure, the overall number of accidents saw a decline'.
Funny though, that the first article refers to HIB statistics which mention five times as many deaths as the police. So will the after Chinese New Year figures also be adjusted?

Flights increase between PPN and SRP from 4 to 5 daily.

Finally let's end with an article on how the government works. There's a law. But who cares? The opposition do. Cars with military license are not allowed.
'He [MoD spokesperson] added that opposition lawmakers were not objecting to the use of military or police number plates by those entitled to apply for them and suggested that legitimate plate holders should paint their vehicles in military colours to help people determine which licences were legal and which ones were not.
Chhum Socheat [opposition spokesperson] said that the 2007 law does include such a provision but that it was rarely implemented or enforced. “It is not a problem if legitimate plate owners do not spray [their vehicles] with military colours,” he said'.
Despite the MoD defense, the Cambodia Mirror adds:
'“Though there is such a claim from the Ministry of Defense, many citizens said that many cars of powerful officials are parked illegally and they do not obey the traffic law.”'

Chasing cars, January 27, 2010

2010-01-27T11:37:00.006+07:00

Helmet or not?

As reported on many prior occasions in this blog, the Phnom Penh Post (20 Jan. 2010) managed to get on the message that the helmet law enforcement is far from perfect:

'Despite the heavy publicity campaigns that were tied to the amendment’s adoption, compliance has been lacklustre, and it has failed to reduce the number of traffic fatalities over the past 12 months, according to government statistics'.

Well, let's just say that those statistics are good enough to spot trends. HIB, the NGO leading traffic safety in Cambodia, now says that change can take years, though Crossing Cambodia suspect that the failure to grasp law and law implementation are more immediate issues.
Increasingly over the last years judiciary and judicial systems have been used to enforce power to the rulers rather than something impartial backed up with law and jurisdiction.
Naturally this attitude is picked up even at the lowest levels of government enforcers. Last Saturday a motorcyclist was apprehended despite wearing a helmet and having mirrors while just a few seconds later a helmet less soldier slowly passed unobstructed the same checkpoint. Moral of this story? Become untouchable.

Anyway the focus of law implementation has briefly changed to:

- unlicensed driving schools (what happened to the more the merrier?),
- street vendors on Sisowath
('“I will move my stall back from the street, closer in to the building, but many vendors will not comply,” he said. “They paid money to the police to keep their businesses open as usual tomorrow.”')
- and trucks in Siem Reap
('He [ the deputy director of the provincial Department of Public Works and Transport] did not specify a specific weight limit for trucks, saying that individual police officers would be tasked with determining which ones were overloaded and could potentially damage the roads'.)

Meanwhile,

Vietnam Airline hopes Hanoi will become a hub for tourists from / to Cambodia. Odd this ambition, if the airline doesn't even fly direct between the capitals of these neighbouring countries ...

Hot on the heels of the Poipet bus terminal which means passengers need to pay an entrance fee, the already very uncompetitive boats believe that this is the future:
'It is hoped a new 15-by-35 square-metre hub will clean up the look of the port serving the roughly 70 to 80 passengers a day that use the existing terminal. Foreigners will be charged $1 to use the facility, he said.
...
This decline [in tourist traffic in the port] was steeper than the overall decline in air arrivals to Cambodia – which fell just under 12 percent in the first 11 months – suggesting that tourists were increasingly choosing not to travel by boat, instead opting for more cost-effective modes of transport'.

Chasing Cars, first of the last

2010-01-13T08:01:00.010+07:00

Spent New Year in Thailand. As part of the combat to protect their own, they had a really large road safety campaign. Fail yet again. In Bangkok everyone sticks to the rules but outside it's as if no rules exist. Many drunk driving and almost all motorcycles without helmets.

There's quite a bit of news from Siem Reap.
'The days of dodging potholes and clinging onto motos for dear life in Siem Reap may finally be a distant memory. The streets around town have improved drastically in the past few weeks after a decree from Hun Sen, the prime minister'.
The Phnom Penh Post (25-12-09) is a bit mystified as to how the town first is turned into a quagmire with no future and then within 6 weeks achieves the unimaginable:
'it’s unclear who exactly is in charge of the rapid roadwork, but — as per usual in Cambodia — when Hun Sen gives an order it gets done fast'.
Then going full circle Hun Sen claims that flooding in Siem Reap is due to hotels constructing roads. And there I was thinking it was water that's the cause of flooding.

Hun Sen also has something against a bridge from his namesake's park to the other side of the river:
'Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday he would cancel a major bridge contract and slammed senior officials for negligence in the awarding of build-operate-transfer, or BOT, contracts'.

On the Expat Advisory Services forum a discussion of a daily occurrence on Phnom Penh's street:
'The passenger feigned shooting at me-wow was i shitting-NOT'.
The advice part:
'Unless you are in a Humvee adn well equipped , you do not want to get caught on the streets after midnight with all the drunk rich kids and bodyguards behind the wheel'.

For those of you concerned with driving up Bokor:
'it turns out bokor opened for a day and a half at new year. a quarter of it has already been widened but not tar mac finished. the rest is still fairly rough. great fun on a dirt bike'.
That said the road to Kampot (at the foot of Bokor) is also worth a miss as the tarmac has disappeared and huge amounts of dirt are being dunked at random.

Airline news: the Sydney Morning Herald manages to announce Cambodia Angkor Air's demise, coming shortly after their opening party:
'just 14 have gone bust in the last year – including Queensland's SkyAirWorld, Fiji Air and Cambodia's Angkor Airway'.
Odd that, seeing it was no news here and they were still flying yesterday ... The same source has a report on how the industry is not always as clear-cut as you would have thought. Jetstar invests in Vietnamese carrier. It makes huge losses. Management get arrested. Doubt whether the Cambodian authorities would have the same leverage over their Vietnamese managers in Cambodia Angkor Airways ...

Anyway with possible links to I believe Kuwait and Oman on the cards, who knows an airlink to Russia is also in the pipeline.
'Direct lights between Russia and Cambodia are set to begin next year or 2011 at the latest, a Russian embassy official said Friday'.
It's a wonder actually how poorly Cambodia is served by long distance carriers for Europe. Going to North America, one can book with Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese carriers so with 1 stop you can get where you want. Going to Europe one needs to take a short hop first before flying long distance. With the Arab nations vying for customers it's a wonder that neither Qatar, Emirates or Etihad have opened shop here. The first would have the market for itself ...

Those flying can tack heart from the fact that Cambodian control over the air traffic control has been returned to the Thai management.

Then again there are less of us flying to Siem Reap.

Handicap International Belgium commend themselves for getting helmets on.
'Latest figures from the Road Crash and Victim Information System show that the helmet wearing increase has led to a nationwide 3% drop in motorcycle crash fatalities due to head injuries'.
A three percent drop? Can this be significant? Especially as the system of recording this seems highly flexible. Elsewhere the same press communique seems a bit confusing:
'The law was strictly enforced, resulting in the current helmet rate of 85%'.
Strict enforcement means 15% still get away with violating the law? O sorry, this is Cambodia.

Another Cambodia curiosity. Apparently authorities have let a company build a terminal for people leaving overland to Thailand. Unfortunately it's 5 k's from the border and you actually need to pay to get in. Tales of Asia has more comments and future predictions.

A slightly older link. Solar power driven bicycle fails to find market. Local supplier spends 5 years developing bicycle and is amazed that it doesn't sell. Despite that
'it can help save energy'
(how does that work with a bicycle?) it's expensive and difficult to use ...

The Christian Science Monitor (8-1-10) looks at the disppearing act of cyclo's:
'In Cambodia a decade ago, some 10,000 cyclo drivers – as rickshaws are called here – wheeled along Phnom Penh streets. Today there are fewer than 1,500'.

Under the heading
'Road safety'
the police have proudly declared that they have apprehended more than 200,000 vehicles last year. 95% of those were motorcycles, 95% of the car drivers were apprehended for not wearing seat belts. Major causes for accidents in Cambodia: drunk driving and poor driving. 60 were cited for failing to adhere to traffic signs, none for drunk driving ... Anyway that's the official statistics.

Chasing Cars, two days before Christmas, 2009

2009-12-23T07:18:00.003+07:00

Nearly 2 weeks have passed since the latest edition and I'm yet again sorry to say hardly anything has happened. That said I mean on the traffic front. Elsewhere the Cambodian government has been staking it's claims by forming the Thai opposition, pussy footing the Vietnamese, getting more from the Chinese than even the rest of the world managed during the Climate talks (well, actually selling a dozen Uigers and their criminal kids) and slagging Bangladesh's efforts to control battery acid as undoable. So if you are waiting for miracles for next year, they just might well happen ...

Public transport is on the cards. Cambodia can do all the above but fails to even set up a system under which private enterprise may well do all the public transportation. Within the city, it relies on a load a free-wheeling cowboys who's mass transport is literally that; motorcycles with a slightly extending sitting area which will either take you, your family and their neighbour's daughters school class or anything smaller than a container. Can we call this public transport?
Outside of town we use mini-buses which have been deliberately not changed to facilitate passengers, which are subsequently overloaded and decrepit. Or we use saloon cars, beyond their purchase by date, stuff as many people as possible (10 or more), plus a number in the (open boot) and thus we travel up and down the country.
But that's set to change:
'Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema has pledged to create a public transport service within five years in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the capital'.
So public traffic is not for the public but it's there to allow hot shots to keep easing through the city. Five years? Ambitious.
'“Now, we are thinking that if we create a bus system, people will travel by bus,” Kep Chuktema said, adding, however, that “Cambodian people do not like to walk, and they like to use their own vehicles to travel quickly to their destinations. This is an obstacle to creating a public bus system”'.
The biggest obstacle to public transport in Phnom Penh is the lack of forward thinking and common sense.

Thailand will start cracking down on pillion riders without helmets.

More back slapping yourself. Helmet wearing triples due to the efforts of:
'The primary reason for the increase in helmet wearing rates is the multi-stakeholder helmet awareness campaign'.
And law enforcement. And more law enforcement. And more law enforcement. And ..., well you get the idea.
The fact of the matter is that the organization involved has been propagating helmets for years and only once the police started to see the point, the system kick in. The result?
'The latest figures from Cambodia's Road Crash and Victim Information System (RCVIS), meanwhile, show that the helmet wearing increase has led to a nationwide 3-percent drop in motorcycle crash fatalities due to head injuries'.
Three percent. My thoughts are that the drop may well be related to the economic slump ...

Anyway the RCVIS has no back-up data on this, they have been wrong in the past. Just looking at most recent data. Fatalities are up (and the number of hospitals reporting to them is especially here in Phnom Penh is low), on average this year 25% were hit and run cases, more than half reported speeding as cause and 1 in eight of the cars involved had the steering wheel on the wrong side ... Do I hear the government ?

How many times can you get in the press? ADB congratulates itself yet again for reviving the national railways. Let's just wait till it's happened.

Trade with Vietnam can go up, if only there were good roads.
'Locals, government officials and economists say the ill repair of Kampot’s Road 33 does more than slow motorcycles: it slows trade and economic growth'.
Road 33 is slated for an upgrade next year it seems as ADB and Australia match Cambodia's 3.7 $ million with 4 times as much ...

Fighting the law? A first hand account of being crashed and seeking redemption. Not.
'So my friend catches up with them and says "You know you just hit someone back there?" and in true "off the rails" fashion the passenger who incidentally is a uniformed policeman reaches behind him and pulls a pistol on my good Samaritan friend, saying "i think you should leave this alone"'.
Elsewhere on the EAS forum I read that police are concerned about getting bad press ... Now why would any one slag the police? Or the countryf or that matter?

Chasing Cars, December the tenth 2009

2009-12-10T14:07:00.004+07:00

Two whopping weeks have passed and I haven't hardly got anything to elaborate on. Boring, boring. Police are out doing their job. The dodgers are out dodging the police and no improvement seems to be happening.

Phnom Penh Post looks at corruption yesterday (9 December 2009). The visual example is as follows with subtext:

Photo by Tracey Shelton.

'Police refuse to issue a traffic fine to a driver on Sihanouk Boulevard earlier this year, saying they do not have the paperwork for official fines and can only accept bribes'.

New tax proposal accepted by the Cambodian parliament:

' “The budget law for 2010 foresees also an increase of taxes on means transportation including automobiles (road taxes):
Vehicles with a power over 12 HP to 17 HP, within 5 years from their production date, have to pay Riel 500,000 [approx. US$125] each year, and after the 5th years, it is Riel 360,000 [approx. US$90].
Cars with a power over 17 HP to 24 HP, within 5 years from their production date, have to pay Riel 1,600,000 [approx. US$400], and after the 5th year, it is Riel 1,200,000 [approx. US$300].
Cars with a power over 24 HP, like Lexus’ and Land Cruisers, had to pay only Riel 1,000,000 [approx. US$250] for road tax in the previous year, but next year, they will be charged Riel 2,000,000 [approx. US$500].
As for passengers’, general transportation, and tourists’ cars with a power of 12 HP, and small motorbikes, their taxes are kept at the same level'.

Boating in Cambodia. A talesofasia forum entry has all the answers.

The airport ready but still not opened (Sihanoukville) is pleased to mention that it just mite receive regular flights from neighbouring countries Malaysia and Korea. No wrong, our neighbours are Thailand and Vietnam. Wouldn't that be more logic, flights from Saigon and Bangkok? Rather than an A320 from Seoul?

Economy getting back into shape. I mean economic indicators pointing to more money being made in the country but collectively we're getting poorer at least psychological, why need money? To buy .... motorcycles!
'Dealers say new Honda models are driving recent rebound'
They drive themselves?

Yet again suckers trying to bus themselves to/from Bangkok, this time via Koh Kong.
'The Combined tickets F*ck us travellers. And Koh Kong is not a quick way to Bangkok....The companies don't think we will spread the word.....do it! We are not collectively STUPID'.
Is that a question? Do you really want me to answer that?

More on buses to/from Sihanoukville. From Khmer 440:
'Be aware that if you are doing this trip with Kampuchea Angkor Express, they do not stop in PP city area, but continue straight across the Jap. Friendship bridge to their new office on the other side of the Tonle Sap. All that inspite of me asking where they stop, before buying my ticket. Their answer was at the Old Market. Maybe this is the first stage of relocating all buses outside the city center'.
Interesting that, spend an extra hour in the bus so as to be dropped off at some kind of out of town shelter, jam packed with creamers (moto's / tuktuks). Great system. What about the government open up bus stations for the diverse directions, i.e. a southern, western, northern and Vietnamese bus station? They could ex-expropriate some poor souls, get some git to do all the work for free, lease it out for 100+ years (that's the theory) and sit on top of the cash and do the public a favour in the process. City Hall reads this blog? Nah, they have no dosh for a internet connection ...

On yer bike? Tomorrow an exhibition by Bike Ben on something he did and how he landed up in the Penh. @ the living room.

Chasing Cars yet again

2009-11-23T14:04:00.004+07:00

Under the government's search light this week are yet again the tuk-tuk's:
'City Hall has announced it will stop fining tuk-tuk drivers who lack licence plates until the end of the year, but a ban on tuk-tuks driving along Norodom Boulevard is set to remain in place.
...
Nhem Saron, director of the Municipal Department of Public Works and Transport, said drivers must all respect the Land Traffic Law. “We did allow [tuk-tuks] to drive along Norodom Boulevard, but they did not respect" the law, he said. City Hall cabinet chief Koet Chhe said the city did not allow tuk-tuks to drive along Norodom Boulevard because they wanted to keep roads clear for foreign delegations visiting Cambodia'.
Yet, if they want the roads clear, why take all the Lexuses off, they would make a much bigger impact.

And more under the spotlight. Now even Deputy PM's (how many?) will not be allowed to use sirens ...

Air transport seems to be the most talked about, just look at the following articles:

Phnom Penh just might be connected to the Philippines in the not so distant future, thereby avoiding an expensive flight to Saigon or backtracking to Bangkok.
'Cebu Pacific Air, a Philippines-based airline, plans to begin direct flights between its home country and Cambodia in the spring of 2010, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Tuesday'.
Funny how you are in a regional grouping striving to be one economy and not have direct flights. Next up Djakarta?

Sihanoukville's airport has been personally declared fit to open by the Minister some time back, but the official opening seems to be in the phase of putting off to the future.
'The official opening of Preah Sihanouk International Airport has been delayed until next year at the request of the French embassy, State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Secretary of State Mao Havannal said Thursday'.
So minister yes, French embassy no. Some much for Cambodia being a sovereign state ...

Sovereignty is at the heart of the following.
The plot:
Cambodia not like Thai, Thai not like Cambodia.
Some Thai not like Thaksin.
Thaksin get kicked out of country.
Cambodia now like Thaksin.
Thaksin go to Cambodia.
Thai in uproar.
Cambodia not care.
Apparently Cambodian skies are controlled by Thai firm Samart using CATS as the local front office. One employee hands over flight plan of Thaksin after he has landed (and traversed Thai air space) to Thai embassy official. Cambodia arrests person, kicks official out and takes over the company.
'Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said Cambodia’s takeover of CATS was “temporary” but necessary “to ensure national security and public safety".
Which was not the case before hand?
What is the reality? Nine Thai are replaced by 1 Cambodian. That should be good for the confidence of all Cambodian air travellers.
KI Media adds:
'Cambodia rejected Monday a Thai media claim that the daughter of Prime Minister Hun Sen is to take a stake in a Thai firm at the centre of a spying row'.
An ASEAN spying row?

A Russian project to build a bridge to Koh Pos just off the coast of Sihanoukville.

Rail news.

The railways are decrepit and so a foreign company will spruce them up. that costs money. So some things have to go. Personnel. Apparently the company's previous business plan was as follow:
'Development at the Royal Railways of Cambodia totally stopped, trains run at speeds of 40km/h down to 5km/h'.
A train driver laments:
'At present, I only earn a salary of Riel 116,000 [approx. U$29] per month, and I have been working as a train driver for 28 years. Other workers shouted annoyingly, ‘Even nobody is promoted to new positions, and nobody knows when the salaries will be paid; if there are promotions, this happens only to their partisans.’
The Mirror adds as final sentence:
'“The under-secretary of state in charge of the Royal Railways of Cambodia, Mr. Touch Chankosal, told Deum Ampil, ‘I did not know that the workers had protested" '.

Andy the only train spotter Cambodia has, is now focusing on finding missing train stations as there are no trains to spot.
'For a look at one of those destroyed stations, the shell of Koh Touch, some 16 kms west of Kampot, is worth a look if you are out that way. Some of the walls remain as do the floor tiles, but very little else, as the vegetation has a stranglehold on what's left. A group of female rice-workers in a nearby field looked at me as though I was a complete madman as I took pictures of this empty ghost of the bygone days of the southern line'.

Another boat disaster. The term used seems a bit out of sync.
'The bodies of a father and his three children who drowned after a boat carrying seven people capsized in Kandal province’s Lvea Em district on Wednesday morning have all been recovered'.

New Zealand teaches us road rules.
'A stint in Cambodia teaches you to appreciate road rules. Traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, the give-way rule and seat belts reveal themselves as true blessings. In my time in Cambodia I was honked at, swerved past, almost run over and driven into the path of an oncoming concrete truck by an unrepentant tuk tuk driver.
...
You certainly learn to appreciate roads rules for what they are - lifesavers'.

Chasing Cars, November 9 2009

2009-11-09T13:42:00.002+07:00

From Phnom Penh's Post Police Blotter (26 Oct. 2009):
'A university student was arrested in Phnom Penh on Saturday after throwing his helmet at a police officer during a traffic stop. The accused was stopped for not wearing a helmet while driving his motorbike near Royal University of Phnom Penh. He then threw his helmet, which was hung on the handle of his motorbike, at the police officer. The man’s father explained to police that his son suffers from a mental illness as a result of a traffic accident'.
Guy is mental for not wearing a helmet and having an accident. What does he do, continues his previous lifestyle. Symptomatic for Cambodia's (lack of) education?

And a day later the Police Blotter (27 Oct. 2009) reports: '
A woman who fled from traffic police on Saturday fell off her motorbike on Russian Boulevard in the Sen Sok district of Phnom Penh. The fall rendered the woman unconscious, said witnesses, who added that the bike was equipped with a licence plate and side mirrors, but that the woman had been driving without a helmet. Bystanders complained that police had caused the accident by chasing the woman, who was subsequently brought to an area hospital for treatment'.
It's quite a common occurrence, police being more vigilant. Over the past weekend I was in Sihanoukville and along the way were a few surprise police check points one which had just then resulted in a minor accident.

Old story, woman has an accident and goes beserk. She received instant justice: 1,5 year. Then PM wades in and finds sentence too lenient and presto, authorities are now pushing for a harsher sentence. so much for independence of justice. The new charges: trepassing [you never know how long you can go in the lock up for that, in Cambodia] and intent to kill, despite the article claiming
'she fired a gun into the air'.
Aiming at who?

Another ongoing story with so many twists and turns it's hard to understand what's it about. Well, umm it's about dominance of Cambodia's internal skies with two companies vying and despite both failing to adhere to Cambodia's aviation standards which in itself is also lacking competency. Tripadvisor has the following:
'I've flown VN air (company running flag carrier Cambodia Angkor Airways) turbo-prop planes HCMC-Nha Trang-HCMC - all fine except return leg was delayed'.
So not so fine ...

More on the ongoing projects of the Cyclo Center.

Khmer 440 has pointers on moto-dups.

Story to picture above:

'Volunteers [paid and forced kids] educate an unhappy motorist about road safety laws on Sunday as part of a regular education campaign by the nonprofit organisation aimed at reducing the number of road casualties in the Kingdom'.

Chasing cars, October 26 2009

2009-10-26T12:58:00.005+07:00

Again a lot nonsensical news on Cambodia's roads and traffic in general:

Probably the most extensive coverage is reserved for who is allowed to fly within the country. The government seems intent on allowing their own airline (um, actually the airline of Vietnam Airlines) to be the sole operator by throwing up all kind regulations to which it's competitors fail to comply, only for the same to apply for it's own airline! The tourist is left stranded, but who cares? the headlines:
'Tourism head calls for government to support airlines' (21 Oct.), 'Regulator to write for SRA permit' (22 Oct.) and
'International aviation to review' (23 Oct).

More airline info:
'New routes to be added'.
All new routes are from Siem Reap to Korea.
Then the Airport in Sihanoukville is scheduled to open according to KI Media. In the report the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Secretary of State Mao Havannal had the following to add on the subject above:
'According to Mao Havannal, Siem Reap Airways may be unable to fly from the airport as it has not registered any planes in Cambodia, a requirement for domestic operators to receive an Air Operator Certificate (AOC). “I don’t know for sure if Siem Reap Airways will be able to fly or not” said Mao Havannal. “It depends on the airline because we have already confirmed with them that if they want to resume their operations, they need to register an airplane [in Cambodia]. “It already completely complies with SSCA requirements and has satisfied concerns over its operations.”'
Weird that the Cambodia Angkor Airways can fly while it also has failed to comply with this regulation.

Good news for the bus masochists, Laos is planning buses to ply from Pakse to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.
'According to officials, the Pakxe Public Bus Association has been given permission by the Lao government to provide a bus service to Cambodia . The association planned to provide buses from Vientiane to the southern Lao province of Champassak , and on to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia , they said.'
That means you will soon be able to take the bus to Jinghong, China with just two changes of bus, in Pakse and in Vientiane. Time 3 days and nites?

What's wrong here? Cambo authorities are lacking funds to have simpel signboards.
So they get them sponsored. But then the signboards turn into advertising bill boards.
Then if you click on the photo for detail you see how poorly the directions are given.
No design standard is used and even the opposing traffic lanes are to be used.
Going straight can on the lanes left and right
while the center lane (of a 2 lane road) is to be used to turn right.

In Cambodia though buses are to be regulated:
'would require that companies hire two drivers per bus, and that the drivers switch off every 150 kilometres to avoid fatigue-related accidents'.
The bus company replies:
'Chan Sophanna, general manager of Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation, said he welcomed the effort to improve road safety but said the cost of two drivers would be too high. He went on to defend bus drivers who had been involved in road accidents, blaming them on “careless pedestrians” who walked into traffic without looking. The drivers, he added, needed to flee the scene in many cases to avoid retribution at the hands of onlookers'.
Blame the victims.

The Phnom Penh Post has some pointers on how to establish and manage a Cambodian bus company:
'Don’t lose sight of the small things. You can hire people to sweet-talk tourists into foregoing the money exchange booth at the border in order to rip them off at the bus station. Any day when you can convince a naïve Chinese teenager that he should change $50-worth of Thai baht into riel for an abysmal rate is a small victory.
...
Once customers have purchased their exorbitantly priced tickets and gotten on your decrepit bus, it’s time to let the good times roll. What, in theory, would be a three-hour ride should be lengthened, with a minimum of four stops at shabby restaurants so your fares can purchase plates of oily fried rice for two dollars a pop'.

In Lao they have a new solution to easing higher traffic accident rates:
'Luang Prabang province will be the second province in Laos to launch a project to prohibit secondary school students from riding motorbikes to school.
...
The project aims to help reduce road accidents and traffic, saving family expenditure and protecting the environment'.

The Cambo solution: shelve the moto and the bike.
Post Ketsana use the boat to get to school.
Original from Reuters.

An ongoing issue, are victims allowed to punch up police?
'Kampot rovincial police have arrested four Chinese construction workers on suspicion of assaulting two Cambodian traffic police following a traffic dispute on Sunday'.
However.
'When contacted on Wednesday, one company representative denied that the arrests had taken place, claiming the workers had merely been summoned for questioning. “They did not arrest people. They just asked them to court for some information,” said Shu Jiang, the deputy managing director of Sinohydro'.
The answer is if you have good backers, sure go ahead.

'Road deaths rise moderately'.
That's according to the Ministery of Interior. Though they acknowledge that there may be some differences with other statistics, most notably the RTAVIS. This databank uses the Ministries figures and the Ministry is a partner. It begs the question why there may be a difference ....?

More indepth knowledge on how the police works, thanx to EAS. And revealing that the police are using their speedguns:
'noticed the police had a new 'speed gun' and were pointing it at everyone. Well, the police 100 m onwards, they were aggressively flagging down every old vehicle (never Lexus or Land Crusers) and ours was one.
...
the police only emboldened the police to press charges against him--trumped up. They say they clocked him going 57 in a 55 km/hr speed. Then when they checked his license, they showed it was paper and not plastic (who knows what was right?). [a.: obviously the police do] ... I noticed at least 25 cars flagged down to the similar marked 'lane' where everyone simply handed out some notes and went on'.

Chasing Cars, October 15 2009

2009-10-15T08:02:00.007+07:00

Not much to mention. Seems nothing worthwhile is happening maybe it's just me getting jaded. Oh yeah I could celebrate this being four years of blogging, having nearly 10,000 visitors or this being the 376th posting. But I won't.

My only competitor in this blogging world, the Road Safety Awareness blog, increasingly focus on reporting accident reports and pics from Khmer language newspapers. That might be a good lifelong strategy, no shortage of those. I, for one are going to call it quits after 5 years and then wait for history to catch up with the uniqueness of this blog ...

Road repairs in action in Siem Reap reported by Cambodia Calling. Since the great flood of the town the roadworks would have been futile anyway. Why is her site also not coming with new blog entries?

The Cambodian skies are abuzz with confusing static. Story goes as follows: SRA, daughter comapny of BKK Air flies the only national route. Loses license temporarily last year, BKK Air takes over. CAA created, owned by the gov., starts flying, making lots of loses. BKK Air told to take a hike. Announces return of SRA, but gov. has doubts. To be continued.

As well as the opening of already finished airport.
'State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Secretary of State Mao Havannal said Tuesday that long-awaited upgrades to the coastal resort’s sole airport had been completed by Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports (SCA), which also operates airports in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. “I went to check all the technical equipment last Friday,” he said. “Everything is in place and complies with international standards.”'
So if something goes wrong, we know to blame!

Toll roads exist.
'Local representative Van Savy said that seven illegal checkpoints were operating along the 15 kilometres of road passing through the district. “Each checkpoint will demand five or six thousand riels from anyone transporting firewood or charcoal,” he said, adding that the “tolls” were especially tough on the area’s mostly poor residents.
...
These men aren’t confiscating illegal goods or stopping crimes'.
Is deforesting the forests not a crime?

Above report refuted!
'District Deputy Governor Ham Sam Ang dismissed residents’ claims, saying rumours of illegal checkpoints were baseless. “I went to a place last week that supposedly had illegal checkpoints, but I didn’t see anything,” he said'.
But the question was whether he driving a moto packed with charcoal?

'Workers' [whose not a worker?] in Kampot have the solution to police checks.
'Phlang Phearin, the Kampot provincial police chief, said Tuesday that a fight broke out when the two traffic police stopped a truck carrying Chinese workers from the Kamchay hydropower dam in the province’s Teuk Chhou district. After phoning more workers, the police were beaten up and the suspects fled, he said.
...
Shu Jiang, Sinohydro’s deputy managing director, admitted workers from his company had been involved in the incident but said there was probably more to the story. “My workers attacked the policemen, but there was some reason, I think,” he said. “I don’t know – maybe the police asked for money, and the workers didn’t want to give it.”

Though it's well known that you now need a helmet, mirrors and wear a seatbelt, did you know that drunk driving and speeding is also being cracked down on?
'In Phnom Penh alone, between August and October, 1,172 drivers were caught speeding, and 682 were caught driving under the influence of alcohol, official data show'.
Between August and October means September? But aside from that how on earth has this taken place without anybody experiencing this?

Lots of news on the capsizing of a 'ferry', though in actuality what's meant is a larger boat used for cross-river transport. Seventeen died. Sit.:
'crammed onto the 8-metre-long boat.
...
Roughly 30 passengers were thought to be on the ferry, which officials said was made to carry 20 people, when it sank in heavy rain Saturday night after those on board panicked.
...
Blame for the ferry disaster has been liberally thrown around. An employee of the boat owner who survived the sinking previously said that passengers insisted on cramming onto the 8-metre-long vessel Saturday evening, even though it was clearly overloaded. Cambodian ferry operators had previously been ordered to equip their vessels with safety equipment, such as life vests, said Ung Chun Huor, director general in the Transportation Department at the Ministry of Public Works. Implementation, however, is another matter'.
So is doing your work.

Let's focus on the poor forum moderator of Expat Advisory Services. He makes a tirade about poor parking. Though he virtually could have mentioned any successful bizniz in town, instead he decided to take on just one or two. Unfortunately they are verbally able to defend themseleves and he now finds himself in a pickle.
'Bloody Hell'
He mentions two schools, picks on one, because his daughter goes to the other.

Subtitle to the photo below (original from AFP):
'A fleet of cyclo drivers transport Buddhist paraphernalia, somewhat precariously, for sale at a market in Phnom Penh on Wednesday'.
Is this description not condescending to Budhist religion?

And for something different. All theme press guys complaining about us ripping off their rags. Vuthasurf finds his blog entry on the front page with no reference, let alone some compo. Then totally unrelated he has blog entries on how hard it is to make money from blogs in Cambodia .. Now why didn't he shake the tree first?

Chasing Cars, September 28, 2009

2009-09-27T09:14:00.003+07:00

A tellingly short item in the Phnom Penh Post mentioned that the 'traffic crackdown ends'. Why would that be the case? Because P'Chum Ben is now behind us and there's not much demand for fining poor traffic users? However it's simply the confiscating that is being discontinue:

'Him Yan, deputy director of the Department of Public Order of the National Police Station, said:“We notice that our [confiscation] campaign has been very successful because nearly 90 percent of the population now understand and abide by the traffic laws. So we think it is time we started fining [again].”

Well the fact that fining continues (observed yesterday) as well as this statement seem to contradict the article heading. One wonders though if such a high official can claim that 90% understand and abide to the traffic rules. Surely he means just the couple of rules being enforced. There's still a long way to go

More (or less) on official comprehension. Bangkok Airways which has been flying between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh for the past year have been told to clear off. The Phnom Penh Post mentioned on Friday (25 Sept. 2009) that it was due to commercial reasons, i.e. to protect the governments own air line, howevr today's rag as well as Saturdays Cambodia Daily mention that Siem Reap Airways will start to fly again. Who knows? Thailand's Nation while reporting on the same mentions that Phnom Penh is serviced by JAL and Qatar

Accidents happen. In the middle of town. Outside some of Phnom Penh's more popular nite spots. So no surprise that the Khmer 440 has an extensive thread on this accident. The gis: Camry rams tuk-tuk (and kills chauffeur), wacks some parked bikes and ends up stuck. Driver was arrested would you believe, car was later demolished by spectators. Driver not well connected to get off the hook.

Another bus ride. According to Cambodia Daily (26 Sept '09), bus was on the wrong side of the road, wacks moto (of a police official) and ends up besides the road. Driver disappears. This and more on long distance bus stops on Khmer 440.

Tourist trapping? Yet again a focus on riding Cambodia's decrepit rails:
'Hop on Cambodia's (very) light railway'.
Why not?
'I ask my guide, Thy Racky, if anyone is ever injured. He says six tourists were hospitalised last year when their bamboo train hit a bump and flipped off its wheels'.
It's also deadly boring.

Chasing Cars, pre-P'Chum Ben 2009

2009-09-16T07:56:00.003+07:00

With just a few days to go before P'Chum Ben kicks off, law enforcement seems to be stricter than ever before. I have heard from drivers getting fined (though at unofficial rates) for dodging red lights and not wearing seat belts. Yesterday authorities even had the audacity to apprehend moto's driving the wrong way up street 63! Just goes to show how a little financial incentive can kick-start traffic police into laying down the law ....

'Motorists and pedestrians last week make their way through flood-soaked streets in Phnom Penh' (Phnom Penh Post, 14 Sept., 2009).

Details are Sketchy also refers to the photo of Cambo's PM moto-ing around Kampot, finding the photo all the way over at news.motorbiker.org and repeating the comment on the need to fasten the helmet straps. However the law in Cambodia goes as follows: Chapter III, Art. 9:
'4. The drivers who drive motorcycles, tricycles and the motorcycles with trailers / remorque must wear safety helmets'.
It doesn't stipulate anything about how it should be fastened or what actually constitutes a safety helmet. The same article also mentions that driving and using mobile phones is not allowed, now there's a potential money spinner ....

Continuing with the PM, he now has told transport firms not to overload so as to protect bridges and road surfaces. He also highlighted the problem of corruption in meeting this.
'He [the PM] noted that the ministries concerned would also need to take account of low-level corruption, saying that simply weighing trucks would not be sufficient, as drivers could avoid the measure by giving money to officials'.
Seems a bit unfair if high level corruption is allowed to prevent the lower echelons from earning a little extra.

Khmer 440.com September Caption contest 2. My favourite:

'Bus driver: We can still make it. First we stop here for nyum bai'.

Chasing cars in the rain

2009-09-10T08:25:00.004+07:00

Photo opportunities for the press are far and few between in Cambodia. Mostly the Cambodian PM is pictured rambling on any old folklore tale (when will be the next time war will break out?) while standing in front of a gathering of tired looking officials who only turned up for the following free lunch. Seldom is he caught outside these plush venue's.

But a flood in the coastal town of Kampot provided the opportunity for some great photo's. The following photo shows a PM on moto ('Sir, sir! Yes?'). With wing mirrors and a helmet on. Just wonder whether or not he has his license on him ...
(Source: Reuters via KI Media).

Other than that not much to mention.

Moto taxes were to go down but aren't.
'Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in June that he wanted officials in every province to collect all appropriate fees and taxes in accordance with the Land Traffic Law'.
The key word is appropriate. What is appropriate?
'Authorities have dropped fees from $250 to $100 and then to $60, depending on the type of motorbike'.
The protestors are holding out for $0.

Khmer 440 forum has a debate on how much to pay moto's. Problem solved:
'I always pay a dollar no matter how far or near. I don't know the place of your residence, but one dollars is my standard fare. I know others pay less but I have always paid one dollar a ride for the past 7 years'.
At least he's clear.

Chasing cars, 3-9-09

2009-09-03T16:12:00.003+07:00

Heavy rain has been coming down for the past 4-5 days rendering much of Phnom Penh's infrastructure unusable, at least during the rains themselves. Holes are re-appearing in the street and poor roads are now getting a wash out, take care. What is known as the only flood map of the city, discussed on Khmer 440 has seen added comments 2 years after the original. An update is apparently underway ....

Enforcing the law. The police claim now to have (temporarily) confiscated nearly 100,000 vehicles! Quite a feat. What's more surprising is that over 1% of this vehicles remain unclaimed, can't believe it myself.

Discussion on Khmer 440 also involves comments saying the traffic situation is changing slowly for the better. Crossing Cambodia is yet to see itself as do others, though 2 from members reporting a 'Hummer' giving way! Response:
'Yeah I know the Hummer guy. Don't get your hopes too high quite yet. His maid's on vacation in the province and he doesn't want to wash off the blood and bones fragments by himself so he's taking it easy this week.
She's back next sunday and he'll hit the road (and the rest of us) with a vengeance'.
That's more like it ....

Anyway according to a report of the Traffic Police
'299 tourists were involved in road accidents in Cambodia in the first half of 2009, compared with just 168 in the first half of 2008'.
During that period there were less tourists, so have all of sudden the farang turned into bad drivers? The report has no answers. Why target transport companies for tourist?
'"It is really very bad for our tourism sector when tourists die in road accidents here," said Sem Psnha Vuth, victim and road accident information controller. "Visitors who see road accidents will be shocked."
What about the 'common people'? Not so bad?

The last CC post entry contained a reference to Phnom Penh Posts interview with a female moto-taxi driver. Apparently they are 'rare', they claim. Funny though that the Globe August edition are able to get an interview with another female moto-dup chauffeur. Copy-cats? Though it may be rare and seen as something special Morn Thida denies this.
'What challenges do you face as a female motodop?
To be honest there aren’t that many challenges as the job isn’t difficult.'
She does note a specialty not often en-counted with moto-dops:
'Most people, from my experience, would rather I ask than pretend to know where I am going'.
However the Globe seems to be intend to make Thida feel strange as they insist on asking questions concerning the female element. Thida shrugs them all off. Out of desperation the next to last question is :
'If you were to marry, do you think your husband would mind your choice of profession?
I can’t imagine he would mind. If he can find another job for me that pays more, then great, I’ll try that',
Thida answers. Welcome to the 21st century, Globe!

The Globe is also the source of an in-depth article on Cambodia's new airline, Cambodia Angkor Air. Mostly the article points out the promise. This week it also took delivery of an Airbus, so as to expand the number of flights which seems to contradict the dire econmic times. Whether it's the right move remains to be seen:
'The airline - which launched July 27 - had seen a steady increase in passenger numbers, with an average passenger load of between 30 and 40 percent during the first month of operations, he said, without supplying official data, which he said was not yet available'.
Considering the prices were $6 on the main internal stretch, the economic logic seems to be far away. A CAA spokesperson:
' "For the first few years, we do not expect any profits. We will just promote our carrier and attract customers" '.
Deep pockets?

More past to present info. This time tracks. As expected rail dwellers are not to get much for moving off the rail. The PPP accompanies a brief and boring report with a photo of kids playing on the tracks.

Then the traffic on water. More cash is in the offering for a 'port' in Kep so as to enable tourists heading for The former Cambodian island of Phu Coc, again reported by the PPP. A conference center is what is on the cards ...

With less tourists, boat companies are clashing in Siem Reap over tourists, so reports the PPP. Background of the 'clashes':
' "The Cambodian Association of Travel Agents has no business organising boat tours. They have become involved in order to protect the interests of rich and powerful people," he said'.
Ah, such is the Khmer republic ...

Chasing Cars, 28 August 2009

2009-08-27T18:22:00.004+07:00

With the false belief that law is being successfully enforced, after mirrors (not used), safety helmets (saving the motorists from themselves) and licensing (adding more cash to the government coffers), seat belts are now on the radar:

'Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema has instructed municipal officials to begin informing drivers about the importance of wearing seatbelts, adding that those who fail to do so will soon be forced to pay fines under the Land Traffic Law'.

Whatever happened to enforcing the law? How about the multitude of transport craft that ignore stop-lights, drive on the wrong way or park willy-nilly?
The police though see this latest issue as a challenge:

'Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth said car drivers were generally less likely than motorbike drivers to listen to instructions from police officers, though he said police would still work to "educate them about wearing seatbelts".'

Oh, and by the way sidewalk vendors are also on the way out:

'Over the next two weeks, Phnom Penh municipal authorities say they will attempt to raise awareness of a ban on sidewalk vendors in the run-up to more stringent enforcement of this provision of the Land Traffic Law'.

Keyword attempt.
Anyway this time the excuse is to reduce congestion. My idea is that if you get everyone to adhere to traffic lights, you'll be making great strides, but if enforcing seat belt wearing is challenge then enforcing stopping for a red light might be asking for too much ....

More from Phnom Penh and Cambodia's crazy world of traffic:

The Khmer 440 forum continues in much the same vein. The front page article
'Common sense has lost the building'
is reposted on the forum and elicits some response.
In general, it laments how the government can outlaw tuk-tuks from one of Phnom Penh's major boulevards (but by far not the busiest) by arguing that this results in less congestion.
'The only traffic jams I've seen on Norodom have been at "rush hour", and have been caused by virtually every road user displaying an utter lack of the ability to queue or wait, drifting across lanes, using the wrong approach lane for a right or left turn, joining traffic by creeping toward moving vehicles, and a fair proportion of people driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid said creepers and narrowing the carriageway - particularly at junctions. Surely if I can see that, the planners can too?'.
Curiously is this message, all too typical of Cambodian law enforcement:
'A female Khmer friend of mine was pulled over on Norodom last night because her moto mirrors were "too small". They demanded 10,000r or the bike would be impounded'.
The law states no details concerning the size wing mirrors, it's just a case of petty extortion.

Reports in the Phnom Penh Post on riots concerning enforcing (parts of) the traffic law. Apparently motorists are up in arms because they bought moto's on the cheap. Apparently they were illegally imported and now the government is (after decades of neglect) after the import duties.
'"We did not want to make trouble for the police. We just wanted to send a message to the government to reduce the cost of motor taxes," Vor Vorn said. The demonstrations followed a directive issued earlier this month by Prime Minister Hun Sen ordering provincial police across the Kingdom to collect motor taxes in accordance with Cambodia's Land Traffic Law'.
Times are a changing it seems, but the protesters may well have a point:
'... authorities should blame themselves for not cracking down sooner on those who import motorbikes without paying the necessary taxes'.
KI Media also reports on the 'riots' but from Banteay Meanchey. Here arrest swere made:
'Two persons were arrested by police after they burnt down car tires and safety helmets'.
Burning safety helmets is an offense in Cambodia?

From the Cambodia Mirror, a report from the local press. Who needs law enforcement when this is the law enforcer?
'... the driver of the car that rolled over the guard and killed him is Chan Saroeun, a lieutenant-colonel, and deputy chief of staff of the [Phnom Penh] Municipal Police.
...
However, the Prampi Makara district police could not detain him, because he is a high ranking official, and there was an intervention to release him, from a higher level, at that night. Those who knew him said that he is a high ranking official who is responsible for the enforcement of the traffic law'.
His crime?
'... a white Chevrolet with number plate 2K-6542 was driving very fast from the crossing at the water storage tower near the Olympic stadium towards the market called Phsar Depou, along the Jawaharlal Nehru road. Near the Atlantic coffee shop and hotel, the driver of the car lost control over it, as another car was driven backwards from that shop, causing that car to avoid it, but hitting a parking guard close by and push him onto the road. After hitting the guard, the offensive car [what about the driver?] did not stop, but accelerated and rolled over the guard and dragged him about 20 meters, and then the car drove away'.

A car made in Cambodia, running on solar energy was one of the subjects in the last CC. Now according to KI Media there is a car produced in Cambodia which
'can open it's doors telepathically'.
Is this a case of Lost in Translation?

Discussion at Expat Advisory concerning begging on the street:
'the Monivong - Sihanouk intersection. I see kids there every day. I frequently see traffic cops there every day, in the shade near CD World.... Would it be a stretch to suggest the cops move the kids off the street? For their own safety?'
Answers differ:
- 'one of them almost gave me a bloody heart attack the other day when it was raining out. kid just popped out of nowhere and stuck his face on my car window. my driver immediately popped the locks and i just felt horrible trying to ignore the boy'.
...
- 'one of the little boys tried to bite me last night as i was walking down sihanouk and refused to give him money/food'.
...
- 'Oh my GOD this intersection is a nightmare! ... he started hitting the baby's head on the handle of my moto!'
...
- 'The worst that happened to me on that corner was the small kid who picked up the rock the size of my fist and threatened me.
  Perhaps we could all march down to mr hun sens house in kandal and have a rally. Provided one takes the props like the huge framed photos of our beloved leader it sometimes produces results'.
Key word sometimes.

The details are sketchy blog has a number of traffic related posts, but mostly with nothing to add. On parking:
'The man ignored the shop owner’s request to move his vehicle. A stupid move, as he was to find out. (Nobody messes with the Siem Reap Book Centre … is this guy new in town?) Staff at the book shop returned with a piece of wood with nails stuck in it and started slamming the wood into his car'.

The roads around Siem Reap, an update posted on the Tales of Asia forum:
- 'To Anlong Veng from SR, you're looking at about two hours now on a great new stretch of highway. ...
- the highway is magnificent. SR to Sisophon is about an hour and half or so now. ...
- a decent drive about 80 km from SR, but the road (especially after a rain) is not for hot-rodding [Koh Ker]'

More City Law. Sand and dirt trucks aren't allowed to cross the bridges to enter Phnom Penh. Is there already enough dirt in town?
'"We think everyone should join with us and respect this new policy in order to reduce the number of road accidents, limit any further damage to municipal bridges and help keep the city clean," he said'.
Huh? Just makes it more difficult to enter town thus in-official charges will rise to pass. Keep the city clean? Is it clean already then?

Filling the newspaper. Phnom Penh Post highlights what is believed to be Phnom Penh's only female moto-taxi. Crossing Cambodia can remember earlier articles on her, but can't find any links. Though the PPP
'reveals how difficult it is to be a woman in a male-dominated world',
most of the article reveals nothing whatsoever.

It's a well-known fact that due to the poor railway service in Cambodia, peole nearly live on the rails themselves. With an upgrade on the way, the encroachers will be pushed back.
'"My house will be impacted once they begin clearing away the land 3.5 metres on either side of the tracks," she said. "I am not against this plan, but authorities should think about how to compensate us fairly."
As it is state owned land in the first place, Crossing Cambodia believes somehow that the line of thought will be a boot up the backside.

If all fails, we can always rely on FCC. The problem as described in the Expat Advisory forum:
'Is it beyond the FCC's abilities to remove these aggressive nuisances [tuk-tuk drivers]?
...
Surely a friendly local policeman could be 'persuaded' to move them to a safe distance?'
Possibly it is beyond FCC, there are nearly 10-20 guys posted there all day. Friendly local policeman? Surely not available! Answers vary from:
'smile and say 'No thankyou, I have a driver'
to
'I hate the scumbags,they park or double park every where restricting access for pedestrians and those trying to park cars and actually spend money'.

Chasing Cars, mid-August 2009

2009-08-19T18:29:00.005+07:00

Imposing the law? According to their own claims

'more than 60,000 vehicles have been temporarily impounded'.

That seems a bit unlikely, even logistically. Lost in translation possibly?

'Hem Ya, deputy chief of the Phnom Penh Police Commissariat, said that vehicles have been held in order to educate owners who break the law. "I think that so far, 80 percent of Cambodian people respect the traffic law" '.

Well, wake up call. If that is respect then come again. Nowhere in Cambodia are 80% of the people respecting the law! On a good day you might see 50-60% wearing helmets nowadays, but that's common sense, it's not respect for the law. Respect for the law is having a license, stopping at stop signs, not cutting off other road users, not running red lights, not driving on the wrong side of the road, not cutting corners, not driving and using phone, etc., etc.

Well, let's hope there's better things to report on this week.

Ban the poor souls!
'I’m sure that it’ll be a great consolation to both tourists and tuk tuk drivers that their ban from Norodom Boulevard in the latest lunatic edict from the madcap and increasingly nagging world of City Hall, will ‘prevent traffic jams.’ As it happens, traffic jams caused by groups of people being efficiently and economically ferried around by tuk tuks happen, in my own humble experience, to be somewhere in the region of nil. Whereas, expats across the blogsphere (myself included), have been banging on for years about the exponential increase in the number of fatass, luxury SUVS blocking up the city’s streets - and something tells me that these black steel panthers may have more of a causal relationship with these traffic jams than the humble tuk tuk. The problem is as clear as a bell to me'.

If some readers (and authorities, see above) believe that Phnom Penh is congested, wait til you see Vientiane:
'A massive increase in new vehicles is giving Vientiane commuters a headache as peak hour traffic snarls affect transportation across the city'.
The Vientiane Times has us believe the Lao capitol is in the same league as Saigon, Djakarta and Bangkok! What distinguishes Vientiane from Phnom Penh is the solution sought:
'Minister of Public Works and Transport, Mr Sommath Pholsena said his ministry would focus on promoting and improving public transport as a way to address traffic congestion in the capital'.

Koh Kong is Cambodia's wild west?
'The driver swerved and the back end started to slide out. Shards of rock and rubble started bouncing loudly off the under-carriage, people started screaming, but by some small miracle, the driver managed to recover from the swerve and we didnt end up in the dirt ditch at the side of the road, taking a dirt nap. About 150 meters down the road (in the middle of nowhere), I see a gang of young Khmer men waiting on their motorbikes, scrutinising the bus (for damage I’m guessing?) and looking back at the debris from the smashed boulder, a few with very disappointed looks on their faces and a few others laughing their fucking heads off at our near death experience. By the time we got to the border I couldnt help feeling a bit more cynical and wondering how long it would of taken for the bus to get looted if we had of rolled? What's the value of the contents of a tourist bus these days? a couple of hundred dollars per head, 30+ people, $4-5K? A fair days take for a gang of trainee motodups, id say? I wish I could say this is my only bad experience on Cambodian Buses'.
You mean there are worse?

Odd law enforcement in Sihanoukville. The street determines what the license fee shall be.
'According to a representative of the drivers, the temporary solution provided by provincial office was that motorcycles not bearing any license plate will not be confiscated'.
The same in Banteay Meanchey? And what are we talking about?
'a deputy provincial governor, warned that officials would not be able to reduce the fee, which could be as high as $200. "If we were to reduce it, it would have too large an impact on the national budget," he said'.
The national budget in ruins? Is there a national budget?

A non-report?
'Prices at petrol stations climbed about 3 percent Wednesday, despite calls last week from Prime Minister Hun Sen for lower fuel costs, and petroleum officials said additional price spikes should be expected as world oil prices rise'.
The PM can obliterate the opposition within 2 hours (he claims) but imposing the law on all is difficult as well as getting petrol companies to abstain from making a profit! Met his match?

The National Road Safety Committee claims that traffic injuries are dropping in Phnom Penh. The Phnom Penh Post copies these claims.
'Traffic injuries in Phnom Penh decreased by 55 percent from May 2008 to May 2009'.
55% is a low! But he! Crossing Cambodia swept through the May 2008 and May 2009 reports. Causalities in May 2008 in Phnom Penh: 139 (source (PDF)). May 2009: 219 (source). An increase of 57%! That's just plain poor reporting.
'Though crashes and total casualties in Cambodia decreased compared with May 2008 by 13 percent each, fatalities saw a 12 percent increase'.
The reason for this drop in casualties?
'Ung Chun Hour, director of the NSRC, said that enforcement of the Land Traffic Law - which requires motorbike drivers to wear helmets, among other regulations - is the most likely source of this decline in road injuries'.
Get real, the probable cause is poor reporting. Dying on the road is increasing despite more helmets, that's the message.

Headline from KI Media which must have come as a rude wake up call for the Cambodian government: New Railroads cost Money! An odd comment from an Australian business person:
'it certainly will increase traffic on the rails because road transport as we know is very expensive and considerably dangerous, considering the safety aspects on the roads here," Mayes said'.
The Phnom Penh Post (18 August 2009) might have a solution, by way of the magical words
'additional funding'.
ADB Daydreaming:
' "It makes Cambodia the hub of transportation between China and Singapore, and you would have a port link, you would have a link to Thailand, you'll have a link through to Vietnam, and the implications for that, for Cambodia in the region, are that Cambodia becomes the hub".'
A port and a rail road mean nothing.

Law enforcement at night, a novelty? 'Drink and drive enforcement'

Seldom are we treated to the details of a traffic accident. Apparently if the victim is a relative of someone important then that changes things.
'Yont Thauron, the son of Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yont Tharo, was shot after his car was involved in a minor traffic accident while returning from a wedding'.
Though not necessarily packed with details, the Khmer 440 Forum for once provides us with more:
'From the unsubstantiated rumour department...we took a tuk-tuk last night near the monument and the word according to him was that some rich guy's kid had a minor scrape with a moto around the Monument. The moto was at fault, apologized and swore he'd pay for the damage (how, who knows?). But the kid told him he'd pay at the hospital in blood after he was done kicking the crap out of him. Whereupon the moto guy pulled a gun and shot him'.
Just a rumuor. It does appear there are different versions of the same story. Phnom Penh Post:
'Witnesses at the crime scene said that after the traffic accident, Yont Thauron and his friends exited their vehicle and ordered the motorbike drivers around them to kneel down and apologise, leading to a furious argument'.
Anyway the eventualities are clear, 1 dead, a couple of wounded and 1 poster banned from Khmer 440 forum. Will we ever find out the truth?
'I'm not saying that the stories aren't true, I do not know if they are or if they aren't, but it just doesn't sound like him. Again, thank you everybody for you condolences'.

Humour from NZ:
'Mel writes: "Just before our departure - for the practical test of my full driver's licence - the instructor asked me to test the horn to make sure it worked. Knowing full well that the horn did not work, I turned my head to the right and let out a vocal 'hooonk'. He replied, unconvinced, 'What was that?' I told him it was my car's horn. He dryly noted that he hoped my driving was better than my honking ... I passed no problem."
Probably would not get a pass in Cambodia; tsss... a car with no horn!

Chasing Cars. What? It's August already?

2009-08-08T18:02:00.007+07:00

Skipped a months worth of posting so you might expect a lot to have happened in the meantime, which in a sense is true, though it's not so obvious. So let's get started:

In the past month the local strongman has been using his power to pressure all those with a differing view. However despite announcing that's he's had enough of the traffic anarchy, controlling the population as a whole is a entirely different thing. The PM thought confiscating all and sundry (i.e. those without side mirrors or moto's without helmet clad drivers) will cower the populace into submission. But alas as always, the enforcers all work once a week and by now everyone is back to the ago-old Cambodian custom of driving hither and nither.

Another important occurence is that the country has it's own airline, called Cambodiaangkorair (CAA for short) which sort of covers the subject. However the Cambodian government owns only half of the part that makes the profit. Problem though is that it's totally controlled by Vietnamese, their aircraft, their crews, so Crossing Cambodia doubts whether it will make a profit. Better to keep the fees high than produce a profit which needs to be shared. Wonder if the bright guys thought of that before?
The CAA route map though looks a bit weak, most flights are between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, how is that to serve the country by generating more passengers? The connecting flights section is actually a copy of Vietnam Airlines flights from Hanoi, to which the new carrier does not fly.
If the Cambodians are really serious they should ask Air Asia or the likes to open up routes to the northeast. With good opportunities in place to Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok, creating more options to Hanoi (direct flight?), Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as seeking new sources of tourists from South / East China and central Vietnam is what's required. More info, here, here and here.

Subjects with less coverage / importance:

Elsewhere tuk-tuks are coming into the spotlight for law enforcement apparently. There are roads and other roads where only tuk-tuks may not drive. Why?
'They say we are anarchic and cause disorder in the city'.
If that's the scale to measure, then everyone can start packing! And are they safe?
'But the presence of tuk-tuks on the roads also adds to the chaos of traffic in Phnom Penh. Their large size makes them difficult to navigate, and some are obviously not built with safety in mind - such as those with very thin metal bars to support their back seats, which can be dangerous for larger passengers. Some tuk-tuks are powered by very weak and old motorbikes that cannot effectively transport heavy passengers and goods, leading to awkward turns that obstruct traffic.
'Letter to the editor. Nice people?
'Too many of the drivers aggressively hassle expats and tourists alike, not only with entreaties to take one to the Killing Fields, but also trying to push drugs and prostitution. Many also deliberately obstruct junctions, making it very difficult for pedestrians to make headway'.
Letter to the editor.

Fuel prices are also under investigation ('to reconsider price hike', please).

Airport in Sihanoukville to open? Not yet, as Nicolas Sarkozy wants to do it himself, seeing that it was him who made the thing.... ,not. He's expected to arrive in November. No new flights either ...

Despite the new airlines, Siem Reap Airways still remains blacklisted.

All the law enforcing, has not resulted in less deaths. Cambodian logic:
'Even though we have breath analysis machines, the number of accidents still increases'.

Roads from China? Meant is money from China, roads to ...?
'The gratitude of the Royal Government and the Cambodian people toward the government of the People’s Republic of China, a great and long term close friend'.
All the way back to the Khmer Rouge times ....

Priceless? Mastercard and Hotel de la Paix are donating push bikes to students in Siem Reap.

Road tax to be paid! Vehicles excluded are:
'ambulances and fire trucks; vehicles belonging to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, the military police and the police; any vehicles used for national defence or security; and diplomatic or consular vehicles'.
What's left?

Cambodia's car industry takes off!
'former math and physics teacher from Kampong Chhnang province, uses his knowledge to successfully come up with a solar-energy-powered car'.

Expatadvisory's Phnom Penh forum has an article on child beggers on the street:
'Which brings me to the Monivong - Sihanouk intersection. I see kids there every day. I frequently see traffic cops there every day, in the shade near CD World. ... Would it be a stretch to suggest the cops move the kids off the street? For their own safety?'

More from the same forum. This time it's Phnom Penh's biggest mall, which is in for flak:
'A Khmer friend left her moto & helmet there [Sorya] this week. When she came back they gave her her moto - but not her helmet.'
The gist:
'The car park attendants at Sorya are well know thieves'.
Then the Lucky gets brought into the discussion:
'The parking system at Lucky Sihanouk is far superior, but I still cringe at being charged to use a supermarket car park'.
That's what you get when there's no competition ...

People say Phnom Penh is safe, others deny, however after dark beware:
'an English national is in stable condition at Calmette Hospital after being shot twice during a robbery outside his home near Russian Market early Sunday morning. Assailants shot Mark Fitzpatrick, age unknown, in the back and chest and stole his motorbike around 1:30am, according to police'.
The discussion continues:
'Don't tell me... this guy got here about six months ago and is calling himself an expat. I've had 3 friends "killed" here since '02. I've had dozens of friends get their motorcycles stolen.
...
Foreigners have been getting knifed, conked over their heads, robbed, drugged, mugged, raped, swindled, shot, for as long as I can recall in Cambodia.'.
That sort of sums up Phnom Penh's threats.

Asialife focuses on Vespa's in Phnom Penh. Only for enthusiasts.

Strongman not so in control, blames his underlings for failures:
'Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen also repeated his previous recommendation to look at the roads. Samdech explained, ‘When I say again to look at the roads, that means: first, there must not be illegal check-points along the roads, and second, if the road is damaged, it must be repaired'.

Kampot is getting sidewalks, according to Stan:
'the riverside greenstrip is being completely redone. It compares favorably to its seedy, unkempt, grassy past, but it’s really not to my taste, since it’s nearly all pavement. The paving blocks are very nice and since there is no sidewalk on the river side of the street it’ll definitely come in handy for walkers.
In practice, many people will probably continue walking in the street purely out of habit. I was at an outdoor table on Sisowath recently and saw a lot of people walking on the street even though the sidewalk was largely clear and usable. Some, the Barangs especially, seemed very uncomfortable with vehicles passing by them so closely and sometimes speedily but still didn’t think to move over to the sidewalk. I guess people have become so used to walking in the street the sidewalk just didn’t occur to them'.
He also reveals why there are disabled ramps were built on Norodom:
'Norodom, in fact, has gotten a lot worse with the disabled ramps that were recently installed. Now motorbikes have an easy way to use the sidewalk to avoid heavy traffic. They’ll come right at you expecting you to move out of their way. Hey Dude! This is the sidewalk UNDERSTAND - so have a little respect. I can definitely see the importance of society being more conscious of the needs of the handicapped, but in this case it didn’t work out very well, especially since it’s hardly ever used by the people it was intended to serve'.
All in all a great entry on transportation in Cambodia.

With the railways nearing complete dereliction, it's astounding that there is still freight getting moved, though with a downward trend.

Car dealers are also feeling the pinch. The good news:
'I am not that negative about the economy. As long as people have food to eat, there will be demand for cars.'
Let's hope there will be no famine then.

Haze? Here in Phnom Penh?
'Have you ever wondered how much time gets knocked off your life expectancy when you're stuck in Phnom Penh traffic, behind an antiquated truck spewing thick, black smoke into your face?'
Find the answer in this Phnom Penh Post article.

Chasing Cars, 29 June 2009

2009-06-30T01:48:00.006+07:00

Not much to mention, everyone (in the english press) is on holiday.

There's always the Khmer press to entertain you. Road safety blog dilengently jots down every Khmer and traffic related article. Pictures tell you most, what about this picture of a leg?

Did anyone notice this article from Phnom Pehn Post's Police blotter?
'Two bodyguards of a highranking official, Chhel Chhein, 28, and Chea Chantha, 27, were taken to the Dangkor district police station for hitting a man with a gun in a motorbike incident. The accident was caused by the two bodyguards, who were speeding up on their motorbike and ignored the traffic lights at a juncture. They nearly crashed into the victim, who shouted at them for violating the traffic law. At the police station, the victim demanded a compensation of US$700. The bodyguards paid him only $100, which he had no choice but to accept'.
Typical only in Cambodia?

Another typical only in Cambodia article:
'Tuk-tuk crackdown targets Wat Phnom'
(Phnom Penh Post (18 June 2009). Wat Phnom is one of Phnom Penh's main tourist area's. Tuk-tuks are one of the main modes of transport for tourists. The article mentions that Tuk-tuks are to stay away from this area. Why?
'The police told me that I was parked in a disorderly manner'.
The real reason?
'... they [tuk-tuk drivers] believed the latest crackdown followed a recent near collision between Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema's car and a tuk-tuk in the Wat Phnom area'.

A general message from the ADB:
'without immediate action, the transport sectors of developing countries will account for the overwhelming share of increased carbon dioxide emissions by 2030'.
Great news, but not really. Anyway, with the economic slowdown this prospect will also disappear.

ADB, though finances the alternatives:
'the new [railway] station would be funded by a US$20 million loan from the ADB'.
The alternative however is
'expected to displace 200 families in Dangkor district should be completed by 2012'.
The good news is that something is happening. Lot's of hot air has passed on the revamping of the national railway, but little substance. This seems concrete at least.

More general world news:
'Nearly half of the 1.2 million people killed in traffic accidents around the world each year are not in cars. They are on motorcycles and bicycles or walking along roadsides.
...
Traffic accidents were the 10th-leading cause of death in the world in 2004, behind lung cancer and ahead of diabetes, and they are on track to become the fifth-leading cause by 2030'.
Surprisingly the report then neglects this highlight and recommends the following action:
'The report identified five risk factors for injury on the road, each of which can be lessened by well-enforced laws: speed, drunken driving, helmets, seat belts and child restraints'.
As if this were unknown. Though this article shows what's needed:
'the focus should shift to what it calls "vulnerable road users" -- i.e. pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
Naked cyclists [the World Naked Bike Ride took place on the 14th of June] who braved the elements last weekend couldn't agree more. Some people have a hard time understanding what being in your birthday suit has to do with bicycle advocacy. Cyclists themselves, especially those braving city streets, totally get it'.
Now let's hope the Cambodian traffic authorities get it ....

Phnom Penh waterfront

Chasing cars, 10 June 2009

2009-06-10T22:30:00.005+07:00

Quite a lot to mention:

A number of bigwigs were in town, time for a city clean up:
'Police say the roundup was part of a campaign to clear the streets of drivers who sleep in their tuk-tuks'.
Phnom Penh Post 26-05.
It 'angers' the tuk-tuk drivers:
'The majority of the 34 tuk-tuks confiscated during the street sweeps ahead of last month's ASEAN-EU meeting have been returned, but drivers claim unfair restrictions have been placed on them by Phnom Penh police, which, they say, put their livelihoods in jeopardy'.
But in order to have their vehicles returned to them, tuk-tuk drivers say they have been forced to sign a contract saying they will not drive on Daun Penh district's three main roads - the popular tourist streets of Sisowath Quay and Norodom and Sothearos boulevards'.
A tuk-tuk driver
'had to pay US$55 to the police in order to retrieve his vehicle'.
Law enforcement Cambo-style: No offence committed!'

How to build a tuk-tuk? The PPP interviews an entrepreneur:
' "I noticed in 1998 that my country was not making any tuk-tuks.
...
The factory builds about 10 units per month, which sell for between $500 and $550. Each tuk-tuk takes 3-4 days to finish, and most of the raw materials are imported from Vietnam, including welding machines, dying machines, metal cutters, cast iron machines and chisels.
But even Tuk Tuk Craft is not immune to a global financial meltdown that started thousands of miles away, and Loun Vanna estimates sales have dropped 30 to 40 percent since late 2008'.

Harking back on the last issue of 'Chasing cars', a letter to the editor of the Phnom Penh Post (26 May 2009):
'Regarding the article "PM presses for bike seizures" (May 21, 2009), the police could be empowered to seize and confiscate motorbikes without side mirrors and drivers without helmets under a Land Traffic Law amendment proposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen.At the moment, we can see that officials at police posts on our streets and boulevards don't all have their proper identity numbers or uniforms. Rather, they seem more intent on pulling over motorbikes and collecting "fines". Perhaps officials think that these "guilty" fines from motorbike drivers will enhance the national income in some positive way.
...
Another inequity committed by traffic police is their attempts to fine foreigners at a much more exorbitant rate. My foreign friends say traffic police regularly attempt to extract fines of between US$5 and $20. But Cambodia's traffic laws do not establish one rate for Cambodians and another for foreigners. All drivers, regardless of nationality, are legally obligated to pay only between 3,000 riels and 6,000 riels for motorbike infractions'.

More law enforcement issues:
'A municipal order that went into effect Monday requires motorbike passengers to wear helmets, although the Land Traffic Law does not stipulate that helmetless passengers can be fined.
...
Ty Nath, a 40-year-old motorbike driver, said Monday that he was forced to pay 50,000 riels (about $12) after officers caught him driving without a helmet near Central Market. His two passengers weren't wearing helmets either. He said the police did not bother to explain the specifics of the law or the municipal order. "They just told me the fine was a compromise," he said before the officers returned and interrupted an interview'.
Funny, though despite all this noise, still less than 2/3 of all drivers wear helmets. Personally Crossing Cambodia believes that it is a heavy core group of traffic offenders: most people driving up the wrong way on a one-way street are exactly those without helmets!

A big event: the opening of a bridge. The city was locked off to the south-west just for a ceremony; the lock off was more than 12 hours. People failed to show up at work, my maid couldn't make it to a funeral. Anyway, commuters there who thought their worries were over, at nearly the exact same place, the ground work has started for a fly-over. Though the PM stated that the fly-over is:
'to ease traffic congestion in the capital'.
The city govenor associates the fly-over with the need to:
'help to eliminate poverty'.
Huh?

Veunxay, Ratanakiri: no bridge here!

Despite all the hoopla for the bridge, another first goes unnoticed:
'Cambodia will have its first taxiway next month in Phnom Penh International Airport, a path that connects the runway to where airplanes park to increase the flight capacity of the airport, local media reported on Friday'.
More curiously the Phnom Penh airport officials see the light at the end of the tunnel:
'Currently, only 10 passenger planes can land or take off in an hour from the airfield at Phnom Penh's airport, said Sok Puth Thoeun, director of the airport's engineering department. That will jump to at least 16 planes with the planned taxiway'.

More in-flight information. In the never ending saga of a flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines are taking over the Cambodian skies. Beware however they are just servicing Sihanoukville. Is that's what expected of a flag carrier? Anyway it's all top-secret according to the Phnom Penh Post:
'Ownership of the national carrier is a closely guarded secret. Aom Chenda, an information official at the Council of Ministers, told the Post Tuesday that Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told a Vietnamese oil company delegation Monday that a new national carrier would make its maiden flight July 18.
He repeated the comment to reporters following the meeting but did not disclose who owned the airline, saying only that it was a local company. He also told the reporters the maiden flight would be July 17, contradicting the earlier statement.
Meanwhile, Mau Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), said Tuesday said that an "anonymous private local company" was preparing documents to apply to run flights out of Kang Keng Airport but that no official application had been received. "We do not know who owns the national carrier because it has not been named yet," he said. Chea Aun, director general of the SSCA, confirmed that the "private local company" would use French-made ATR planes'.
Pity for the Indonesians who had been awarded the possibilty to undertake this. And for their Cambo henchmen!

Anyway it's going to be a difficult start. Air arrivals dip 16% in the first four months of this year. An article in yet again the PPP with an unintentional (?) shot of Vietnam Airlines aircraft. Citation of the week:
"We think that the decrease is not only a problem in Cambodia but it is a worldwide concern, and we hope that the problem will improve soon," he [Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents] said'.
So do we, so do we .... Let's all hope together, then it might just go away!

Why the new flag carrier would fly PP - Sihanoukville beats Crossing Cambodia: it's such a short distance and you'll face considerable inconvenience once in Sihanoukville. Anyway, despite the airport there being inconvenienced for a couple years there seems to be an urgency to get their act together. Unfortunately at the cost of villagers surrounding the airport.
'families facing eviction said they haven't been offered any compensation since the airport expansion plans were announced in 2006'.
The current urgency:
'The airport expansion may become more pressing as progress is made towards a new national carrier. According to Mau Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, an "anonymous private local company" was preparing documents to apply to run flights out of Kang Keng Airport'.

A pleasant surprise on the Phnom Penh roads has been the disappearance of police and army license plates. Police are behind this:
'Chao Phirun [army spokesperson] said Hun Sen's April 30 speech and subsequent warnings had prompted 90 percent of violators to remove their unauthorised military plates'.
Now they just ride around without license plates.

Accidents are going down, apparently. PPP:
'The number of people involved in road accidents in Phnom Penh fell by 32 percent in February compared with the previous month, the Cambodia Road Traffic Accident and Victim Information System (RTAVIS) said in its most recent report'.
Cambo Daily:
'The number of traffic casualties in February the most recent month for which data are available dropped 10 percent around the country compared to the same period last year'.
Now the why? Cambo Daily again:
'attributed the drop to Chinese New Year celebrations taking place in January and not February this year'.

The Road Safety Awareness in Cambodia blog is slowly becoming someone's daily (paid) job. Though it echo's this blog to some degree, it fails to note the context. Lately it's been including lots of pics of accidents swiped from Cambodian language web sites. Have fun!

Innovative ideas from around the world. We've had the sponsored pothole patches. This time in Canada, a slightly different twist of the same theme:
'People in a small town in Western Canada are so fed up with the rotten state of their main road that they came up with an unusual form of protest - a calendar that shows them posing nude in the potholes'.
Pity people here are not so in to calenders.
This weekend is also another good cause, pro bicycles, anti gas guzzlers. It's the World Naked Bike Ride, um ... but not in Phnom Penh. Nor anywhere else in Asia by the looks of it. Are Asians anti-bikists?

A final note, who said there were no bus-stops in Cambodia?
'Three men from Baliley village, Poipet commune and town, Banteay Meanchey province, were arrested for allegedly wounding and robbing a 33-year-old Belgium man of US$180 on May 26 while the victim was standing at the Poipet bus stop'.

More enforcement

2009-06-03T08:09:00.003+07:00

The Mirror continues with highlighting law enforcement especially concerning the traffic law and how haphazardly and discriminatory it's being implemented:

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 614

One week ago, the following observation and question was shared here in the Mirror:
“Most societies work with the concept that individuals do not have the right to break the rules or to use violence that harms others – but the state has a monopoly to enforce laws, and it is assumed that this happens regularly, as a matter of fact.
Why is it that in Cambodia, law enforcement often does not happen just simply based on an existing law, but an additional appeal or even a threat is necessary?”
Now, after the Prime Minister had pointed to the fact that important elements of the Land Traffic Law of 2007 are not being implemented, an active campaign is under way to catch violators. There is police positioned in different parts of Phnom Penh, stopping motorcycles without side mirrors, and with drivers without helmets.
I saw on Saturday how two teams of policemen with walkie-talkies, some placed at a busy intersection, and the second group placed some distance along the road, identified and caught violators of the Land Traffic Law of 2007. I observed how they caught one after the other motorcycle driver. But I observed also that a big black Landcruiser without a license place passed by slowly, and nobody cared.
Probably only if the Prime Minister would issue an order to catch big cars without license plates the traffic police would act?
But does this really help?
Two weeks ago, on 20 May 2009, we had mirrored the following headline from Rasmei Kampuchea:
“Prime Minister Warns Officials to Stop Interventions in Traffic Accidents [to release their family members, relatives, or friends, without letting the law deal with them]”

But on 26 May 2009, there was the following headline in Deum Ampil:strong>“A Minor Traffic Accident Leads to the Shooting of Three Bullets”
What had happened?
A luxury car collided with a motorbike with a young man and a woman. Then the man who had driven the car, pulled out his gun and shot three times in the air, but the people who had been on the motorcycle fled. The Khmer newspaper did not provide much more information, and the accident did not seem to have made it into other Khmer papers.
The English Cambodia Daily reported more on 26 May 2009:
The son of a high ranking government official shot a handgun into the air three times after his car collided with a motorbike…, though police did not arrest the shooter, according to witnesses and police officers who requested anonymity. Multiple officers declined to provide the young man’s name due to the power and influence of his father. “We are in a lower position, so we dare not touch them,” one officer said. Seng Chanthon, deputy chief of traffic offenses of the city’s traffic police department, confirmed that an accident had occurred, but he would not say whether shots were fired nor give the name of the alleged government official’s son who allegedly opened fire… Police quickly surrounded the scene, according to witnesses and police officers, but the shooter and his passengers simply left in another SUV [Sport Utility Vehicle] that arrived. The driver of the car, which had its front wheel damaged, however, retrieved his vehicle in person at the Chankar Mon discrict police station on Monday morning… According to Pen Khun, deputy municipal police chief, no official reports by police or the public have been made regarding the crash and the shooting.”
So what? How to relate the two messages of 20 May and of 26 May 2009?

The traffic police is busy following the order to implement the Land Traffic Law of 2007 – catching often simple people who have not yet bought a helmet. The message of the Prime Minister of 20 May 2009 has obviously not yet reached the traffic police – not even the higher level officials whose names are quoted above.
So what will be the next step? Or will there be none for quite some time to come?

Despite the Mirror noticing more traffic law enforcement, at least 1/3 of all drivers still ride without helmets, so much for enforcing the law. Is it me or are the guys (they often are guys) driving in the wrong direction and ignoring the lights never with helmets? It certainly seems so. Possibly this points to a serious group of untouchables, how will the police ever get them to tie the line?

On the same subject of law enforcement Andy Brouwer relates to the peculiar "law' which saw several tuk-tuk chauffeurs have their possessions impounded by the traffic police because a number of dignitaries were visiting last week. Their 'crime'?
By yesterday (Tuesday, 3 days after the 'meeting'), not only had the owners not been able to retrieve their means of making money, they had failed to find out which government establishment had stoshed the booty!( Cambodia Daily?)

Totally unrelated it may seem but yesterdays Phnom Penh Post gives us an example of how 'law' is maintained:

'On Tuesday morning the police in Battambang province called two seventh-grade students aged 15 and 16 at Netr Yang High School who were standing in front the police station to come in and cut their hair, which police said was too long. The police said they could not stand seeing students looking so bad'.

And what if the the police look bad at implementing the law? That's fine? Can the public stomach this?

Enforcing the law

2009-05-26T09:19:00.003+07:00

The Mirror's take on law enforcement:

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 613

The Mirror has frequently focused on problems related to law and order – including, of course, the rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution, which the organs of law enforcement should protect and not curtail.

Very often problems in society do not happen because of a lack of legal clarity, but because existing laws are not enforced. Stability and happiness in a society depend, however, on predictability and general contentment, based on the notion that laws will be enforced to establish justice in peace.

In every society there are people who break the law – that is why all societies and states have developed rules how to deal with such violations of the rules. Most societies work with the concept that individuals do not have the right to break the rules or to use violence that harm others – but the state has a monopoly to enforce laws, and it is assumed that this happens regularly, as a matter of fact.

Why is it that in Cambodia, law enforcement often does not happen just simply based on an existing law, but an additional appeal or even a threat is necessary.

In 2007, traffic accidents killed 1,545 people in Cambodia. In 2008, 1,638 people lost their lives on the roads. During the first four months of 2009, already 579 people were killed on the roads. If this trend continues, the death toll by the end of the year may be more than 1,700.

There are many reasons that contribute to this tragedy, and many different measures to work against it.

A couple of years ago a rule was established that motorcycles have to have rear-view mirrors, and after a period of preparation – ? – a campaign was held for some weeks, educating drivers without such mirrors. In 2007, a new Land Traffic Law was adopted, that drivers of motorcycles have to wear helmets. The police was authorized to fine drivers in violation with Riel 3,000 [approx. US$0.75] for no helmet, and Riel 4,000 [approx. US$1.-] for no side mirrors.

But the chief of the traffic police in Phnom Penh was recently quoted as saying that fining those who do not respect the law does not seem to be very effective – a surprising statement, when one sees regularly groups of police standing at the roadside and not intervening when traffic is stagnant or congested.

Now we had a headline, saying: “Head of the Government Orders Not to Charge Money from Those Who Do Not Wear a Helmet, but to Confiscate Their Motorbikes – the Owners Cannot Take Their Motorbike Back Unless They Go with Their Newly-Bought Helmet.“ The Phnom Penh Post had more to report from the Prime Minister’s speech: “Police must keep the motorbikes, and when the owners have helmets and side mirrors, they can get their motorbikes back, and I will grant the owners one liter of petrol as an encouragement for them.”

Is change to come? This is difficult to predict, considering a report in the Phnom Penh Post:

“The general director of the General Transportation Department at the Transport Ministry, said that the ministry would re-examine existing traffic legislation to identify the articles that needed to be amended.

We think that it will take a long time to amend this law because we have to check all the articles that are being enforced before sending it to the National Assembly.”

Will change come from new, detailed legislation, or form a new approach to the enforcement of existing law? To reform road traffic, starting from a weak sector seems anyway to be an “easy way out” – one would have expected also a word about the many private luxury cars without any number plate at all, or the heavy ones with with military or police plates, driving high speed on the wrong side of the road, with headlights on, indicating that “Now get out of my way, don’t you see who is coming!”

But there is some hope.

The Prime Minister gave also also an ultimatum of two weeks to the many owners of cars with military or police number plates, who are actually using the license plates illegally for their private vehicles. Several hundred cars have been re-registered in the meantime. It can be assumed that most of the owners and drivers of these cars, mostly middle and high ranking officials, knew well that they were acting illegally until now.

These are the first steps on a long and arduous way towards a deep re-orientation of values. How complicated the related mental attitudes are, became obvious when a journalist, taking a picture of a banner announcing the advice of the Prime Minister – not to charge a monetary fine from those who do not wear a helmet, but to temporarily confiscate their motorbikes – was detained for some time, until he could convince those who had detained him, that the press law allows it that one takes a picture on a public road.

But all know that the press don't like laws! Especially for themselves.
Otherwise it's a thoroughly entertaining article.

Chasing Cars Cambodian style, 24 May 2009

2009-05-24T15:06:00.009+07:00

A round up:

Cambodia’s PM goes against the grain. He actually wants bribery and especially bribing police to stop:
‘“Some government leaders give money to traffic police and the gendarmeries, but sometimes this kindness scorns the forces who apply the law and scorns the law as well,” Hun Sen said at a ceremony to change heads of the government’s counter-drug office. “Please stop doing it.”
Why would he mention this at a counter- drug ceremony? And why is he so anti-Cambodian social norms?

What is acceptable [from khmer440 forum]?
'Someone has spent large at the Mercedes dealership today. I got pulled over by the police on Norodom this afternoon while a convoy of brand new Mercedes cars and minibuses headed south. There must have been over 40 vehicles, all of them spanking new. All the cars had signs in their front windows telling the names of different countries. Is Cambodia hosting a major international meeting?
....
I wonder who payed for all those cars - that's some serious loot.'
A.: ....?

More gifts:
'China on Tuesday provided about 73 million U.S. dollars of a concessional loan to Cambodia to build a part of main road in the northeastern part of the country to develop that area into a newly potential economic zone'.
Technically it's not a gift, but who will pay this back?

More on gifts, but now from the less fortunate Lao: '
Lao cops accept donation.
No doubt, these sponsored plastic traffic danger triangles will greatly assist them'.

And now we are to find out what happens to the gifts: the speed guns are in use. At least according to the Phnom Penh Post (19-05-2009). But citing Phnom Penh's top cop:
'We are reconsidering working at nighttime.... It is a bit hard to work at night for the police when they try to stop drunken drivers, especially in dark places'.
Surprise, surprise, Cambodian drivers usually drink, drive and speed at night as during the day there is too much traffic and lights interfere with the drinking business!

Meanwhile on the license plate biz front a Phnom Penh Post writer on Monday had the following:
'The government is cracking down on cars with unauthorized police and military number plates. But around 8:30am, everyone can see Mercedeses with government plates driving the opposite way on Monivong Boulevard towards the Council of Ministers building. Why do cars with government plates insist on driving in the opposite lane during rush-hour traffic, as if they were an emergency vehicle like an ambulance or firetruck?'

And then the PM waded in:
'During a speech at the Ministry of Interior, Hun Sen ordered ministers to take action after he noticed that drivers were still flouting his recent ban on the use of RCAF and police plates by unauthorised vehicles. He said he had ordered the ministers of interior and defence to establish a deadline for drivers to get rid of their illegal licence plates, saying any cars still bearing unauthorised tags would be confiscated by the state.'

Not only cars need to confiscated, according to yet again another Phnom Penh Post article:
'Police could be empowered to seize and confiscate motorbikes without side mirrors under a Land Traffic Law amendment proposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Drivers without helmets would also be subject to the amendment suggested in a speech Tuesday'.
That seems a bit harsh. Moreover it's against the law. Currently only art. 84 gives police the powers to confiscate, but only in cases of overloading a truck. Despite that traffic police do regularly confiscate cars after accidents, this in clear contravention of art. 72. One problem with laws are that they are supposed to be adhered to. And considering that a new law can take anything of up to 10 years to draw up (in the case of anti-corruption), amending this law might take some time.
Finally, Phnom Penh's top traffic cop adds a curious remark:
'"I think it is good that the law [will] allow police to catch the motorbikes to warn those who do not respect the law because fining them does not seem to be very effective," he said'.
But we have already proven (see previous Chasing Cars that it's the police who are failing to be effective, not the law!

On law enforcement, from Thailand, a mention in today's Bangkok Post.:
'Director Nonsri "Oui" Nimibutr has been convicted on a second drink-driving offence. A court has sentenced the former drink-driving campaigner to 14 days in jail, reduced to seven days confinement after he confessed. They also suspended his licence for six months.
...
"I want the court to reconsider the sentence. I don't want to just sit around for seven days. How about getting me to front another advertisement, free of charge, on the dangers of drink-driving?"'.

Yeah, how come?

Finally on trip advisor someone who has more info on Mekong Express buses. More than the company themselves.

Somewhere along the highway in Kampong Thom province.

Chasing cars, 17 May, 2009

2009-05-17T11:00:00.006+07:00

Another list of updates:

Prominently, it seems another corner of Cambodia which elicits non-stop whining is nearing it's demise:
"We have a comfortable ride to Siem Reap since the road is nearly finished now." The road from Poipet that is. What remains: 'So we're finally done, and prepare ourselves for the most difficult step, getting the taxi to Siem Reap'.

Up next as always, ah yes, the non-allowed license plates.
'Prime Minister Hun Sen warned last week against the use of police and military license plates by civilians and low-ranking officers, saying the government would seize vehicles bearing unauthorised plates as part of a crackdown set to go into effect this month'.
How does the law work in Cambodia?
'Phnom Penh Traffic Police Chief Tin Prasoeur said he viewed Hun Sen's remarks as a "notice that we have to start implementing" the law. We immediately started implementing it after the prime minister's speech," he said, although he said this "implementation" involved only the recording of registration plate numbers that appeared to be in violation of the law.
"We just take the plate numbers down. We do not fine them," he said'.
Big help? Thinks not. The article originally from the Phnom Penh Post attracts a fair amount of passionate commentators on KI Media.

Two days later the Phnom Penh Post wades in yet again:
'Crackdown on unauthorised plates has led to a surge in applications for civilian plates at vehicle registration office.Police on Tuesday continued removing unauthorised police and military license plates from vehicles throughout the capital, but officers said they had not yet begun administering punishments specifically outlined in the law that prohibits civilians and low-ranking officials from using such plates'.

Law enforcement?
'POLICE ZEALOUS IN ENFORCING NEW LAW
Van Yeth, 29, was reportedly beaten by Phnom Penh police Friday after he was stopped for driving a vehicle with no registration plates. The conflict erupted when police fined the man 9,000 riels (US$2.25), but failed to return change from US$10. The victim is threatening legal action after the incident, which occurred on Russian Boulevard, Sen Sok district, Phnom Penh'.
Phnom Penh Posts Police Blogger.

And ... some more law enforcement issues:
'Traffic police say they are planning to crack down on speeding, drunken driving and driving without a license, with drivers being dealt fines as soon as next week'.
Rest assured:
'"We received the order to implement these laws this week, but due to the holiday, we will implement them next week," he said'.
Crossing Cambodia just renewed his license, took 4 weeks, cost 35$. Cambodia Daily (13 May 2009) adds:
'the delay also arose out of a need to further advertise the laws and fines more effectively to the public'.
HIB (cited in the Cambodia daily):
'it is high time enforcement starts as statistics indicate most traffic accidents on Cambodia's mostly lawless roads are caused by drink driving and speeding'.
However, the Road Safety Cambodia site states:
'Over 90% of accidents are caused by human error. Speed, particularly along the national roads, drink-driving, dangerous overtaking and general violations of the traffic law are the chief causes of accidents (RTAVIS 2007)'.

Last Chasing Cars reported on how Cambodian villagers were blocking the Trans Asian highway. More inaccurate reporting, this time by the VoA.

Trans-Asian Highway. Trans-Asian Railway. According yet again to VoA:
'Chinese and Australian engineers are gearing up to build the final stretch of track in the Trans-Asian Railway, which will link Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand with Vietnam and China through Cambodia. The Cambodian government has divided the country's railway system in two. Australia's Toll Holdings takes control of old French-built lines in the east, which run from the capital to the Thai border and south to Sihanoukville, home to one of the largest ports in the Gulf of Siam'.
The Chinese apparently will look into connecting Phnom Penh to Vietnamese rail system via Snoul. Possibly if they look better at the map, they might discover that this is by far the shortest distance ... not.

Another piece of Cambodia's Trans-Asian Bamboo bridge, here the Kampong Cham section.

Finally, on the Khmer 440 forum this question:
'Do cars require a safety Certificate in Cambodia every year?'
A.: No.

Chasing Cars, 3rd of May, 2009

2009-05-03T09:11:00.004+07:00

Just a couple of news items.

Leafing through this weekends Cambodia Daily, I was struck by the aggressive (for them) journalism being undertaken. Not what we expected of them.
So are they trying to catch up with the Phnom Penh Post? Trying to win back readers?
How about putting their stories on the net? Since the Post went Daily nearly all references to the daily have disappeared from the i-net.
Anyway back to traffic. Front page caption:
'Police Fail To Enforce Speed Laws by Deadline.
After weeks of public announcements warning that Phnom Penh traffic police would begin strictly enforcing the city's new laws against speeding and drunk driving on May 1, the much-hyped equipment for identifying speeding and drunken drivers was noticeably absent from the roads Friday.
Why? Feeble explanation 1:
'Deputy National Police Chief Ouk Kimlek said the police needed more time to publicize the new rules against speeding and drinking and driving, though TV and radio commercials announcing the plan have been airing since at least mid-March'.
Feeble explanantion 2:
'Phnom Penh Traffic Police chief Tin Prasoeur said that his officers, despite having received training, still had concerns about using devices such as the alcohol Breathalyzer and speeding cameras'.
So did they get trained? Or was the training just on paper? What are the concerns? Why does this explanation conflict with feeble explanation 1? The traffic police chief seems at a loss:
'He [Tin Prasoeur] did not know why the equipment needed to be examined further.
HIB now goes on the offensive:
'Ryan Duly, road safety adviser for HIB: "Education is an important part of road safety, but you have to follow through with enforcement".
Even more mind boggling are the final comments by the "spokesperson" of the National Police (though earlier id. as Deputy National Police Chief, is it either/or or both?):
"it is unrealistic to expect "100 %" enforcement'.
But 0% is realistic?
Oddly though, the Phnom Penh Post mentioned on Friday that the new equipment would be deployed on Monday .... Maybe the Cambodia Daily reporters should start reading the Post!

The reporters of Cambodia Daily seem to have to be making up, for taking a holiday during Khmer New Year. On page 18, a full article captioned by
'Helmet Use on the Wane, despite New Law: Watchdog'.
Crossing Cambodia has drawn attention to this issue, already back in February, no less. Then again, Crossing Cambodia is no government watchdog, probably more a particularly unreliable source of information. Anyway, the Watchdog they refer to is Handicap International Belgium (the aforementioned HIB).
'The helmet wearing rate was much higher in the first few weeks before dropping off, partly due to lax law enforcement, Handicap officials said.
...
The key to maintaining a higher level of helmet wearing is twofold: The police must maintain the threat of punishment for violators, while the government and NGOs must go further with their road safety eduction programs. He [HIB Official] said that the 3,000-riel (US$ 0,75) fine handed out to violators is too small, as it did not deter many drivers and did not motivate police to enforce the law to the fullest'.
Can somebody explain why the police must be motivated to enforce the law? Is it not their job?
"Phnom Penh Municipal Traffic Police Tin Prasouer denied this week that his officers had become lax in their enforcement of the helmet law, saying police continue to fine drivers not wearing helmets. Municipal police chief Hin Yan acknowledged the sharp decline in the percentage of drivers wearing helmets compared with the law's initial wave of compliance after Jan. 1'.
But the drop was not due to lax enforcement. No, this guy (Hin Yan) knows the reason:
"Many people have never used them before, so they might feel uncomfortable to use them because sometimes they can't hear anything," he said.
But that does not explain the drop? Or is the urge to phone and moto around town increased dramatically?
The reporters then do some of their own research. In a 15 minute time period they see 30 helemtless drivers wizz past 4 police officers on a city intersection with no action being taken. Then, after half an hour, the police retain life functions and clear the road for an oncoming motorcade. They pull everybody to the side of the road, but still fail to pick up helmetless riders. The article concludes that more promo needs to be done, why not conclude that the police should do their job? Or are they hopeless?

Rattanakiri, no roads. But with helmets!

Furthermore, this weekends Cambo Daily reports on the usual occurrence of a traffic accident between equals going wrong. This time a 'minor fender bender' erupted in an all too predictable shoot-out between occupants of a Toyota Landcruiser and a Honda CRV. Apparently the Landcruiser guys lost and their car has been impounded. The CRV got away. The report explains that this was the second shootout this week, that the know of.
'Thursday nights incident was the second this week in which a minor traffic accident resulted in guns being produced and a driver being assaulted. On Wednesday at lunchtime a man was allegedly assaulted and had a weapon drawn on him from behind in a minor accident on Norodom Boulevard. Police arrived on the scene, but allowed the armed man to leave, claiming both sides had come to an understanding.
...
One human rights monitor said he'd be surprised if police actually pursue either part. "It goes back to the problem of immunity.
...
I think that this is not news to anyone that state actors have enjoyed immunity for well over a decade in instances as these".
So it's actually not a news item. Oh did I mention that the CD also had on it's front page the CNN allegations that the biggest show trial in Southeast Asia ever is in danger, due to a senior Cambodian official pocketing $40,000 monthly and the government seeing nothing wrong in this?

More battles.
'Boaters Battle for Chong Keas',
the Phnom Penh Post reports on 30 April 2009.
'Travel agents and boat owners are fighting the Sou Ching Co, which runs the port in Chong Kneas and is striving to regulate tours through the popular lakeside village.
...
On the waterfront in Siem Reap, a battle is brewing between those who believe that Sou Ching is bringing a desperately needed level of organisation to lake tourism and those who say the company is imposing ill-advised, draconian policies without consulting the people who rely on boat tourism'.
The good news:
'Some boat owners are also burned by the fixed pricing system, which prevents them from fleecing tourists. "They're not losing their livelihood," said a source who works at Sou Ching. "They're losing their corrupt livelihood."
Meanwhile over in the port of Kep, the Japanese are moving in to ... get the Vietnamese to move in!
'A Japanese company is investing US$4 million to develop a tourist port in Kep province, the provincial tourism chief said Thursday. Rotong Development Group is behind the deal that would allow Kep to receive cruise ships and link the town to Phu Quoc island in Vietnam, provincial authorities said. A ferry capable of accommodating 220 passengers would operate under the first phase of the project'
Though I've heard it before, there's no reason not to think it won't happen.
'Tourism Minister Thong Khon said the development will begin soon and would "only take six months to complete".
Don't hold your breath on this one. PM Hun Sen is appalled by the Japanese:
'"I have told the [Japanese government] to begin building the Special Economic Zone. We already signed an agreement in 2006, but we are still waiting," Hun Sen said'.

Is Cambodia a pothole? Apparently so, so says the Bangkok Post (3-5-09).
'The Trans-Asian Highway meant to link many countries has hit a big pothole in Cambodia'.
Biased bigots, I hear you say? Or are the Thai ignorants referring to Tonle Sap? Siem Reap? Poipet even, that's a giga pothole. Calm down.
'Thousands of angry Cambodians are thwarting plans to complete a final stretch of tarmac in the much vaunted Trans-Asian Highway that will link Singapore through Thailand to China, Russia and Europe by a network of all-weather modern roads'.
But mea culpa:
'Plans for a Trans-Asia Highway date back to the 1950s when it was first mooted. But for the next 40 years overland routes from Singapore ended in Thailand with wars and political detentes in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Burma effectively severing the Malay Peninsula from the rest of Asia'.
Thailand's the obstacle, not?
'Corresponding highways [of the Trans-Asia Highway] in Thailand and Vietnam have been laid out as construction from Poipet on Cambodia's western border to Siem Reap and the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, and then on to Phnom Penh, were completed. From Bavet on the eastern Vietnamese border the highway stretches 142km westwards to Kien Svay, but remains 13km short of its final destination, the Monivong Bridge that crosses the Bassac River on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
...
Japan is funding the final stretch'.
Aha, Japan again! The article continues to describe the problems, basically because the process of building a new road leads to displacement of some people and the process of resettlement is not transparent (i.e. corrupt). So maybe it is Cambodia! Then again, the link still misses a Mekong bridge, which is most probably going to be built by the .... Chinese. Aha!

Trans-Asia Highway or not, the PPP has an article with a cycling duo:
'Between the exhaust fumes, colossal Land Rovers and hoards of hell-bent motorbike drivers, Cambodia's roads do not strike the visitor as particularly cyclist- or eco-friendly. Nonetheless, a duo of determined athletes are taking on the Kingdom's highways in the name of environmental awareness, armed only with their bikes, good will and a significant degree of road rage. In fact, with 80,000 kilometres and 45 countries under their figurative belts.
...
But it is primarily a passion for the environment that is driving the pair, who are using their journey to teach youth in classrooms in each country they visit about the dangers of climate change and environmental degradation.
...
The state of the Cambodian roads and physical environment has been particularly troubling. "Cycling and walking is seen as being for poor people here, so everyone is rushing out to get their own moto or Range Rover without awareness of the long-term consequences," she [Stani Martinkova] said'.
A pity that the Velomads have not an updated web-site. And a pity that it's the farangs once more who need to highlight the advantages of 'slow travel'.

Another post Khmer New Year Chasing Cars section

2009-04-20T10:38:00.007+07:00

Traffic related press coverage has been decreasing, at least that's what seems to be the case. However Khmer New Year has resulted in a rash of articles, concerning the need for safety, the need to get out of town and the need to expect delays.

Personally, Crossing Cambodia once more went up country, to Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces. The road north out of Phnom Penh until Kampong Cham is patchy: they're working on the road just over the bridge. Beyond Snoul, the road opens up and especially the last stretch of road from Stung Treng northwards, the road is great. Though, this being a new road, one would not expect deterioration to be setting in, so soon.

The road to Ratanakiri is a different story. It's not black-topped and has severe problems after rainfall. Closer to Banlung it gets worse after rainfall. Surprisingly, other roads fanning out from Banlung are ok and the road to Vietnam is getting a major overhaul.

What surprised me most was the fact that helmets are now commonplace everywhere in Cambodia by the looks of it. Even in Ratanakiri. On the highways helmet compliance was nearly 80%!

The rash:

With Khmer New Year just passed, officials have already decided that it was much better than last year. Today's (20 April, 2009) Phnom Penh Post reports that
'Accidents down during New Year'.
In Phnom Penh there were apparently just 4 dead (last year 8?). And to whom the credit?
"Now Cambodian people have learned more about road accidents," Hem Ya, the deputy of the traffic police in Phnom Penh, said on Sunday.'
CC believes that the worldwide financial meltdown may have more to do with this drop (if it is a drop)

A case in point from the 'celebration' of Cambodia's Road Safety Week:
'According to our yearly data, traffic accidents have been increasing by 15 percent every year'.
Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhayly adds:
"The main cause of traffic accidents is people themselves. They don't respect traffic laws, they speed, they show negligence and drink while driving. I want to suggest to all relevant ministries and authorities taking actions on a serious scale to punish these road-rule offenders," he said'.
Yeah right, the general public are to blame for low law enforcement.

Khmer New Year is also an occasion to celebrate the poor infrastructure situation. Going south and west out of the city are no problems, going north and east are, as there are only two bridges. The east route though got a shot in the arm apparently:
'Technicians and engineers have been working around the clock to complete construction of the new Monivong Bridge by Thursday's target date so as to accommodate the increase in traffic expected for the Khmer New Year, officials said'.

The new Monivong bridge getting a finishing touch?

Unfortunately though the bottleneck is elsewhere: an estimated 10,000 motorbikes and 6,000 cars were backed up for more than 4 kilometres, waiting hours in the heat to cross the Mekong River towards Prey Veng province.

In the never ending series of who's up next, Phnom Penh drivers will now be speed tested and breathalyzed! Despite the law enforcers even unable to catch motorcyclists without helmets or drivers licence or no licence plate, the technical route seems to have been take:
"Speed cameras are very important because they can photograph the offender, the place, time, the speed, the number plate and the vehicle colour," said the country's Deputy National Police Chief Ouk Kimlek on Tuesday'.
Consider the law, art. 17:
'The driving speeds of vehicles are defined in accordance with the conditions as follows:
1. The driving speeds for vehicles in general:
A. In towns:
- The drivers of all motorcycles and tricycles must drive in the maximum speed of 30 km per hour
- The drivers of all kinds of cars must drive in the maximum speed of 40 km per hour.'
That means many culprits. 30 km an hour is hardly faster than my push bike! Mind you if you are caught driving twice the speed limit, the fine is just $3. The law also stipulates the legal requirements for alcohol, though it also notes that using mobile phones while driving is forbidden as well as driving on the left hand side of the road. $3 is again enough to buy yourself freedom. Or ignorance.

By the way, everybody who hangs out their (clean) laundry will be in line for a fine:
'hanging clothes to dry along sidewalks and house balconies must end.
...
However, this habit is well ingrained among numerous residents. The lack of education, as well as the poverty suffered by numerous families, will probably hamper this desire to embellish the city'.
Andy also has his take on this:
'The helmet law, for moto-drivers only whilst passengers are not required to wear them, remains in place but revenue from fines is down as the police decide standing on the side of the road to stop motos in the hot weather of April isn't such a good idea after all. When the weather cools a bit, the police will be back out in force, also equipped with brand-new speed cameras and breathalyzers I hear'.

What Andy doesn't know is that there is a new way of dealing with no helmets and daytime heat:
'Phnom Penh traffic police have begun to enforce the wearing of helmets after dark, said city officials, who say the lack of nighttime patrols had promoted reckless and illegal driving'.
So are lack of nighttime patrols to blame? Mea Culpa?
Battambang though is doing it the hard way:
'Battambang Traffic Police chief Sath Kimsan said barely a third of drivers wore helmets at night. "At nighttime, only 20 percent to 30 percent of people wear helmets because they don't see the police standing along the road," he said.
"I haven't taken any measures to enforce the wearing of helmets at night yet. I want to enforce them during the day until 100 percent are complying, and then I will work hard for nighttime enforcement."
Yeah, right, 100%.

Talking about push-bikes, Khmer 440 forum members can not be persuaded to use these in Phnom Penh:
'Bicycle is good
Motor Bike is Good
Small Car is Good
Big Car is Better

Bicycle Vrs Motor Bike = Bad Bicycle
Bicycle Vrs Small Car = Bad Bicycle
Bicycle Vrs Big Car = Very Bad Bicycle

Bicycle always lose.'

Concerning the same forum: Chuangt2u suggests making a DVD of street scenes in Phnom Penh so as to
'record a little lunacy for posterity or to amuse the folks back home'.
Replies vary:
'Im up for this. Why dont you want any blood and guts though? Im thinking flipped trucks, crashed motos, and other such footage will be prime viewing...'
... yes, possible the traffic police could use it for their new direction (see above).
'I just had a look through an old clip I have of the junction of 63 and Sihanouk. The properties tab tells me it was taken on Sunday the 16th of October 2005, at 9:21pm. It runs for 5 mins and 28 seconds and caught 6 red light cycles. The quality is low as it was taken with a digital camera, but I counted:

Running a red light = 122 road users

Driving the wrong way down a 1 way street (st63) = 44 road users

Using a vehicle with no visible lights = 50 people - around half of them riding bicycles

"Illegal" u-turn = 1

Unsurprisingly hesitant pedestrian trying to cross the road under a red light = 1'

Though it may have been a relative accident free Khmer New Year, the Phnom Penh Post (14 April) confuses us:
'Motorbike Market Crashed
...
"In the first three months of last year, I sold about 300 motorcycles, but during the first quarter of this year, only 80 motorcycles have been sold," Hang Heng, a motorcycle dealer in Chamkarmon district, said'.
Poor thing.

Another mind boggling PPP article, this time on taxi / bus prices:
'Despite officials' efforts to discourage taxi drivers and bus companies from inflating fees during Khmer New Year, several interviewed by the Post said they had no intention of passing on the opportunity to make extra dollars.
...
But he [Phnom Penh Governor] said City Hall would not punish those who raise prices. "This is not a legal directive," he said.
"City Hall has to inform taxi owners every year".
So if you inform them every year and they still raise the prices why do you continue? Taxi driver logic:
'Chhay Veth, who drives a taxi between Phnom Penh and Battambang province, said he believed fares would increase by 10 to 20 percent during the holiday, adding that customers expected fee inflation because it happened every year'.
What if I expect prices to go down? Ten-twenty percent sounds doable but:
'He [taxi driver] said most drivers on that route would increase prices from 17,000 riels (US$4.09) to 25,000 riels'.
That's nearly 50%! Forget Somali pirates, think Cambodia pirates.

More bad economic news. The World Bank are now tabbing tuk-tuk driver incomes:
'And still, we have data showing a sharp decline in the revenue of tuk-tuk drivers'.
Last year inflation figures couldn't be produced, but they can tab tuk-tuk driver incomes?

Chasing Cars, 6 April 2009

2009-04-06T11:33:00.003+07:00

Sticking your neck out? It's common knowledge that to do so in Cambodia, is to risk revenge. On my blog, I have no problems in criticizing poor policies, poor law enforcement, poor politicians. But singling out individuals? Or institutes? That's .... different.

However Paul has no such qualms. Frustrated at the injustice he complained in the Phnom Penh Post (April 1, 2009) and even mentioned the offenders license plate! Hurrah! '
The group [Three silver vehicles - all sporting Royal Cambodian Armed Forces licence plates. Two were four-wheel drive saloons, and the third was a four-wheel drive pickup truck] purchased tickets, and all three RCAF-plated vehicles drove down the wrong side of the road and took up positions at the front of the queue. As a result, the eighth and ninth cars in our group were forced to miss the ferry when it finally arrived.
...
Surely the vehicle bearing the licence plate RCAF 23607 and the two other vehicles have no right in times of peace to behave in such an arbitrary fashion, showing absolutely no respect for their fellow citizens.
The time has come for the use of RCAF number plates to be reviewed, as is the case with the police. What are such plates doing on fancy four-wheel drives? They should be confined to purely military vehicles that are conducting military business, not military families on private jaunts'.
My only question: was this article placed as a April fools joke? However that doesn't seem to be the case. On KI Media there were no less than 22 comments added, some of which had comparable experiences.

Despite aforementioned being above the law, besides their license plates, they will probably also be recognisable by their lack of helmets. Let's hope Darwins laws apply here!
'Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday requested that traffic police continue the enforcement of a new law requiring motorbike drivers to wear protective helmets. "When I take the car, I see many motorbike drivers not wearing helmets, so please continue educating people about wearing helmets in order to protect their lives," he said during the inauguration of the Hun Sen Quay in Preah Sihanouk province'.
Education or law enforcement?

Law enforcement? Phnom Penh Confidential shares his experiences of the law enforcement in practice:
' "License. You need to have license." Didn't have it with me but told him [policeman], "I have license in my house." Again he says, "License." And again I reply, "I have license...in my house. You come with me and I will show you my license." We go back and forth on this one a few times.
He finally decides to try "hat" again. And I am ready to pay 2,000 so I ask him how much he wants for no hat. The bossman sitting under the umbrella speaks up and says, "Sir, go on." And off I go'.

Khmer New Year is just around the corner. If not having a military license plate expect long waits when heading east.
'Official says holiday travellers could face 5-hour delays at Neak Leung ferry'.

Are boats in Cambodia safe?
'"We were crammed with 100 others onto a tiny boat - the boat was about 3 metres wide - the top deck, which is where we were, you were sat on the top of the boat (no seats) - it was similar size to a narrow boat in the UK (although maybe slightly longer)- there were so many people on board you couldn't move - after 7 hours (we were running late!)of sitting in the same position it was just too much.Around the sides of the boat is no rail - just a 35cm walkway. There was not a life boat, or even belt, in sight.We felt ourselves burning and tried to move inside but that was also crammed - we couldn't get in.
When you see the pictures of the boats, they all look great - big boats, comfortable seats etc - this is not the case - DO NOT BE FOOLED.
When we showed our photos of the boat to the receptionist in the hotel in Siem Reap she was shocked - she sells the tickets (but shows the picture of a luxury boat) - she was totally unaware of what the boat is really like!!"

KFC is becoming increasingly common in Cambodia. From adfreak.com came this great advertising ploy. KFC goes into potholes:

Well, there's enough opportunity for that in Cambodia!

Statistics. Handicap International Belgium and the Cambo government are at odds concerning last years data. But not to mind:
' ''Despite those discrepancies, both government and HIB statistics indicate the country 's road are growing safer, an least in terms of fatalities. Barring a surge in casualties when figures are available for December,it is unlikely HIB's 2008 figures will match 1545 deaths recorded nationwide by the group in 2007'.
Good news or not?

More roads are good for the economy. But not so good for nearby residents:
'Homes and fences belonging to residents of Teuk Thla and Phnom Penh Thmey communes in Sen Sok district were demolished by Phnom Penh authorities on Monday to make way for a road expansion project, with witnesses reporting that hundreds of armed police were deployed in the action'.

First hand experience of passing a Khmer driving test, published in the Phnom Penh Pocketguide:
'I was then ordered to sit at a desk made for an under six-year-old child in a room covered in propaganda posters condemning drinking while driving or having six cows too many in your truck. I was with a crowd of people who were also being tested. It was as though we were filling out a prison form.
The first question went something like: if a wild Mongolian hare is running at a speed of 16km per hour that is being chased by a golden eagle flying at 25km per hour with only 1.096712km separating them, how long will it take for the eagle to catch the hare? It seemed unreal at the time and I just stared at each question not knowing if I should even attempt to answer them. Maybe it was a joke.
....
a military officer walked up to me, asked me with a sheepish grin if I knew the answer, then swiped the paper off my desk and vanished. I followed him until I lost him in a crowd of yelling people outside the reception office.
Worried this might turn into a scam to get money from me in order to finish the “free” test, I started asking questions of anyone looking like they worked at the ministry. Finally I received a useful answer. “Ah. Your Khmer isn’t perfect so the answers will be put on the test for you. Just have a seat and relax.”
....
he escorted me into the transportation office where I was greeted by the minister himself and given a glass of water. We had a pleasant conversation and I answered all the usual questions asked to a Khmer-speaking foreigner. Twenty or so minutes passed while we chatted away and, before I knew it, I was being wished good luck as a new driver and handed my temporary driver’s licence with the promise I’d get the plastic one in a fortnight. I was ready to hit the streets'.

Cambodia's space program in development?

2009-03-20T08:38:00.003+07:00

Well, avid followers of this blog will have noticed how much effort Crossing Cambodia puts on law enforcement and the farcical situation we tend to take as normal here in Phnom Penh and in Cambodia in general.

Head injuries are 1 of the most serious types of injuries and are a major cause of traffic deaths here in Cambodia. Nothing more seems futile then losing life because of driving on a moto without a helmet. There is near universal acceptance of this and such is the case that nearly everywhere in the world wearing helmets on moto's is compulsory. Even in Vietnam. The New Yorker last month reported on Vietnam and helmets:

'hospitals across the country are reporting up to thirty per cent declines in head injuries'.

Despite Cambodia having a law which stipulates this regulation, this was only enforced as of 1 January 2009. Back then, Crossing Cambodia reported that by the end of January 80% were wearing helmets. But in CC's last post, CC estimated that 50-60% were now wearing a helmet and as such the law enforcement was once again a belly-flop.

Confirmation of these figures came from yesterdays ( March 19, 2009) Phnom Penh Post:

'Tin Prasoer [Head of Phnom Penh's Traffic Police] said that roughly 70 percent of motorbike drivers had complied with the law during the first few weeks of the year. He said that number had since fallen to 60 percent'.

Science! But why the drop?

"I have a seen a decrease in drivers wearing helmets because people respect the law only for a short time," he said.

"But that does not mean we will stop enforcing the law. We are still strongly enforcing the law and explaining to drivers the importance of wearing helmets."

Lack of respect for the law? (Cough, cough). But isn't disrespect for the law a quintessential element of Cambodia's society? Everybody, but the very poor, are highly involved in bending the law for their own convenience! So how could the police expect that this would be different in this case?
The second line does show the men in blue up. If helmet wearing is down, then this is due to lax law enforcement; i.e. these guys are not doing their work well.

The article then continues with the customary comment from civil society:

'Though she said she believed traffic police officers were "working very hard", Sam Socheata [of Handicap International Belgium] called on them to "enforce the law on all the roads in Phnom Penh"'.

Talking in a vacuum!

Finally the article states:

'According to a Handicap International survey, the percentage of motorbike drivers wearing helmets increased from 24 percent to 52 percent between July 2008 and February 2009, a jump Sam Socheata said could be largely attributed to the helmet law'.

For a so-called expert this sound byte seems incorrect. There is no such thing as a helmet law. Just a traffic law, two years old, feebly enforced.