Chasing Cars, March 24, 2010

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?
  

Chasing Cars, two days before Christmas, 2009

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

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):

1. 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].
2. 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].
3. 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].
4. 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.

Cambodian Officialdom on Planes, Trains and Assorted

Sometimes reporting on transport concerns in Cambodia has much to do with 'Aladdin and his magic lamp", Alladin being Cambodian officials, the lamp representing the 'idea'.

Take for example a number of messages the last week.
Case 1: Cambodia to set up new national airline
As reported all over the world, but here linking to the article on the KI Media website. The essence: Cambodia's government strikes a deal with an Indonesian company allowing it to operate a national flag carrier in return for a significant amount of the profit.

Two problems in this story, they are 'national' and 'profit'. The current situation in Cambodian skies is that there is no government owned airline (though there are other Cambodian companies such as Royal Khmer and President Airlines), a unique factor which has attributed to the overall growth of the tourism sector, one of the main pillars of Cambodia's economy. With the absence of vested (national and thus political) interests, the Cambodian government has been encouraging as much business as possible. the more the merrier. Nearly everyone can fly in to / out of Phnom Penh and whether they make a profit or not is not the Cambodia's government's concern. The one exception is the Bangkok - Siem Reap sector which is run as a monopoly by Bangkok Airways, condoned by the current Cambodian government.

So why now try to set up a national flag carrier? With the significant recent growth of tourism, the perception has been that Cambodia's economy fails to profit sufficiently. One problem is the lack of national production meeting tourists demand. As such nearly everything is flown in, leaving just construction and employment in tourist services as significantly contributing to the Cambodian economy. To address this 'leakage' problem, the idea apparently is to get an airline in place and tax the profits. One problem is that even if profits are forthcoming (a big problem for other flag carriers in Southeast Asia) accounting procedures in Cambodia are hardly established meaning that the Cambodian government may well see nothing of it's share of the profits. Even though they have a substantial part of the airline, the aircraft will probably be leased, so the government is getting 51% of the airlines assets which equals zero, which in Crossing Cambodia's calculation is still zero.

That said, in the meantime there may be the possibility to commandeer seats or even a whole aircraft so as to get officials kids/wives to school/shopping in Bangkok / Hong Kong, a phenomena which has arisen in recent years just over Cambodia's eastern border.

But with the current 'open skies' policy, there is hardly any room for extra flights (i.e. there is perfect competition). This implies that these policies must change so as to allow the national carrier to access profitable routes (to / from Thailand and / or China) or (so as not too frighten the current carriers) to make sure any future growth in flights to Cambodia is awarded to the national flag carrier.

Even though some questions remain (how big will the flag carrier be?), with the signature of Peter Sondakh, the Cambodian government seems to have a guarantee that future payments to the state will take place. Mr. Sondakh is an Indonesian with quite some experience and very deep pockets: his company is currently trying to take over the Indonesia flag carrier, Garuda. However, Indonesia has in the past had massive problems with corruption as well as having a dismal record in regulating it's skies, not necessarily aspects which would look good on a potential airline's investor's report card. With Cambodia's recent past in aviation littered by accidents and failed airlines one might wonder whether or not this investment will assist Cambodia at all.

But one thing that does stick is that in the run-up to elections, playing to nationalistic sentiments surely must pay off. But whether it makes economic sense?

Case 2: French company plans to operate trams in Cambodia
The full story here. The essence. Big French muliti-billion company (Alsthom) devise plan to have it's products up and running in Cambodia. It impresses local officials who will now support it. No mention is made of who will pay for this.

Possibly this latter, is part of the overall strategy: here we are, we will solve all your plans, you just have to start to yearn /crave for it, then cough up some money (in case no money is forthcoming maybe we can ask French 'gouvernement' for some bridging finance, possibly with some EU money somewhere along the track). Whether or not it solves the problem is entirely besides the question, who doesn't want to impress all and sundry (including voters) with a swish train / tram / lorrie which does not seem to cost anything?

Just a few months back, the Thai were here proclaiming how their Skytrain would be up and running in the near future.

Possibly both the Thai and the French should heed the experience of the Japanese who couldn't even get a bus system running within Phnom Penh. Let's hope the Chinese can get a reliable taxi system working (should not be beyond them).

So should we not dream? Yes, no problem with that, but current problems with traffic congestion are simply due to the lack of adhering to a simple language of red light means stop. Last Tuesday evening Crossing Cambodia plied through Monivong Boulevard during rush hour while it was totally packed, but only due to the fact that the main crossings were blocked and blocked again. Get everyone to stop when lights are red, go when green and the need for sophisticated systems of transport will not be required at least for the near future.

If starting now with a city bus system , this would be effective in 1-2 years time and in 5 years time look for a mass transport system, preferably underground, that's how it is done internationally, even in Bangkok and Paris!

Case 3: Dong Thap [province in vietnam] approves road link to Cambodia. The link, the essence: with just 4.5 million dollars this Vietnamese province will build a road, basically for their own satisfaction. Where's the money coming from?[everybody suddenly takes an interest in their shining shoes and /or are all the lights on?]

Case 4:Cambodia asks China, India, Japan to help improve rural projects
The link, the essence of the stories: Hun Sen (the ever-serving Cambodian PM) needs to develop the country fast (after all elections are coming up in six months) so he now requests China and Japan for hand-outs. What the Chinese get out of the deal Crossing Cambodia hardly knows, but they tend to look well after themselves (as do all other 'donors'). With Toyota cars making up half of the standard Cambodian car-park, their 'donation' will always reap handsome rewards.

But what do the cases have in common? A lack of vision, a lack of will to tackle the problems themselves, a absolute disregard to finances ('Cambodia is such a poor country, please forgive us our debts') and a faith in piecemeal approaches to overall economic and social problems. It all seems to be tied in with power, the power to have and how to keep this power. Well, as long as it's not Crossing Cambodia's money, it's not my problem. What does worry Crossing Cambodia is that in the event of an adverse economic climate elsewhere (the states?) how at all will the country survive? On nearly all aspects Cambodians rely and continue to rely on having absolute faith in the goodness of foreigners / foreign countries to dole out money to address their simple problems. In Thailand you win elections promoting self-sufficiently, here presumably by passing the bill on to future generations, be they Cambodian or foreigners. Let's hope that the money tap continues to be open for a long, long time, while the local politicians start rubbing up the lamp once more!

Cambodia's main railroad from phnom Penh to the coast!

Cambodia Busomania

Does public transport have the future in Phnom Penh? Can local authorities do anything creatively to assist a bus plan to be put in place? Interesting reading from Stan on Khmer 440. The article dissected:

'The sign at the head of this article is what’s left over of an experimental bus system, financed by Japan, that operated for about 6 months back in 2001. As I understand it, people did use the system but it shut down because the government was unwilling to continue necessary subsidies'.

No pain, no gain?

'Once you’ve got steady customers, two other dynamics enter the equation; the government and competition. As to the former, I’m not aware of any type of regulation of motodops or tuk-tuks, so aside from a basic business license, the municipality should have no impact on the operation'.

Wishful thinking?

'It wouldn’t be a traffic panacea'. ... most important aspects is the social benefit of providing low cost movement'.

And his closing remarks:

'To sum up: Phnom Penh needs public transit. Who will step up to show the way? Forget about the government: They have their Lexus’s, what do they care about buses for the masses?'

But can we forget about the government?

Wahnsinn!

Mad, crazy is the official translation of 'Wahnsinn'. For our German readers an article on taking a bus in Vietnam from Der Spiegel.
Why the 'crazyness'? Lot's of the same cliches are presented: there are lot's of motorcycles, the bigger vehicle has precedent over all smaller vehicles, fast vs. slow and then the bus is king! Why, because bus drivers are mad! And besides the main bus instruments (steering wheel, brake, accelerator, gears) the only instrument is the horn which takes over the functions of all other 'minor' instruments, sometimes even the brakes!
Anyway a lot of the well-known issues when taking a bus in Asia (?). The site is complemeted by a download of Hanoi street sounds! An adventure (for the tourist) not to be missed.

On the subject, when Crossing Cambodia was in Vietnam a couple years ago, during Khmer / Lao / Thai new year, the Thai in the bus were astounded about the 'honking' skills of our bus driver: using both hands alternatively, sometimes at the same time! Not all Asian countries are same-same.

Cambodia Busphobia

Is it official? Busphobia? Or is it more a reluctance to think of the future and act accordingly? From the Khmer440 site, Stan tries to get a grip on living in a weird city:

The latest, somewhat convoluted, traffic idea to come from City Hall is the banishment of overland buses from the city center. The city’s leaders seem to have an inordinate dislike of public buses of all types. This is unfortunate since a halfway decent public transportation system would make a big difference to our city’s traffic problems. It would especially benefit the many individuals who would use it. Buses are admittedly big and clunky, noisy and smoky: still, when you compare their negative aspects with the alternative; large numbers of individual vehicles - even small vehicles like motorbikes - they still come out way ahead. (The answer to noisy and smoky is electric or hybrid diesel-electric buses, but that possibility’s obviously a long way off for Cambodia.)

Let me illustrate the importance a public transit system would have for ordinary Phnom Penhers by going back to an experience I had in ‘93 while teaching in Bangkok. I taught at a school for about 8 months that was quite off the beaten path. It was across the Chao Phraya River and about a kilometre off the nearest bus route. For those of you unfamiliar with Bangkok’s layout, it has a deficit of thoroughfares; in this case, streets capable of accommodating standard buses. To compensate for the deficiency of big buses not being able to get close to people’s destinations there is a secondary transportation system. At most bus stops (they are quite far apart in Bangkok) is a motorbike taxi stand to get people to their final destination. Most Thais, as well as most Khmers, as well as most of everybody, are not fond of walking. Out for a Sunday stroll, OK, but as a rule, as part of daily life, people would rather ride, especially in inclement weather.

I, of course, am the exception, since I only jumped on a bike when I was seriously late for work. If I remember correctly it cost 6 baht (1 baht = about 100 riel) - about 15 cents at the time - to go within the neighbourhood - a maximum of a couple kilometres. This stop had a larger than average reach and population and offered the further option of a small bus for 2, maybe 3 baht. Many people would wait 10-15 minutes for the bus to leave in order to save 3 or 4 baht off the cost of an immediate motorbike ride. For you or I a pittance, for low income Thais or Cambodians, sometimes the difference between eating or not eating that day.

If you’ve been around for very long, and have gotten to know very many locals, you know that if they don’t live close to work, they often spend a very large part of their income on transportation. I know a young Khmer who spent a short time working in the office of a garment factory on Monivong (south of town). With a fare of 6000 riel each way she was spending 60% of her income on transportation. What she had left of her salary after motodop costs was so minimal that she quit after a short time. The equivalent cost of a bus to go the same distance in Bangkok is 600 riel, in Saigon, 1200 riel.

The high price of going anywhere outside the neighbourhood does two things. It limits people’s mobility and therefore their economic opportunities; one of the great advantages of living in a city. It also encourages those of slightly higher means to get their own transportation.

It’s a given that the great majority of people prefer owning their own vehicle, and that’s true even if they also use public transportation on occasion. Buses can never be as convenient as private transportation, except under very limited circumstances. First, you have to walk to the bus stop, and then wait for it. Once aboard, it goes relatively slowly and has to stop often to pick and drop off passengers and when you get off there’s still the walk to your final destination.

A less than 10 minute door-to-door ride on a motorbike could easily take more than half an hour using the bus. For that reason most Phnom Penhers would not immediately sell or park their bikes if presented with a bus alternative. Neither would most motodops be out of a job. Still, many, in fact, would save the money and use the bus. Most importantly, every person who opted for public transit would help ease traffic problems, reduce the need for parking, cut pollution and save energy.

Parking is an important consideration. Where I teach they’ve just completed a new six story classroom facility. Two of those floors are devoted exclusively to motorbike parking, and that space is crowded with bikes. Small as they are, there is no small cost in accommodating them.

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the efficacy of bus transportation and central location. Banishment of buses will have the same negative impact on traffic as the relocation of public services to the outskirts of town. In both cases I’ve received quizzical comments from friends: What’s the difference, they say, if public buildings and bus stations are sent packing from the city centre?

Big difference. I had first hand experience recently of what relocating bus terminals would mean. I was returning from Kampot on the last day of Water Festival when buses were prohibited from entering the city. Our bus stopped at the terminal one kilometre west of the airport, about 10 km’s from the heart of Phnom Penh. I do ride motorbikes occasionally, but I would never ride that far, especially through heavy traffic (I’d rather walk - 10 km’s would take about two hours). I asked the fare from a tuk-tuk driver, was told $8 and in turn told him to shove it and started walking. I really have to learn to control myself – I’m really going to get pummelled one of these times - but that’s another story. I walked over to the airport, about 1 k, and got a tuk-tuk for $4. Under the best circumstances it’ll cost about 6000 riel to get a motodop from that bus terminal to town.

While it’s true that the average person will have to hop on a motorbike taxi to get to the bus anyway, the majority of people in the Phnom Penh area live within 2 or 3 kilometres of the centre of town.
According to the Daily article there are about 300 buses that serve PP. Let’s assume that about 30 of them are destined for Sihanoukville or Kampot and would stop at that terminal and together they carry about 1000 passengers. They could actually carry quite a few more, but I’m assuming they’d not all be full. In the first place, 30 buses take up far less street space than the 800 or so motorbikes that would be necessary to get 1000 people to the terminal. Needless to say, it’s far safer, not to mention more comfortable, to ride in a bus than on a motorbike. Further, for a majority of riders, a 1000 to 2000 riel ride to a centrally located terminal becomes a 6000 riel ride to the outlying one.

Relocation of public buildings to the fringes of the city has a slightly different dynamic. Even if everyone who works in them were to move nearby that would only have a small effect on traffic since they’d be going about the same distance to work as they do now. As far as I can tell those outlying areas aren’t much less congested
than the heart of town. Moreover, chances are that most civil servants already have homes or neighbourhood commitments that preclude their moving with the relocation. They, like the great majority of citizens who have business in those places, will have to go much farther and that additional mileage will add significantly to congestion. The suburban areas in question may not be as congested in the present, but the extra travelling and the fact that it’s all concentrated on the route to the new facility, will soon make them just as bad.

Part of the problem with any kind of traffic mitigation - even ones that actually work as opposed to the cockamamie ideas coming from City Hall - is that economic and population growth will quickly swamp any beneficial effects that might accrue. For instance, when a metropolitan area grows 10%, traffic grows by a greater percentage.

The reason is that increasing population means more area is developed and thus the average trip is lengthened. Many of the people who live in the newly built areas on the fringes of town will continue to work or visit the centre. When a very fast increase in vehicle registrations is added, the recipe for Phnom Penh is gridlock.

However, if the new construction was centrally located and there was a good public transportation system available, traffic would actually be eased - at least as a function of the number of people involved.
Look at Amsterdam. It is a compact city of 700,000 with excellent public transportation - including trains, streetcars and buses - and its design is devoted to making bicycling safe and convenient to the point that 30% of all trips are by pedal power. In combination with making driving into the centre of town very difficult, you have a city with little traffic congestion and that also means quiet streets and clean air.

Phnom Penh has only been able to survive without a public transit system until now because the city has been poor and thus vehicles have been few. If present trends continue, traffic will grow very quickly past the point where the infrastructure can cope, especially absent a drastic effort to enforce basic traffic rules. Narrowing all of the city’s sidewalks, another wacky idea being pursued by the city’s leaders, even if the many millions were available, it will take more than two million just to do that to 3 kilometres of Kampuchea Krom and will have little effect; traffic will quickly increase to fill up the additional street space.

That is the American experience: build a new road and it’s congested the day it’s opened. That’s true at least in part because American cities are so spread out that public transportation can have little impact in many areas. In spite of that, nearly every US city goes through great lengths, including providing very large subsidies, to get people on the bus. They know that every person who opts for public transportation does everyone else a favour.

Next; public transit for Phnom Penh… Give me ten grand and I’ll have self-sustaining public transportation operating on one of PP’s thoroughfares in a month or two.

Stan Kahn

Banning buses Cambodia style

So what's up with the reported ban on buses? As of the 2nd of January 'authorities' were going to ban buses from the Phnom Penh city (centre?) with the exception of Soriya Transport.
While doing errands yesterday around the central market (which also functions as a de-facto bus/ transportation centre), there were still quite a few non-Soriya buses lurking in the side streets such as this GST bus.

Letters to the editor:

Stan who occasionally publishes on khmer440 trying to gain notierity as a man who prefers walking, now has taken on the cause for public transport in Phnom Penh. Is he getting tired?
From todays (November 8, 2006) Cambodia Daily letter to the editor section, Stan Kahn describes how the bus he was travelling in back from Kampot could not /would not make it pass the Phnom Penh airport. On-going travel required motorcycles as ther are no pubblic buses in Phnom Penh. He laments that this cost him $US 5, whereas in Bangkok the cost would have been 3% of this and in Saigon 6%, if using public transport. As well it would ease traffic. So he concludes, why not start a mini-bus system?