Chasing cars, cambodian style, 7 March, 2008

• Do you sometimes wonder why there are all these sirens blaring? So does Hun Sen:

  '... following the siren sounding of cars traveling in this area which interrupted Hun Sen’s speech during the distribution of diplomas for students at the Royal University of Phnom Penh on 05 March'.

  The solution, no sirens please, but only on the Russian boulevard:

  'Prime minister Hun Sen ordered the Phnom Penh city governor to install signs prohibiting the sounding of car siren along the Russian Federation Blvd, between the Tuol Kok stop light and the hospital for monks'.

• As tomorrow is International Women's day, Crossing Cambodia has included some relevant (?) info:

  'A Cambodian man convicted of smacking a female motorist's bottom was handed a one-year suspended jail sentence and his friend was sentenced to the same term in absentia, a court official said on Wednesday'.

  His friend was luckier:
  

  '... Theara's friend, Khun Pheakdey, 18, had been ordered to pay compensation of $350 and released after already serving five months in jail for his moment of indiscretion'.

  Justice served?
  

• Yet another primer on Phnom Penh traffic? Khmer440's Surviving and Thriving on Phnom Penh's Roads complete with forum comments. Excerpts from the article:

  ' ... Sometimes it can seem like every erratic numbskull in the land is swarming around you on the roads, trying to deal with their inner demons. And those are just the cars. ... the default technique for crossing a busy junction consists of a) increasing the acceleration b) hoping for the best and c) flying across the junction with a lingering blast of the horn, ...'

  Their contribution to International Women's Day:

  'Most Khmer women drive their cars with all the agility and awareness of a partially sighted witless amputee. Remember this.'

  And it continues:

  'Drive slowly. Don’t go native and copy the locals by driving down the wrong side of Monivong at 100 kph whilst making a phone call'.

  And the forum response? Bar one:

  'The adherence to road rules, such as keeping to your side of the road is atrocious; drivers in newer cars and 4x4’s seem to think they have a right to stop on the wrong side of the road at traffic light to allow them to jump ahead of other vehicles, mostly motto’s. Strangely people accept it and I have yet to see an accident as a result of this behavior'.

  Uglyfeminist:

  'Hi Admin,
  This article is RIDICULOUS and INACCURATE.
  It's WAY too flattering in it's assessment of Khmer drivers'.

  Cheers to you too mate. Playboy:

  'I am with the ugly old white chick on this, the average driver on the roads of Cambodia has the motoring abilities of a blind chimpanzee smoking crack at the wheel'.

  Gavinmac:

  'This was a very enjoyable article. Thanks'.

  And finally MarkLatham adds (from Tico heaven!):

  'Driving a car here is a breeze really, ...'.

  Basically getting the picture?

• More blah, blah. Today's (March 7, 2008) Cambodia Daily mentions how Sihanoukville airport has raked in some cash (35 million $ US) so as to be able to finance an expansion of it's runway to service aircraft which are not coming. Cambodia's tourism minister said that the expansion

  'will help expand Sihanoukville [where to?] and boost its position as a destination and travel hub'.

• Meanwhile Cambodia Daily's bi-weekly competitor the Phnom Penh Post in it's latest issue mentions the problems authorities are having expanding another runway, that of highway no.1 out of the city. This pathetic highway has received some Japanese funding, as the number of buses on this route (to Saigon) are forcing all the Camry's onto the hardshoulder!
  Anyway Cambodia's contribution in this is to resettle citizens who believe living on a road to be a better existence than living a safer distance away. Why can't they just send out a decree saying that everyone living 10-15m from the meridian of a national highway should clear off and anything in this area will be cleared within x time?
  So the resettlers are of course short changed and the government has got lots of claims to settle from 'resettlers' who of course live somewhere else. What do they call this?
  NGO's are crying foul:

  'previous experience has shown road projects are having a devastating impacts on the livelihoods of local communities due to inadequate compensation and resettlement practices'.

  The worst is they are probably correct!

• Do you get tired of reading this blog? Imagine jotting everything down! The end is near!
  
  Yesterday's (March 6, 2008) Cambodia Daily has a lead article on the car sales business in Phnom Penh. Basically there are just two major dealers, Toyota and Ford with Ssangyong a new entrant. And then there are a lot of independents which cater to a diverse melee of tastes.
  It also mentions the number of registered vehicles (which is different from the actual owners, but how, is not explained) has risen from just over 9,500 in 2003 to more than 173,000 thousand now! That's a 1500% rise in just five years.
  

That's it for this week! Have fun celebrating Women's Day!

Public vs. private

The perpetual battle between private and public is coming back to the forefront. Roads are a classic example of a public space needed and required for everybody. However, Crossing Cambodia in the past few weeks has mentioned a road (to Bokor) being upgraded by private companies to stimulate private investment though it is unclear whether or not the previously public road will become private and if so what the fees might be. Discussed as well was the use of roads and sidewalks as parking space for successful companies' customers. Then there is the privatisation of the railways which again privatises a public investment with unknown returns. Yesterday's (Wednesday March 5, 2008) Cambodia Daily a Letter to the Editor harks forth on the same topic.

'Return public sidewalks to use for public. Provide the public with a smooth and peaceful walking area please!'

It refers to a TV programme which highlighted Phnom Penh traffic problems and how the government was dealing with this issue.

'However the program did not raise much about the issue of messy and disorderly sidewalks, which need to be addressed if we are to reduce traffic jams and beautify Phnom Penh. Homeowners, restaurants or hotels overtake most sidewalks.They try to own sidewalks. .... They park their vehicles on the sidewalk. ... Pedestrians always have to walk on the street to avoid stuff that has been placed or built on the sidewalk. Or walkers have to maneuver up and down the sidewalk in order to proceed. Why doesn't the Phnom Penh municipal authority do something to solve this problem? ... The municipal authority should push for public parking lots and no longer allow people to park arbitrarily, especially on narrow streets. ... Kimsan Chantara, Phnom Penh'

As if to compensate for that, 100 ramps to allow access for people in wheelchairs have been constructed on the west side of Norodom Boulevard. Note that Norodom is probably the road that has the least obstructions on the sidewalk as it's the alley for all dignitaries to parade themselves.
Paid by the businesses along Norodom? No (in Cambodia,it is customary for riparians to fund the construction of sidewalks) By the government then? No, but funding came from a 'semi-autonomous government body, the National Centre for Disabled Persons'.
A Handicap International spokespersons applauds the efforts:

'officials are on the right track. ... He added that as much as 8 percent of traffic accidents in 2006 involved pedestrians, highlighting the need for accessible sidewalks.'

Well, let's take a closer look at what they have done. Actually it's pretty amazing: at certain driveway's and side streets they have taken out the street stones and made ramps by applying cement. However, these ramps are sometimes quite steep, certainly not uniform. What's more, some side streets have them, others don't. Not very continuous. Crossing Cambodia included a couple of photo's:
The above example shows a ramp but after a couple of meters the sidewalk is blocked by cars, is it the World Bank that is using the sidewalk as a parking place? The next photo is even clearer, great ramp, but of no use!


Despite the sincerity of the project, one must ask the question why the heck initiate this if you can not ensure that the intended solution to the problem can not be obtained due to other reasons! All-in-all a good (i.e. bad) example of how the authorities muddle onwards trying to address the problems but never solving them!

Chasing Cars, Cambodian Style 5 March 2008

Most updates are just morsels found in other (blog) sites:

• Expat Advisory Services dishes this out:

  'Commenting on increasing traffic burdens, Dr. [Gavin, who 'has lived in Cambodia for 15 years'] Scott is puzzled by the apparent lack of urban planning, "prestige projects will congest the streets with traffic and sewage. Immediate acquisition of status and money take precedence over long term planning".'

• Cambodia Calling has a posting on roughly the same theme as highlighted last week on this site:

  'No Public Transport. Why is there no public transport within towns in Cambodia? Not even in the capital Phnom Penh. There cannot be many cities the size of Phnom Penh without public transport. ... It's probably harder than it seems to get a public transport system right and people the world over complain about their country's public transport. But we have to start somewhere'.

• Cambodia Calling also mentions Stan Kahn who has a number of passionate plea's for different attitudes to traffic over on Khmer 440. According to that site he now has put up shop in Kampot. Relevance?

  'Meanwhile the train should be running again this August. It won't be as fast as the taxi but it will be a pleasure'.

  Don't count too much on it!
  

• More trains on this comment from (DaS) to a link from here which was originally a link to another web-site, which was a translation of , etc., etc. :
  

  'I rode the train two weeks ago.
  From Phnom Penh there’s only one active line, to Battambang. It leaves every Saturday morning at 6:20 am.
  I wanted to go to B’Bang but boredom made me get off in Pursat. Nice little town to spend an afternoon.
  Besides wood I didn’t see much cargo, and although all seats were taken (two cars) it was hardly crowded. No wonder, it’s unreliable, slow and relatively expensive. It was cool though to see how a heap of wood was loaded from a bamboo train onto and into the last passenger car, while on the move. I wanted to take pictures, but one of four train conductors said no. I wonder why…'

• More on public transport. The Mirror (Vol. 12, No. 550) publishes an article from Neak Cheat Niyum. Apprarently the ban on big buses in the city center is back on, but only from the end of this year:

  'To solve the problems of daily traffic congestions in Phnom Penh due to the growth of the population and the increasing number of vehicles, the governor of Phnom Penh, Mr. Kep Chuk Tema issued a strict announcement: to prohibit large passenger buses from operating on the roads of Phnom Penh by the end of 2008'.

  To solve the problem, buses will halt near the city perimeter, however no mention is made of how passengers would then get to their final destination. Has the municipality ever thought of setting up a bus station?
  
  On another note, the municipality also stressed the following:
  

  'In particular, the disrespect of traffic laws is one of the main causes of traffic congestions'.

  Despite this long overdue admission, there may be new ones lurking.
  
  Yesterday I travelled down Monivong at 4 in the afternoon, but it was far from smooth; KFC have opened their first chicken bar and the clientiele apparently prefer to come by car, but KFC or their local reps (read investors) never thought about where their clients would need to park their cars. Just block the road! Increasingly, succesful businesses (as well as expanding markets) such as Mobitel and Lucky's supermarket are encroaching public roads to use for the clients who are allowed to park, double even triple park their cars. Can't the municipality do something with this?
  

• Kampuchea Crossings highlight an Asialife March 2008 article (not available online) on probably Cambodia's one and only female moto-dup driver.

  'When she attempted to work in the nearby areas she found that fellow Khmers – even the women – were more comfortable taking the traditional male motodup than going with her. Because foreigners are open to the idea of a female driving a mototaxi she is able to get more business there'.

  It's a very good article and gives an insiders view of Khmer women taking up 'male' professions and the strength of single mothers in face of adversity.

• More background on the expressway to Phnom Penh from Can Tho. Mystified, so is Crossing Cambodia and the Cambodian government as well:

  'Kem Borey [director of the Transport Ministry's Road Infrastructure Department] said the highway will run from Can Tho, through An Giang province before the final stretch of approximately 120 km from the border to Phnom Penh. He added that the final route of this last stretch has not been finalized but would either follow National Road 2 through Takeo province, National Road 21 through Takeo province, or comprise a new road traversing Kampot province'.

• Softening the Khmer from the other side is Thailand:

  'After having met with Cambodian Leader Hun Sen, Mr. Samak said Thailand’s assistance to Cambodia would be beneficial to both countries, especially the highway 68 construction project with an additional budget on top of the 1.4 billion baht (US$43.7 million) already allocated.
  
  The road will connect Thailand’s Surin province to Cambodia’s Siem Reap, and seen as an opportunity to boost the tourism industry in the region'.

• KI Media highlight a photo reportage (from the bureau's of AP) on the height of the petrol price in Cambodia. Oddly though, the price they mention is 4,600 riel, which is the amount charged at the petrol pump not at the road stalls which are the subject of all the photo's; petrol at these stalls is still less than 4,000 riel!