Chasing cars, shortly after Khmer New Year

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

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

• 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

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

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

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

• 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

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

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

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

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 ....

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.