Chasing Cars, Cambo stylo, 26 April 2010

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

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

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

• Though we had been hoping for boats to be leaving from Kep for Phu Quoc asap. apparently someone has decided to throw a spanner in the works. The Japanese company has objected to the intended harbor being placed 5 km from the agreed on place (a year before!), according to the Phnom Penh Post:

  'Authorities instead proposed a port location in the forest area of Poun Mountain, 5 kilometres from the centre of the town in Damnak Chang Er district, a site the company official said was shallow and choked with seaweed'.

  The local government are (literally?) standing firm ...

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

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

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

• Sokha to open a second hotel in Sihanoukville. Newsworthy? Funny they have enough space to develop on at their first site, but to keep land in cambodia you have to build something to really claim it, preferably a wall. Anyways in the Phnom Penh Post article they mention that Cambodia Angkor Airways might start to fly from Siem Reap:
  

  'News of the hotel build follows reports, published in Cambodian press Thursday, that Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) is to offer domestic charter flights to Sihanouk International Airport this year.
  The Post met with blank responses when it contacted officials to verify the claims Thursday.
  Mai Xuan Long, deputy director of CAA, said that he didn’t know exactly what was happening with the company’s flights to Sihanoukville International Airport.
  Kao Sivorn, Operation Director Department of Secretariat of State of Civil Aviation, said that so far he has not received proposals from CAA to start operations to the new airport.
  He added that the company does not have enough ability to begin regular flights to Sihanouk International Airport yet.
  He added: “If [CAA] begin operation there, it will boost the tourism sector for Sihanouk province, as the airport can link it to Siem Reap International Airport.”
  Tith Chantha, director of Sihanouk International Airport, said that he has not yet heard when CAA would begin flights to the airport.
  “I have not received any official letter from CAA,” he said'.

Chasing Cars Cambodian style, 24 May 2009

A round up:

• Cambodia’s PM goes against the grain. He actually wants bribery and especially bribing police to stop:

  ‘“Some government leaders give money to traffic police and the gendarmeries, but sometimes this kindness scorns the forces who apply the law and scorns the law as well,” Hun Sen said at a ceremony to change heads of the government’s counter-drug office. “Please stop doing it.”

  Why would he mention this at a counter- drug ceremony? And why is he so anti-Cambodian social norms?

• What is acceptable [from khmer440 forum]?

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

  A.: ....?

• More gifts:

  'China on Tuesday provided about 73 million U.S. dollars of a concessional loan to Cambodia to build a part of main road in the northeastern part of the country to develop that area into a newly potential economic zone'.

  Technically it's not a gift, but who will pay this back?

• More on gifts, but now from the less fortunate Lao: '

  Lao cops accept donation.

  No doubt, these sponsored plastic traffic danger triangles will greatly assist them'.

• And now we are to find out what happens to the gifts: the speed guns are in use. At least according to the Phnom Penh Post (19-05-2009). But citing Phnom Penh's top cop:

  'We are reconsidering working at nighttime.... It is a bit hard to work at night for the police when they try to stop drunken drivers, especially in dark places'.

  Surprise, surprise, Cambodian drivers usually drink, drive and speed at night as during the day there is too much traffic and lights interfere with the drinking business!

• Meanwhile on the license plate biz front a Phnom Penh Post writer on Monday had the following:

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

• And then the PM waded in:

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

• Not only cars need to confiscated, according to yet again another Phnom Penh Post article:

  'Police could be empowered to seize and confiscate motorbikes without side mirrors under a Land Traffic Law amendment proposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Drivers without helmets would also be subject to the amendment suggested in a speech Tuesday'.

  That seems a bit harsh. Moreover it's against the law. Currently only art. 84 gives police the powers to confiscate, but only in cases of overloading a truck. Despite that traffic police do regularly confiscate cars after accidents, this in clear contravention of art. 72. One problem with laws are that they are supposed to be adhered to. And considering that a new law can take anything of up to 10 years to draw up (in the case of anti-corruption), amending this law might take some time.
  Finally, Phnom Penh's top traffic cop adds a curious remark:

  '"I think it is good that the law [will] allow police to catch the motorbikes to warn those who do not respect the law because fining them does not seem to be very effective," he said'.

  But we have already proven (see previous Chasing Cars that it's the police who are failing to be effective, not the law!

• On law enforcement, from Thailand, a mention in today's Bangkok Post.:

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

Yeah, how come?

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

Somewhere along the highway in Kampong Thom province.

Chasing Cars, September 23, 2008

With Pchum Ben festivities nearing, both the police checks and bag snatching have increased, is this not a contradiction?

Despite the outbreak of police checks, moto's with mirrors are still increasing but not in majority. The same applies for helmet wearing drivers, 40-50% now have taken to wearing helmets. Still if you have witnessed the effort the traffic police have dedicated to pulling moto's up, the figure might represent a disappointment, possibly something is going wrong with the enforcement.

Witness Crossing Cambodia did of a bag snatching incident. Two guys pull up next to 2 girls, chat, chat, laugh, laugh, lung, grab and tear off down a side street. Be careful out there!

• The government is now pressuring oil companies to get their prices down. All the posturing resulted in the prices at the pump drop by a whopping 0,02 $US! This article in the Phnom Penh Post sums up all the claims: prices have failed to go down.
  But the government responds:

  'International crude oil prices soared more than 84 percent by June 2008, while the price of petrol in Cambodia only rose about 40 percent, the [Finance] minister said, crediting the difference to the government's "silent subsidy" of petrol'.

  Unfortunately the 'silent subsidy' claims that the government probably stopped increasing it's import revenue on petrol, changing from a percentage tariff to a fixed amount. So no subsidy, just less income. Then again why should the government get more by fleecing the consumer?
  

• Bangkok, this weekend, saw the 'Car Free Day'. And that does not mean that cars were exempt from paying toll on the elevated highways! No, it means grab a bike or take the bus. Funny thing is it is government endorsed:

  'In Thailand, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Bicycle for Health Society, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and Green Peace Southeast Asia will join 14 of the world's largest cities in the car-free day'.

  The closest Cambo authorities get to even mentioning non-motorized transport is when they slag off all too poor for having no wheels. The gov of PP mentioned:

  'Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema said Sunday that the citywide pavement narrowing project will help make more room for cars, and should not be problematic as few people use the capital’s sidewalks anyway.
  “I want to reduce all the sidewalks to be smaller and smaller because our people use cars and motorbikes. We do not like to walk” Kep Chuktema said'.

• Car Free Day was 'celebrated' in Vietnam as well.
  

• In Vietiane they have a novelty:

  'The Vientiane Urban Development and Administration Authority is in the process of installing 50 road name signs around Vientiane ...'

  but

  'Forty road signs have already been installed, but the authority lacks sufficient funds to continue with the project and is waiting for further support from the International Association of French Mayors.

  Thank god for the French.

• Why Cambo airlines will never get anywhere: more than a year after an air crash involving South Koreans the relatives have actually have to sue the Cambodian airline to get some kind of compensation. Let's hope they're not holding their breath.
  What are you in for?

  'South Korean investigators have concluded that the accident was caused by pilot error, problems with the airport's automated radar terminal system and defects in the plane'.

• A very strange article in the Sydney Morning:

  'Malaysia's worst in the world taxis tarnish image
  In a survey by the local magazine The Expat, some 200 foreigners from 30 countries rated Malaysia the worst among 23 countries in terms of taxi quality, courtesy, availability and expertise'.

  Well quite correct to take those taxi drivers to the cleaners, my opinion is similar: they are not at all what Malaysia makes them to be. Then again, Malaysia = truly Asia, so not such a big surprise. Cambodia counts itself lucky they weren't part of the survey on the grounds of having no taxi's to speak of. Could Cambodia not have entered moto's instead., they are after all our local 'taxis'? See who then would end at the bottom of the heap. Our moto drivers are no where near a KL taxi driver ...

• Another bad Poipet experience:

  'We also got shepherd into a mafia taxi with another couple, we all pay 15 usd each. The mafia man taking charge of getting us into a taxi was getting angry with us because we first lied about having our visa already when he approached us at immigration on the Thai side, then we didn't go straight to his taxi and wanted to look around. He kept saying we could trust him, he was with the Tourist Police and we told him we didn't trust them either.
  We couldn't find any other option so took his anyway'.

• Back to the bag snatchers. There are also amateurs entering this profession:

  'BYSTANDERS BASH BAG SNATCHER
  Chea Dara, 16, was severely beaten by a crowd of bystanders after he pulled Kong Darany, 28, off her motorbike in an unsuccessful bag snatching attempt on the corner of street 109 and Russian Boulevard in Prampi Makara district of Phnom Penh at 11:30am Monday. The police said that Chea Dara, who was pulled off his motorbike by the bystanders, "was severely beaten by the people until he lost consciousness". He is currently in police custody awaiting trial'.

• More things increasing:

  'Some 1,777 traffic accident casualties were reported by hospitals, health centres, private clinics and traffic police departments in 24 provinces for June, an increase of 20 percent over May, according to the Cambodian Road Traffic Accident and Victim Information System'.

Chasing Cars, Khmer New Year 2008 style

• Some would forget that this week is part of the global effort to ensure road safety. This was passed off in Phnom Penh by a great celebration in the Olympic Stadium. At the pow-wow, Chreang Sophan, Deputy Governor of the Phnom Penh Municipality, representing the Municipal Governor Kep Chuk Tema, stated amongst others that:

  'Responding to these issues [increasing numbers of accidents] under the smart [?] leadership of Samdech Akkak Moha Senapadei Dekchor Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Municipality will be implementing road constructions and road repair plans by paving roads in four districts by the end of 2008, and other plans will be implemented in three other districts in the suburbs'.

  If this is the government's response, then clearly they are in serious need of (re-)education. Furthermore:

  'The deputy municipal governor also called on citizens who travel in the city to drive carefully, and firmly practice the measures passed in the land traffic law. Especially those who use motorcycles and bicycles must wear helmets. ... He appealed to all citizens, the users of vehicles and the users of roads countrywide, to respect and to strictly implement the measures stated in the Cambodian Land Traffic Law, ...'.

  Clearly this official fails to grasp the reality of the traffic law, i.e. bicycle drivers do not require helmets! In a summation of the most important measures of the now old traffic law, this official fails to signify that traffic police are not to accept 'donations'. Practically the only time these curb huggers get into action is to accept donations from passing trucks. Strictly implement?
  

• Cambodia Daily (April 8, 2008) also comments on this 'celebration'.

  'Road Safety Week, which kicked off Sunday, aims to raise awareness and reduce traffic awareness and reduce traffic accidents in the days during and around the three day holiday. ... Sun Chanthol [Minister of Public Works and Transport] urged travelers to keep from speeding and overloading vehicles. He also called on motorcyclists to wear safety helmets and for drivers to follow new traffic laws'.

  Oddly enough (if you read next item) it quotes RTAVIS statistics:

  '.... 4 percent of drivers wear helmets'.

  A misquote / failure to understand statistics?
  

• What does the Cambodian donor community do, except financing such nonsense?

  'The president of Handicap International Belgium [HIB] stated that the topic of this Week of Land Traffic Safety, held for the second time in Cambodia, was to cooperate to reduce traffic accidents through the respect of the traffic law'.

  Cooperate! Luckily HIB are saved by a recent update on the roadsafetycambodia site concerning the use of helmets. Clearly, it states that the law should have been implemented as of Sept. 1 last year, but compulsory helmet usage is not being enforced (as are none of the other articles of the law).
  
  Here at Crossing Cambodia we have commented on the fact that only 25-35% of the moto's use helmets. This is validated by this research which concluded that the rate of helmet usage was about 28% with a variation of 25-34%. So much for their research, they could just of looked at this site (and saved some money / time).
  
  There was some variation though. On some roads outside Phnom Penh, up to 50% of the traffic participants had helmets on. Crossing Cambodia could also state that female drivers also more often use helmets. Their main conclusion:

  'Through out the survey, in 2008 we found that the number of helmet wearing increase in all surveyed national road and in average 8.66% increase. This number will rapidly increase if the new traffic law was respect by the people and the traffic police start to enforce the law and the traffic police take action on the people who don’t wear helmet'.

  Now where have we heard this before? Possibly the main donor of this organization could pay more attention to enforcement than 'cooperation'.

• In Bangkok, red light dodging has lead the authorities to institute cameras at more than 30 intersections. That's what today's (10 April 2008) Bangkok Post mentions on it's front page.

  'During a trial more than 2,000 vehicles went through red lights in a week at 15 intersections where cameras had been installed.'

  Goes to show, that the only gain, in traffic culture, is pain! Hello Cambodia,are we paying attention?
  

• A comparison with Iraq! Finally, Cambodia has something to be proud of. Or not? The Cambodia Daily of sometime this week reports on an ox-cart which was rigged to a bomb so as to injure/kill it's owner!

  'At about 6 am (Monday, April 7, 2008), an activist for local rights group Adhoc in Kampong Chhnang province, was about to move his oxcart in Khlong Popoak commune, when he discovered two large recoilless rifle shells tied to a small trigger under the cart'.

  It could have caused an explosion covering 30 square meters!

• Cambodia Daily (7 April 2008) headlines: 'Cops among four arrested on extortion claims':

  'The four [a district police official, a provincial tax officer and two money collectors] allegedly operated a checkpoint on a 7 km dirt road taking money from fish sellers and drivers since 2004 [!]. They apparently took [extorted is meant] up to $50 per vehicle. A local company received permission to collect tolls [read bribes] from 2004 to 2020, but not until repairs the company had promised [ah promises are not meant to be kept] are done'.

  Only now has action been undertaken, does this have anything to do with the coming elections except pure co-incidence?

• Innovative ways to ask drivers to be more human? 'No Horn Day' for instance in Mumbai. For those of us who fail to grasp English, it has nothing to do with sex.

  'Mumbai is very horny. ... Everybody honks because the other is honking. It’s an atavistic instinct it seems. I will be thought of as weak if I don’t honk. They honk when they get free roads and honk of course when there is a red light. Of what use is the horn when the Red light is speaking to you. Why pressurize? But I am an old man at 30 closing my ears at different junctions. Everyday I invariably tell the auto I am in to not honk. Only to be stared back in hatred. Drive, they ask back in silence. Drive in this mess you elite bastard with weak ears, they seem to ask me. I ask them if they don’t hate all this honking? They smile back. Occupational hazard…why take it so seriously! The world honks and so do I. So will you, once you take the wheel'.

  Well, things change:

  'On Monday, officially declared No Horn Day, the Mumbai traffic police, in a fell swoop, fined thousands of drivers for violating honking rules in the city. The count up to 6 pm was 6,195 cases.
  Beginning Monday night, the cops plan to crack down further and prosecute offenders under the Environment Protection Act, which has far more stringent penalties: this act, which can be used in cases ranging from bursting firecrackers or blasting loudspeakers after 10 pm to honking at night, has a maximum fine of Rs 1 lakh depending on the severity of the offence.
  
  "This will prove an effective deterrent to errant drivers," joint commissioner of police Hemant Karkare told TOI. "However, this move is at a preliminary stage. We need some more preparation before we go the whole hog".
  
  Karkare declared that the crackdown against shrill and reverse horns, unnecessary honking and honking in silence zones would go on. When a journalist mentioned that SRK felt that No Horn Day should continue for a week, he riposted, "It's not one day or one week. This will now continue permanently".

Minor news, a round up:

• Another motorbike stolen while simultaneously shooting it's owner.
  
• A bus kills a cyclist, who forgot to look over his shoulder.
  
• Connect Cambodia (with?) is/are astounded by the 'traffic sprawl'.
• Cambodia's PM knows what his citizens are thinking:

  'For Hun Sen, there are several reasons which explained this low participation. First of all, the Phnom Penh city dwellers “are fed up with the traffic jams caused by these demonstrations.”'

  Considering there are hardly 'these demonstrations' taking place (unless in front of KFC on Monivong, where demonstrations of lack of consideration take place on a daily basis) and traffic grid lock is expanding daily, maybe it might pay to get traffic lights to function and to enforce the need for motorists to stop when the light is red!
• An older article which has just resurfaced on Crossing Cambodia's desk. Alas, no date, but undoubtedly from the Cambodia Daily. Ship had hit another sunken ship.

  'A Phnom Penh Port Authority official claimed that Friday's capsizing of a boat carrying sand on the Tonle Sap occurred after it had snagged the top of another sand-carrying boat that had been sitting on the bottom of the river since December. ... Phnom Penh police chief Touch Naruth reiterated Monday that there were no tourists aboard the vessel and ....'.

  What a relief! No tourists on a sand barge!
  

Chasing Cars Cambodian Style, Valentine's Day 2008

• Chinese New Year? Less accidents. Why? Khmernews knows the answer:

  'According to Cambodia Daily reported that “during the Chinese new year accidents in 2008 is dropped down because of some people understanding and obeying the traffic law"'.

  Some people were out of town Crossing Cambodia thinks; nobody obey's the traffic law nor is nobody interested in understanding the intracacities of Cambodia's traffic law and the failure to implement / enforce it! Literally the Cambodian Daily report mentions:

  'a drop-off that they [police in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap] attributed to greater respect for traffic laws'.

• What accidents are we talking about?
  

  Dusty Path Caused an Accident
  Monday, February 11, 2008
  On the 9th February the badly traffic accident cost the life of a motor’s driver, YOU OWN who has 46 years old.
  This accident was happened by a car drove opposition him and made the road dusty like a foggy, and he could not see the road so he drove his motor crash a palm tree.
  The location police at Borsat said that this dusty path make the driver could not see anything in front of him, but if the people drive carefully and slowly they will avoid this accident.

  And

  Get injured because of shouting “why ride so fast”
  Monday, February 11, 2008
  On the 9th February in CHONG TNOL village TEK TLAR commune, RESSEY KOE District, There was a student named San Min got the serious injured because the group of seven teenagers fought him with using the big stick.
  The reason of this violent happened by the victim saw one of the teenager named Dara ride the bicycle very fast so he shouted “why ride so fast?”. A minute later, there were 6 or 7 people joined together with the violent tools in there hand such as big sticks, long [seat?] belts……for using to beat San Min. All the guilty guys were caught.

• A good way to do nothing:

  "Sellers Urged to Include Helmets with Motorbikes".

  That's what today's (Thursday February 14, 2008) Cambodian Daily reports on a new idea floated by Phnom Penh Municipal Govenor. He

  'encouraged motorbike shops to include two safety helemets with each bike sold in a letter dated Feb. 8 and distributed to media outlets Wednesday'.

  Sorry, Crossing Cambodia does not understand. If you want shops to sell helmets why send the letter to the media? His deputy continues:'

  He [the deputy] also said that police could begin issuing tickets next month for people who disregard the year-old compulsory helemet requirement'.

  With the emphasis on could, but wouldn't ....

• Today's (Feb 14, 2008) Bangkok Post shows what takes place there:

  'Hands on the Wheel:
  Drivers using mobile phones without a hands free device will be fined after a new law takes effect on May 7'.

• Independent confirmation, the ferries to Koh Kong province are fastly becoming extinct:

  'Two new bridges among four were opened for people to use in Koh Kong. The two bridges connect National road No4 in Sre Ambil point to Koh Kong province. They were built under grant of Thai government which worth US$7.5 million. The bridge called Sre Ambil Bridge is 420m long and the second is Ta Tai with 390m long'.

• Let's hope that figure is correct. Moneakseka Khmer reports:

  'The Ministry of Economy and Finance official said that the projects to build roads, irrigation networks, bridges, and other facilities, if they are financed by the ADB, always have to go through biddings, meaning that it is a little bit difficult for government officials to lay their paws on this money. However, the money for repairing roads and bridges that are damaged in spots is not subject to biddings. Consequently, the corrupt officials have a chance to swallow it'.

  Heresay?
  

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!

National Highway 5-6 Siem Reap - Poipet

National Highway no. 6 from Siem Reap to Sisophon and then from Sisophon on National Highway no. 5 to Poipet, the overland borderpoint to Bangkok, has the reputation to be the worst national highway of Cambodia, an accolade which it has retained since time immortal. A recent article from the UPI's food(?) correspondent, Julia Watson, confirms this:

'The road from Siem Reap in Cambodia to the Poipet border post in Thailand is 93 miles long. The journey takes, on a good weather day, around 6 hours by bus.

To call it a road is to grant it a compliment it isn't due.

Despite massive overseas funding raised to develop an acceptable highway to the border crossing, hard standing is sporadic. The surface is no more than compacted red dirt that after any rainstorm turns quickly into a rutted field. Traffic slaloms from side to side to avoid the potholes. But punctures and ruptured crankshafts are common'.

This seems to contradict Cambodia's own website on this stretch of road, over on Tales of Asia. According to this site the road condition is 'Overall okay' as of April 30, 2007. This despite referring to the Poipet to Sisophon section of 50 kilometers:

'This section is surfaced and varies from okay to quite wretched. A lot of potholes (big enough to park a truck in) were patched up late last year, but the road, particularly near Poipet remains a bone-jarring ride'.

In all they reckon a bus could do the stretch of 155 km in 5-7 hours. This seems to be substantiated by reports from travelers on their web site, though with the recent rains, who knows what could happen?
What they do comment on is numerous scans mostly directed to the unfortunate tourists who can not cough up the cash to fly on the monopoly airline Bangkok Airlines, which seems to repel all competion. Probably the road department are in on the act as well ...

(De-)congestion

Today (May 17,2007) the Nation's (Thailand's no.2 English newspaper) foreign correspondent has nothing better to do than report from New York on hearsay from London and how to extrapolate this to Bangkok. Possibly the Nation might send him on a fact-finding mission to Singapore, which is way ahead of London on traffic control. Then again they are not so loud about it.

London's mayor gives Bangkok advice on easing its traffic congestion

"Get cars off the streets" is the strongest piece of advice leaders of some of the world's greenest capitals can give to their counterparts from cities plagued by pollution and congestion.

In no uncertain terms, they argue it is the most effective way to improve the quality of life and reduce carbon emissions.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone's "congestion pricing" has become a model success story that drew attention, whether awe or scepticism, from many mayors and city managers attending the second day of the "Large Cities Climate Summit" yesterday in New York.

Addressing the panel discussing "Beating the Congestion and Surviving Your Next Election" at the four-day summit of some 40 of the world's largest cities, Livingstone acknowledged the fears of many elected mayors that their political future could be jeopardized by drastic measures to tax drivers for taking their cars to trade and business centres.

"When I introduced the measure four years ago, my poll rating was bad, the media were hostile and gave disastrous predictions; it was all doom and gloom, no one would drive, retail shops and businesses in the controlled area would have to shut down," he recalled.

"Tony Blair wanted to appear as if he had nothing do with it. The government gave us money to expand the bus system but hoped nobody knew about it."

But he then listed how the measure improved flows of traffic in the city: the number of cars in the centre of London has been reduced by 38 per cent, a rate Livingstone said was twice more than he anticipated. Commercial vehicles increased, the number of cyclists increased 80 per cent, while bus riders increased from four to six million a day.

As a result, carbon emissions from the transport sector reduced 25 per cent.

Livingstone noted that his political courage to introduce the measure came from being pressured by London's business community. Congestion in the city cost ฃ2 billion (Bt140 billion) in business losses a year. London had lost its competitiveness and businesses threatened to relocate elsewhere, he said.

The mayor of London said he expanded the controlled areas by doubling them early this year and increased charges from ฃ5 to ฃ8 with similar hostility from the media, but opinion polls stated that his political approval went up.

"Politicians like to underestimate the intelligence of the general public - trust your people that they recognise the problem. In four years my poll has gone up 14 per cent and they don't want to vote for my rival because they fear my rival would remove congestion pricing."

Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin told Livingstone he was interested in his success story but had little clue how a gridlocked city like Thailand's capital with 5.5 millions cars on the street every day could begin the measure without a good public transit system.

"We only have 50km combined of Skytrain and subway. The buses are run by the central government. We want to introduce the charge but don't have a proper mass transit system. Do we need to have the system in place first or could we start now in the inner city?"

Livingstone's advice is to improve the bus system because subways take a long time to construct. He said in the case of London, the number of buses increased from 6,000 to 8,000 along with the introduction of new routes, and the private sector played a key role in helping with finance.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Livingstone's scheme. If he has his way, drivers who want to enter inner Manhattan will have to pay US$8 (Bt267).

The Mayor of Copenhagen, Klaus Bondam, said he had wanted to introduce congestion charging for some time but the right-wing central government opposed the idea by not issuing legislation. "Copenhagen is much smaller than Bangkok with only 500,000 residents, but noise and air pollution from the traffic bothers our residents, so we want to discourage cars from getting into the city. We will continue to fight for what is right," he said.
Nantiya Tangwisutijit

Well, the Thai side fail to look at their own solution, elevated toll roads. And why would 'buses run by the central government' impede seeking a solution?

Could the Cambodia Daily afford to send a reporter overseas to see if there any talking heads with clear advice on how to decongest Phnom Penh? Or at at least avoid more congestion. On yer bike? Or should he/she take a moto?