Chasing Cars, June 2, 2008

• How safe is traffic in Cambodia? Well, if even UFO's are having accidents over or near Cambodia, then we can clearly say that the traffic situation in Cambodia is not so safe after all.

  'A UFO has exploded in mid-air over a southern Vietnamese island, according to reports.
  Villagers say they heard a loud blast yesterday and later found shards of metal near the island's coastline.
  The sensational revelations come one day after neighbouring Cambodia's air force retracted a report of a mysterious plane crash.
  The Vietnam News Agency said residents of Phu Quoc island, six miles off the coast of the Cambodian province of Kampot, found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 metres long'.

  Pictures of shards obtained in Cambodia are here. So it was a UFO, but everybody has been told to hush up. From the Vietnamese press:

  'Nguyen Thanh Banh, Kien Giang police deputy chief, told Thanh Nien anyone found guilty of spreading rumors from the incident that would negatively affect security on the island would be dealt with according to law'.

  That's good to know, that the law will be upheld. What does the Vietnamese law say about spreading rumours? Do they actually have a law on spreading rumours? Do they have legislation on UFO's? Does the traffic law in Cambodia have anything to say on UFO's?
  

• The train was back in the news last week. It derailed surprisingly:

  'The reason for the overturn appears to be the decrepit old railroad tracks which could no longer support the weight of the wagons'.

  Possibly the same train also derailed a few days earlier in Battambang. The reason:

  ' "It rains a lot previous day that land under the rail ways went down", he [an official] say'.

• What with fuel wagons being derailed and pilfered (see above), more problems behest the fuel situation in Cambodia:

  'On average, 10,000 –15,000 litres are smuggled into Cambodia through Kien Giang Province every day ... the province’s Department of Industry and Trade has instructed oil enterprises to limit monthly supplies to retailers in border communes to 150,000 litre'.

  Darn! No more cheap petrol for Cambodia!

• How much value are employees to your company? Sufficient enough to give them helmets? Well, Crossing Cambodia would think so. But why would this logical line of thought need to be highlighted:

  'Hence, the hotel [Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa] did something about it – by generously supplying helmets to all staff members. “The staff members were overjoyed as they were given one helmet each for free,” said the beaming general manager.'

• More non-news: current and most probable future Cambodian PM, Hun Sen, wants his high ranking officials to foot the bill themselves for driving:

  'Hun Sen wants to condition the members of the upcoming Cambodian government with a new measure: the end of all service cars (for VIPs)'.

  Q.: will it happen? A.: don't think so ...
  

• Do we have any indication on the situation on the road to Koh Kong? Tales of Asia forum reports:

  'The bridges are now all complete and coaches, a.c. nice seats, toilets, towels and water are now doing the run for 10 $ U.S. It's six hours, with a lunch and loo stop to P.P. so maybe a half hour less to Sihanoukville, no change of bus'.

  Khmer 440 forum adds:

  'A friend of mine said yesterday all bridges are allowing traffic even though two bridges are incomplete'.

  ...

  'Regarding the bridges, I took the bus from KK to Sihanoukville and got there in 4 hours without changing bus, all bridges were fully functional. I just wonder if Asean Hotel in KK overcharged me on the ticket, paid 15$ U.S. '.

  A.: yes, but only by 50%!
  

• The road Siem Reap-border:
  

  'nasty weather made the road very muddy'

• Frizz restaurant has got it's Cambodia Travel guide updated. Why they don't simply put the info on wikitravel is beyond Crossing Cambodia, possibly a potential to plug themselves, though they are a restaurant not a travel agency. From the Dangers and Annoyances section, some sound advice:

  'Definitely the most dangerous aspect of Cambodia: the traffic. This country has a shocking number of traffic casualties, even more so if you consider the still relatively low number of cars.
  In the cities it's not so bad. Although chaotic for the western eye, traffic in cities tends to be slow and when accidents occur it's usually limited to material damage.
  You will see a quite different situation on the roads between towns: speeding cars and old trucks and minivans dangerously overloaded with people and goods. ....
  Many visitors are tempted to hire a moto or even an off-road bike. You should be an experienced driver if you want to ride around Cambodia. Give yourself time to get adjusted to the traffic 'rules' and always wear a helmet!'

• Then some quirky khmernews:

  'Bus Transports Illegally Luxurious Timber
  A bus, which contained a lot of cubic meters of luxurious log, was stopped by Kampongcham province police. The timber was illegally transported to Vietnam'.

Enforcing the law: at the traffic lights

All wait for the green light to come

Some of the Crossing Cambodia postings linked to other publications / articles during the last few months have emphasized the lack of law enforcement /road safety and exemplified these with situations at the traffic lights. Time to find out the truth.

On the crossroads of Monivong Boulevard and street 214, there are a set of oldish traffic lights. Monivong is a busy road, street 214 a busy local road. Per traffic light sequence change (red to green to red for both sides) about 150 motorcycles and 45 cars cross this intersection in mid week during mid-morning traffic. Over 7% of the cars went through red and 3.6% of the motorcycles. This was a cross road whereby traffic police were lurking in the shade, though during the data collection they let everybody pass in spite of a few passing them while just committing an offense (crossing during the red light, though possibly this no offense). Most of the offenders were vehicles which continued to cross the road despite the colour of the light having changed from yellow to red. There were also a few motorcycles which cautiously crossed, despite the change of light having changed some time before.

Red has changed to green, but crossing vehicles (motorcycles) haven't vacated (or are not willing to vacate) the intersection

So what did we learn? Yes, ignoring lights occurs and in quite significant numbers. Dangerous? Not really, all traffic is used to the few (is 5% just a few?) who ignore the lights; so even though the light is green they proceed cautiously. And the traffic police? They are just doing their job (luv' to see their job description: a major part of your assignment is to hang around in the shade and look interested)

Watch out for the police!

Tales of Asia: a 'readers' submission

Today's travel advisory referred to the Tales of Asia site. Besides advice there are also readers submissions. 'Butch' recently (3 March 2007) has written a few words on 'Driving in Cambodia'. Take it away Butch:

'Unless you have spent time in a state mental institution or indulged in hallucinogenic drugs there little to prepare you for the rolling catastrophe which is Cambodian traffic. I spent four years as a London motorcycle courier, which I thought was a fairly bonkers occupation but I felt like a boy scout in Baghdad on my first days biking in Phnom Penh. In London drivers are aggressive and impatient, but predictable. In Cambodia drivers are seldom aggressive, occasionally impatient but completely unpredictable'.

End of first alinea: Cambodian drivers are 'unpredictable'. Cambodian traffic is a 'rolling catastrophe'. Will jot that down for the final evaluation. Let's read on:

'Basic road rules: Driving on the right is the norm, unless you want to drive on the left in which case that's fine too. Priority is in order of size, big smoke-belching lorries do what they want and everyone else gets out of their way, then in descending order: 4x4s, minibuses, pickup trucks, Toyota Camry (Cambodian national car) then motorbike and trailer combinations, Honda Dreams (national motorbike), ox carts and lastly cyclists pedestrians dogs and chickens.

Exceptions to this rule are: Large Mercedes or Hummers with fancy wheels and blacked out windows, their drivers are always heavily armed and so have extra priority. Convoys of Mercs, Hummers, Land Cruisers etc with flashing lights get extra double priority as they will be taking the prime minister's wife shopping and this is vital to the economy. Cyclo taxis are given way too because people feel sorry for a six stone pensioner pedalling a half-ton tricycle. Monks; easy to spot because of their bright, saffron coloured robes and therefore easy to avoid. It is seriously bad karma to run over a monk, so they have extra triple priority.

Cattle: Locals have allowed their cows to range freely for centuries, safe in the knowledge that they will return home at dusk, building a main road through their territory will not alter the cows' daily routine one jot. Small herds wander down the busiest of highways stopping to graze on the verges and sometimes lay down for a nap in the centre of the road. Killing a cow is not as bad as killing a monk, but it will be expensive and can damage your motorcycle.

Safety: This being a Buddhist country, everything is down to fate and luck so making an offering at a shrine is considered more useful than checking if the tyres contain any air. Wearing a helmet or seat belt shows you are a non-believer and also marks you out as a bit of a sissy.

Junctions and traffic lights: Stopping at a junction will cause an accident, no one ever stops, so don’t, or everyone else will crash into the back of you. Ditto pulling out onto a main road, stopping to look out for oncoming traffic is also seen as a sign of weakness / sissydom / lack of faith. Traffic lights are used solely for paying police wages. Cops will exact fines for ignoring traffic lights and anything else that takes their fancy such as wearing an offensive shirt or not washing behind your ears.

Overloaded vehicles: Except for the aforementioned Hummers and Mercs which need space for assault rifles, bags of cash etc. Cambodian vehicles are always chronically overloaded. Families of five or more squash onto a moped, taxis carry at least six persons in town and around nine on a long journey. Minibuses load up with cargo and small motorbikes then fill the remaining space with passengers, once the van is full a further ten or so climb on the roof. These vans have poor brakes but loud horns and the screaming passengers on the roof will usually alert you to their presence.

Gasoline couriers: These deserve a special mention, filling stations in Cambodia range from the modern forecourt style to little roadside stalls selling petrol in old pop bottles. Supplying these outlets are small motorbikes carrying five or more plastic jerrycans, all lashed to the seat with string.
Riding an incendiary bomb does not make these riders any more careful, and so ranks them in the world’s most dangerous jobs, right up there with Alaskan crab fisherman and Harold Shipman's cleaning lady.

Night driving: All of the above apply except that around a quarter of all vehicles do not have lights and there is no actual offense of drunk driving. Enjoy your trip!'

Yes, traffic in Cambodia is essentially a bag of fun! Unless of course you have an unfortunate accident and run into the police. Other than that, no worries. Tah, Bruce.

Traffic Police Flee Mob Revisited

From the Khmer440 site, yesterday's monthly Stan Kahn contribution entitled 'Cambodian Traffic Police Flee Mob'. The inspiration for this article stems from an incident back in February, reported in two articles in Crossing Cambodia, here and here. The full contribution can be had on the Khmer 440 site, but here are some sound bytes:

' .... For the police, they must feel overwhelmed by a situation in which obeying traffic rules is voluntary and where they feel so little respect that drivers routinely snub their noses at them. ... In this case I feel police ineptitude is preferable to police abuse, which is common in many places today, including the US. I’ve seen Khmers react with local police in a way that would’ve gotten them busted skulls in a second in America. However, lack of traffic enforcement still leads to frequent traffic jams and the region’s worst traffic accident rate'.

Worst traffic accident rate? Hmmm, the jury is still deliberating on this.

'... But do they [Cambodian road users] also understand that it’s not okay for a dozen vehicles to go through the intersection after the light has turned red? This practice [ignoring traffic lights] is becoming a recipe for gridlock since they will often go through the light even when the way ahead is blocked and then get stuck in the middle of the intersection; sometimes totally blocking traffic in the other direction for the entire time of the green light....

Nevertheless, education and enforcement would definitely reduce the numbers of speeders.

...
Cambodia has its own rules of right-of-way, actually it’s only one rule: whoever gets there first has priority, and it helps to have a hefty vehicle. This worked well enough in the past when vehicle counts were low, but progressively is breaking down as vehicle density rises.

The problem here is that lack of clear rules of right-of-way result in accidents in the middle of the night as well as rush hour. Let’s say two vehicles are going in opposite directions, with one wanting to make a left turn. If the left turner doesn’t understand that he or she is supposed to yield the right-of-way to the other driver, confusion results. Just that situation happened to a friend, and a crash and a broken arm was the outcome; and that was at 4 am. The first priority is established rules that are widely taught, including public service campaigns in the media and especially in the schools. These kinds of social changes don’t happen overnight.

A few years back in Thailand, I think it was Chaing Mai, I saw large signboards placed at crosswalks warning drivers they were supposed to stop for pedestrians. Crosswalks mean nothing if the rules are not explicit and consistently enforced.

While in Vietnam in 1994, I saw police standing at the curb turning back drivers going against the flow of traffic. Needless to say, Vietnamese police get a lot more respect from their citizenry than their Cambodian counterparts'. ...

So, the lack of law enforcement on Cambodian roads and/or the lack of respect for traffic police are quintessential Cambodian traits? At least that's the conclusion; the richer Thai have learnt more about being courteous in traffic, the Vietnamese have more respect for authoritarianism.
What about the assumption that ineptitude shown by officials in ensuring continuum on Phnom Penh's roads and simultaneously protecting their own from themselves is also a pure Cambodian trait? In the numerous blogs on Crossing Cambodian much reference has been made to how neighbouring national and local authorities cope with the same issues: increasing traffic, safety and enforcement. Is it too soon (nine months after Crossing Cambodia's inception) to start drawing (these) conclusions?

'This [drivers would get the message that there actually was a rule and it was being applied to everyone] would also result in increased respect for the police, the lack of which is a large part of the problem today; scoffing at the rules goes hand to hand with disrespect for the police. The Prime Minister has recently placed the high rate of traffic accidents as one of Cambodia’s biggest challenges. We’ll have to wait and see if that translates into real action to tackle the problem'.

The fact of the matter is that law enforcement needs more than a willing PM. The current PM 'cult' simply implies that if the PM does not take action personally then the situation has the official PM seal. Sound bytes? These are for election purposes or for craving goodwill with financial donors. If the PM really cared, measures would have been enacted long ago. But making sure that the complete law enforcement apparatus works only for him, means simultaneously that they do not work for the common good. Not working for the common good means little or no respect.

On the respect issue, Crossing Cambodia thinks fondly of it's sojourn in Nepal. Respect for police? No worries, just in front of every stop line at the traffic lights was a khaki klad policeman with a big stick, say 1,5m long. This was of course used heavily as a contraption to assist the law officer in standing asleep, but it was also to ensure everybody stopped behind the white line; those ignorant of real intention of the stick soon got the idea if they just inched over the line: the result was no light dodging.

Plagiarism?

For the past 6 months Crossing Cambodia has been researching the link (if any) between how traffic is conducted and the nation / society of Cambodia. But today's (December 6, 2006) Cambodia Daily publishes a Letter to the Editor which could have been a copy of this site's various blogs. The letter:

Parents tend to to advise their children to drive slowly and carefully. This is not necessarily bad, but it will not guarantee road safety and solve congestion.
Shaving off Phnom Penh's sidewalks, widening the roads and installing concrete dividers are also not long-term solutions. Indisciplined driving and the lack of traffic regulations are causing congestion.
There are many red lights and people rarely stop for them. But traffic signs could ease congestion at most intersections.
There are many issues that could ensure traffic safety. These include helmets, seat belts, protective seats for children and rear view mirrors. Lane dividers should be made of plastic and filled with water. Reflective devices should be used to mark out lanes, so they can be distinguished at night.
Extensive use of cell phones, watching karaoke videos on in-car television screens, and drivers failing to indicate when they are turning are all problems. So are people driving the wrong way down one-way streets.
There are also very few signs in Phnom Penh indicating speed limits. Undisciplined driving is a reflection of the country as a whole and we all have contributed to it. If one obeys the traffic law, traffic will flow smoothly. Disciplined driving can paint a good picture of a society we all live in. Vorak Ny, Phnom Penh.

A misconception: traffic signs are being ignored so they can hardly be a solution to congestion problems.
The writer in general understands the problems, but fails to come with good solutions. Law enforcement seems to be the most logical solution. If even red lights are being ignored how can more traffic signs and voluntary calls for disciplined driving help?

Can disciplined driving paint a good picture of society? Yes, but maybe society reflects itself on traffic habits, so if society as a whole does not become more disciplined, traffic is doomed to remain chaotic. Or not?

From the press: supporting the traffic police

From today's (November 9, 2006) Cambodia Daily the front page story entitled: Lack of respect Plagues Capital Traffic Police. The article describes how everybody in Phnom Penh tends to disregard the traffic police. Handicap International spokesperson claims :

'the population has a lack of respect for police'.

And :

'they make fun of police'.

The chief of municipal traffic police claims:

'they [traffic police] perform a valuable public service'.

The article then goes to exemplify the traffic police's problems with an unsuccessful case of trying to fine a government employee who missed a red light. They apparently are only able to apprehend 1 in 5 of the offenders and of those they do apprehend only 1 in 10 pays a fine.
A sorry state of affairs?
Then the article starts to get derailed:

'four traffic policemen ... said that the money that everyone sees them taking from drivers are in fact donations; acts of generosity by the public'.

The aforementioned chief then explains that the fine amounts are 2.50 $US for cars and half price for motorcycles, but these can also vary due to the severity of the violation,

'Please feel pity for them [traffic police]'

he concludes the article.

Well, Crossing Cambodia doubts that there are many takers for the pity story. Claimshave been made as to the willingness of traffic police to fine the lesser vindicators, i.e. those not in a shiny car. Offenders have been fined for ' driving with lights on', which seems to be against Cambodian common sense. What happened to leading by example?

Back

After a week long sojourn in Thailand Crossing Cambodia is back. Back to the basic question when starting this blog.What makes Cambodia different?
Coming from the airport one realizes that there are relatively many motorcycles with quite a few persons per motorcycle. Little consensus on where they should be riding on the road, on the right, middle or left? And what are they transporting. They are often carrying heavy loads or 5m long water pipes, or steel rods.
What's more there is total disregard for rules. Crossing Cambodia's taxi driver twice could not resist the temptation to cut a corner by speeding through a service station. And he wasn't the only one!
So was Chiang Mai so different? It was more relaxed, more polite. Still motorcycles drove on the wrong side of the road, but no cutting corners. Not many helmets but early morning (=misty)many motorcycles were driving with the lights on. In Cambodia this is a possible fine.