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!

More enforcement

The Mirror continues with highlighting law enforcement especially concerning the traffic law and how haphazardly and discriminatory it's being implemented:

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 614

One week ago, the following observation and question was shared here in the Mirror:

“Most societies work with the concept that individuals do not have the right to break the rules or to use violence that harms others – but the state has a monopoly to enforce laws, and it is assumed that this happens regularly, as a matter of fact.
Why is it that in Cambodia, law enforcement often does not happen just simply based on an existing law, but an additional appeal or even a threat is necessary?”

Now, after the Prime Minister had pointed to the fact that important elements of the Land Traffic Law of 2007 are not being implemented, an active campaign is under way to catch violators. There is police positioned in different parts of Phnom Penh, stopping motorcycles without side mirrors, and with drivers without helmets.
I saw on Saturday how two teams of policemen with walkie-talkies, some placed at a busy intersection, and the second group placed some distance along the road, identified and caught violators of the Land Traffic Law of 2007. I observed how they caught one after the other motorcycle driver. But I observed also that a big black Landcruiser without a license place passed by slowly, and nobody cared.
Probably only if the Prime Minister would issue an order to catch big cars without license plates the traffic police would act?
But does this really help?
Two weeks ago, on 20 May 2009, we had mirrored the following headline from Rasmei Kampuchea:
“Prime Minister Warns Officials to Stop Interventions in Traffic Accidents [to release their family members, relatives, or friends, without letting the law deal with them]”

But on 26 May 2009, there was the following headline in Deum Ampil:strong>“A Minor Traffic Accident Leads to the Shooting of Three Bullets”
What had happened?
A luxury car collided with a motorbike with a young man and a woman. Then the man who had driven the car, pulled out his gun and shot three times in the air, but the people who had been on the motorcycle fled. The Khmer newspaper did not provide much more information, and the accident did not seem to have made it into other Khmer papers.
The English Cambodia Daily reported more on 26 May 2009:

The son of a high ranking government official shot a handgun into the air three times after his car collided with a motorbike…, though police did not arrest the shooter, according to witnesses and police officers who requested anonymity. Multiple officers declined to provide the young man’s name due to the power and influence of his father. “We are in a lower position, so we dare not touch them,” one officer said. Seng Chanthon, deputy chief of traffic offenses of the city’s traffic police department, confirmed that an accident had occurred, but he would not say whether shots were fired nor give the name of the alleged government official’s son who allegedly opened fire… Police quickly surrounded the scene, according to witnesses and police officers, but the shooter and his passengers simply left in another SUV [Sport Utility Vehicle] that arrived. The driver of the car, which had its front wheel damaged, however, retrieved his vehicle in person at the Chankar Mon discrict police station on Monday morning… According to Pen Khun, deputy municipal police chief, no official reports by police or the public have been made regarding the crash and the shooting.”

So what? How to relate the two messages of 20 May and of 26 May 2009?

The traffic police is busy following the order to implement the Land Traffic Law of 2007 – catching often simple people who have not yet bought a helmet. The message of the Prime Minister of 20 May 2009 has obviously not yet reached the traffic police – not even the higher level officials whose names are quoted above.
So what will be the next step? Or will there be none for quite some time to come?

Despite the Mirror noticing more traffic law enforcement, at least 1/3 of all drivers still ride without helmets, so much for enforcing the law. Is it me or are the guys (they often are guys) driving in the wrong direction and ignoring the lights never with helmets? It certainly seems so. Possibly this points to a serious group of untouchables, how will the police ever get them to tie the line?

On the same subject of law enforcement Andy Brouwer relates to the peculiar "law' which saw several tuk-tuk chauffeurs have their possessions impounded by the traffic police because a number of dignitaries were visiting last week. Their 'crime'?
By yesterday (Tuesday, 3 days after the 'meeting'), not only had the owners not been able to retrieve their means of making money, they had failed to find out which government establishment had stoshed the booty!( Cambodia Daily?)

Totally unrelated it may seem but yesterdays Phnom Penh Post gives us an example of how 'law' is maintained:

'On Tuesday morning the police in Battambang province called two seventh-grade students aged 15 and 16 at Netr Yang High School who were standing in front the police station to come in and cut their hair, which police said was too long. The police said they could not stand seeing students looking so bad'.

And what if the the police look bad at implementing the law? That's fine? Can the public stomach this?

Chasing Cars, Cambo style, 10 December 2008

Much to mention so to see, but in reality?

• The stuff dreams are made of. Elevated rail. Elevated roadways. That's the answer of growing traffic congestion according to the government. We could have these be as early as eight years from now,

  'but project lacks money [yours for 300 million $] and must look to donors, private sector for funds'.

  And they are not forthcoming. That sucks.
  But is it a real answer? The opposition think not:

  '"I think the sky train project is not a priority. The government should focus on rural infrastructure," said Mu Sochua, deputy secretary general of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party'.

  There's some value in that. Even high ranking officials are skeptical:
  

  "If [it] materialises, it could make only a small change in congestion due to the fact that are more vehicles on the roads and there is ignorance of traffic laws," said Phnom Penh Traffic Police Chief Tin Prasoeur'.

  Growth of vehicles according citations in this Phnom Penh Post article has been phenomenal, a tripling in the last few years.
  Indeed a single rail link won't change much. And in the meantime there still is a lot of growth to deal with. So maybe what's required is a multi-track approach.
  Gridlock in Phnom Penh is partially due to non-adherence to traffic rules: driving the wrong way down one-way streets, ignoring traffic lights, haphazard parking, poor awareness of users to proper way of driving (taking left lane and then turning right is one that springs to mind). At the same time those concerned with enforcing the rules are not at all interested.
  Then there is poor planning. For instance north-south routes are lacking and one of these (Monivong) is currently being dug up. The alternative for this road (Street 63) is now also out of bounds as the great traffic roundabout that is the Central Market, is being used for market enhancements. That means that from south to north there is gridlock during rush hour.
  Furthermore there is no intermediate planning. Especially the Russian Boulevard could profit from fly-overs, thereby easing east-west traffic and forming less of barrier to North-South traffic. Other enhancements could be where Monireth crosses the Ring Road and where the (northern and eastern) bridges enter the city basically dropping all mayhem on the roundabouts at the foot of the bridges. Real city buses is also an idea, excluding certain vehicles from the city center.
  But could we expect a real plan?

• More dreams, the PM still wants a national airline.
  But didn't Cambodia just sign all kinds of agreements with an Indonesian company to do so? What happened to the deal? Has it been shelved (as was expected).
  Wanting something doesn't always mean you gone get it. The future of airlines seems to be one with over-capacity, much to the delight of passengers. Now (as was 6 months ago) the wrong time to spread your wings.
  Possibly the government should focus it's air policy elsewhere, having no national airline means that other airlines may wish to start up new routes, if only to off-set poor loading factors and getting a one-up on the competition. The Lao for instance are inviting all and sun-dry to set up a route from Hong Kong to Vietiane.
  The authorities could also focus on the air safety regulations which with the recent Siem Reap Airways flop could encourage outsiders to fly within Cambodia.

• The air industry in Cambodia is set to be enhanced, not by the PM but by the owner of Cambodia's main airports (SCA). A long interview with the prez of the company in Ka-set. On Sihanoukville:

  'We just have to attract airline companies, now ....
  If airline companies think there is a market there, they will come with their planes. The critical part is to build up the image of Sihanoukville, promote the destination and turn it into a more attractive place, particularly with the development of hotel infrastructures.'

  Don't hold your breath.

• Had an accident? Just call 119, which connects you with Phnom Penh's least worst government hospital Calmette. This article on KI Media (originally from VOA) gives you some insight in Cambodia's new decrees concerning picking up traffic victims. The reasoning behind the new regulations:

  'For the safety of victims and avoiding the anarchic activities of grabbing customers, the ministry banned private clinics from sending their ambulances to take victims of accidents'.
  ...
  'The majority [of the clinics] have abided the directive'

  
  Which seems somehow of a reassurance. But the original decree referred to

  'promote a public ambulance service'

  But what is a public service? This comment on aforementioned link:

  'This directive creates more problem for the public because Calmet's ambulance staff are all corrupt. I am one of the victims of 119. Let me tell you the story. One of my foreign customer had heart attack in my shop. she fell down on the floor. Then, I call 119 of Calmet's hospital. They arrived 5 minutes later. However, what surprised me, you guess? They asked me (the owner of the shop) for $50 without negotiation. I had no choice because the condition of the patient is very critical. Unfortunately, her husband told me that she was dead on the way to hospital'.
  

• More dreams:

  'The Ministry of Public Works and Transport said that so far, the restoration and repair of the two railroad lines from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville and from Phnom Penh to the Poipet border crossing with Thailand, ‘has not achieved any noticeable results, and the action is very slow.’

  The article continues to highlight all the features of Cambodia's rail upgrade, which has been contracted to take part in under two years.

• License plate news:

  'The National Assembly issued a notice to the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Mr. Tram Iv Tek, on 4 December 2008, saying that the National Assembly allows the Ministry of Public work and Transport to take action to monitor and to seize number plates of private vehicles that use police and RCAF number plates'.

  Funny that, an article in the Cambodia Daily in February this year states that

  'Ministry of Public Works and Transport has now ordered all state, police and army license plates on private vehicles to be replaced with civilian plates by March 1'.

  So now the parliament is (belatedly) ordering the ministry around to do something which obviously they not so good in.
  
  Relevance?

  'Police and RCAF number plates are often put on luxurious cars belonging to private individuals, and they are being driven everywhere and against many regulations, and with no respect for the law'.

• Finally more on the road to Bokor. Here's Andy fuming:

  'We got it for $30 each, but it's still a rip-off! The Toyota wagon had 11 tourists on board, a driver and a guide. Nine of us held on tightly on the back of the pick-up for one of the most uncomfortable rides of my life, and I've had a few in Cambodia over the years. The road is being repaired, renovated, call it what you will but so far the Sokha Group, who have taken over the mountain as their own private playground for the foreseeable future, have done lots of preparatory work but practically none of the 30-odd kms up the mountain is anywhere near finished. I reckon it'll be years before it is. They've widened the road in places and it bodes well for the future, but that's a long way off and today, its a bumpy, rutted, pot-holed mess'.

Lately in Lao

Coping with increasing traffic Lao officials have decided to increase the number of one way roads in it's capital city. According to the Vientiane Times (22 February 2007):

Vientiane adopts one-way grid system

Vientiane authorities will designate several roads in the capital's ancient town as part of a one-way system, starting March 1 of this year, to reduce traffic congestion, ensure order, and to promote tourism.

The authorities have also mentioned new measures to address parking problems and the misuse of walkways by vendors selling food from stands or in small, open-air restaurants.

The Vice President of Vientiane's Urban Development Administration Authority (VUDAA), Mr Ketkeo Sihalath, said yesterday that his authority was preparing with relevant sectors to start the project.

“We will erect signs and use police force to give direction to people over the first one-month period. Then we will evaluate the project to see if the majority of people understand the directions, prior to issuing fines to offenders who drive in the wrong direction,” Mr Ketkeo said.

“Our project does not aim to fine people, but to give them education as to how to use the roads properly. However, a fine is necessary to force people to implement the regulations,” he said.

VUDAA issued a notice on February 8 to determine which roads would be part of the one-way system. Chao Anou road runs from the Mekong river into town, whereas Francois Nginn road will only run from the town down to the Mekong . Norkeokoumman road will run from the Mekong into town, whereas Mantha-toulath road runs from the town to Mekong and Pangkham road runs from the Mekong into town.

The notice also determines that cars are allowed to park on only one side of the road, in accordance with odd and even days. For example, on odd-numbered days, drivers are allowed to park on the right side of the road, whereas the next day, an even numbered date, parking will be allowed on the left.

This parking system will be enforced for the roads mentioned above in the old town. Additionally, the system applies to the downtown stretch of Samsaenthai road, from the traffic light where you can turn off to get to Sisaket temple to the Department of Geology and Mines. Setthathirath road is also included in the plan, from Inpeng temple to the Hor Kham (Presidential Palace).

The notice also encourages people to park in available areas such as the parking lots near the Lane Xang Hotel, Vat Chan and Mahosot Hospital .

On February 16, the VUDAA issued another notice in relation to the management of traffic and parking near the Talat Xao and Khuadin markets, with the aim of improving the order and beauty of the capital.

The notice stipulates that taxis, tuk tuks and jumbos parking in a disorderly fashion alongside Nongbone and Khouvieng roads would instead be directed to park at Hadsady village.

The cars belonging to vendors working in the morning market and surrounding areas will be encouraged to park on the fourth floor of the new Talat Xao Shopping Mall, when it is finished.

Vehicles on their way into and out of the Post Office, and the nearby ethnic group market, Lao Front for National Construction offices or the Faculty of Medical Science, need to turn correctly with traffic, and to move in the right direction. People should stop taking short-cuts by going against the direction of traffic in their lane. This saves a little time, but is very dangerous, and makes parking on this block chaotic.

Mr Ketkeo urged all people to implement the notices and traffic regulations and to cooperate with authorities in carrying out their duties.
Ultimately, these measures will reduce the number of road accidents that claim people's lives and should ensure the order and beauty of the capital.

Well, ensuring beauty and traffic safety can be combined. Let's hope their southerly brothers have internet access...