THE COST OF JUMPING A RED LIGHT
I take a taxi to and from work every day, and add to those the ones for meetings and at weekends then it's fair to say I've taken more than 1,000 cabs during my time in Bangkok. I've experienced some pretty awful driving (by Western standards) but yesterday was the first time I've been in a cab that was stopped by the Police.
To be fair the driver on this occasion was slightly unfortunate. He did jump a red light although at least two cars came through after us and didn't get stopped. The officer asked to see the drivers license, which he duly produced along with a carefully folded 50 baht note. The officer smiled, said something like "don't do it again" and that was it.
So the cost of jumping a red light? On this occasion it was 50 baht or about 85p in UK money.
5 comments:
There seems to be a grading system according to the offence. My Thai friend tells me he often is caught for parking at the roadside when he shouldn't (unfortunately it's never clear where or when you can park). The police ask to see the license and their signal is to tap two fingers on the edge of the window - meaning 200 baht. It happens so often to him that he keeps 200 baht folded in a neat square next to his drivers license.
Hi Mark. I didn't see the fingers but yes, the driver had his license and the 50 baht note together. Obviously he's accustomed to being stopped, which is a bit worrying.
"don't do it again", together with that smile :) ..., a very effective use of sarcasm by the infamous Thai traffic police.
The Police guy was very polite. He saluted the driver and, noticing me sitting on the back seat, saluted me too. This happened at the junction of Nana and Sukhumvit so he probably wanted to shift the taxi as soon as he could.
We used to call traffic stops "salary enhancers." I lived in rural Issan, where the police would start setting up road-blocks about the 20th of the month because they were starting to run out of spending money. They were very specific in their targeting. The Taxi driver probably pays this amount as a regular part of doing business in that part of town. In another part it might be parking, or the condition of the vehicle, or speeding, or turning at the wrong place. Corruption in Thailand is endemic, from the top down.
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