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Bangkok, Thailand is a city that has a high percentage of cars per people. Most single families have at least 2 cars. That is why it is important to consider who the bad drivers of this city are. Bad drivers can be noticed three ways: their car positions in each lane, their lack of concentration while driving and their behavior when they do not drive.

Bad drivers always drive inappropriately in both the right and the left lanes. In fact, Thai driving laws do not include this in the law books, but it really affects real life on the street. These driving laws say just that the faster cars have to be in the right lanes, and the slower cars have to be in the left lanes. The bad drivers drive near the right edge when they are in the right lane, and the mean drivers can get in the right lane, without waiting too easily because the bad drivers leave too much room. All drivers in the right lane should drive near the left edge to prevent those mean drivers, but the bad drivers do not. They just keep driving near the right edge, so every mean driver can cheat other cars. The problems of slower cars in the left lane are similar, too. Regularly, if the drivers drive in the left lane close by the small side road, they will drive near the right edge of the lane. The bad drivers drive near the left edge of the lane and no one from the small side road can come out onto the main street. More than that, in Thai traffic law, the left edge of the left lane is for motorcycles and bicycles. When the bad drivers are there, the motorcycles and bicycles will get stuck or they have to move to the right edge of that lane and make some scratches on other cars.

People who do not pay attention during their driving are also bad drivers. Most of these unconscious drivers are not caught by police if their actions do not hurt other cars or other people. Many people think that using the cell phone may cause drivers to not concentrate, but it is not always like that if those cell phone users concentrate on the street more than the phone. That is because the auto gear allows the drivers to use one hand and one leg to drive. However, if people are good drivers, they will not drive when they are drunk, but the bad drivers do not care how drunk they are, and they go to drive on the street. Their behavior damages other cars and harms other people who are walking along or crossing the street. The research says drunk people’s consciousness is slower than general people. I could see by myself on the street, that drunk drivers do not stop at the right place when the red light appears. Once I saw a drunk driver hit a person at the crosswalk. One of my friends who drove when he was drunk told me, that when he wanted to turned left into a small narrow street, he turned his car too slowly, and his car went up on the walk way where people were walking. He also said he was lucky that no one got hit at the moment. Imagine, if he hit someone, he would go to jail, and I would never see him in the classroom again. Then, he said that he will never be drunk while driving again. I believe that he is a better driver now.

I also believe that we can tell who the bad drivers are, even when they are not. My mother’s friend, who I knew could drive, had been in my mother’s car once. When my mother stopped her car in the left lane, that friend opened the right side door of my mother’s car. This showed that she was a bad driver because the right lane is for the fast cars, so the door and she could be hit by other cars very easily. Another example of how bad drivers act when they are not driving is they do not know where to stand when other people are parking. I know most of them are bad drivers just when I see them make signs behind the cars in the parking area. That is because they stand behind the cars. The drivers will feel uncomfortable to move their cars back. Sometimes, these bad drivers get hurt by the cars because they stand in the wrong place. The reason that I can know that these people are the driver, not just regular people who cannot drive, is they are police and security guards. In Thailand, the police and the security guards have to be able to drive the cars or at least, the motorcycles because in case, the cars get stolen and they have to follow the robber.

As we can see from all these examples, the bad drivers in Thailand are people who are reckless to the others on the street. They are the causes of many accidents, and they disturb many good drivers, and other people. I need those bad drivers to read this essay before driving outside. Only then the streets will be safe for everybody.

All words and photos by Sw Eden (สว อิเฎล)
All photos are street shots in Bangkok, so they do not have to be bad drivers.