An urban political ecology of Bangkok's awful traffic congestion

Danny Marks

doi:10.2458/v27i1.23604

Abstract

Urban political ecology (UPE) can contribute important insights to examine traffic congestion, a significant social and environmental problem underexplored in UPE. Specifically, by attending to power relations, the production of urban space, and cultural practices, UPE can help explain why traffic congestions arises and persists but also creates inequalities in terms of environmental impacts and mobility. Based on qualitative research conducted in 2018, the article applies a UPE framework to Bangkok, Thailand, which has some of the world's worst congestion in one of the world's most unequal countries. The city's largely unplanned and uneven development has made congestion worse in a number of ways. Further, the neglect of public transport, particularly the bus system, and the highest priority given to cars has exacerbated congestion but also reflects class interests as well as unequal power relations. Governance shortcomings, including fragmentation, institutional inertia, corruption, and frequent changes in leadership, have also severely hindered state actors to address congestion. However, due to the poor's limited power, solutions to congestion, are post-political and shaped by elite interests. Analyses of congestion need to consider how socio-political relations, discourses, and a city's materiality shape outcomes.Key Words: urban transport governance, Bangkok traffic congestion, urban political ecology, Thailand political economy, Bangkok's bus system

Highlights

Traffic congestion is undoubtedly a major challenge of our time, and it presents considerable stress to the environment and to society
Political economists, or political geographers held this sector to the same level of scrutiny as other sectors, such as health, education, water, and land (Klopp 2012; Khayesi et al 2017; Kębłowski and Bassens 2018; Legacy 2016; Mattioli et al 2020)
The consequence is that the political economy affecting transport outcomes is analyzed less within conventional transport research approaches2 (Marsden and Reardon 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Traffic congestion is undoubtedly a major challenge of our time, and it presents considerable stress to the environment and to society. A number of interviewees asserted that fragmentation, policy incoherence, and differing priorities enervated governance of Bangkok's transportation They stated: At the policy level, agencies don't have clear responsibilities. The unequal power structure of, and limited accountability within the system means that the interests of the middle class are given preference over those of the urban poor, who have limited voice This results in the neglect of the bus system, expansion of private cars, and the continuation of heavy congestion. Another result is environmental injustice (Schlosberg 2007): the middle and upper classes are most responsible for Bangkok's emissions and air pollution but the urban poor bear the brunt of the impacts and have lower levels of mobility. The urban poor have the least access to decision-making

The uneven geography of transportation nodes and public transportation

Highest priority given to cars

What changes are needed for you to take the bus more?

Lack of alternative public transportation modes

Findings

Conclusion