Money may not be flowing much in Thailand’s
capital these days, but something more unlikely is traffic. Motorists like to
joke that it took the International Monetary Fund to unclog Bangkok’s
notoriously jammed thoroughfares. Before the economy
crashed last summer, Bangkok was famous for its round-the-clock gridlock.
Stories of how people coped became urban lore. Thais bought custom-made vans
equipped with TVs and microwave ovens. On the endless trips home after school
and work, parents would serve family dinners, then the kids would do their
homework and change into pajamas before finally arriving. One company did a
booming business in plastic disposable toilets. Consumers could get just about
anything, from McDonald’s hamburgers to prescription medicine, delivered via
motorbike. The solution for easing congestion turned out
to be simple: economic catastrophe. Rising fuel costs, coupled with lost jobs
and declining incomes, mean people are making fewer trips. About 20,000 cars
have been repossessed, while new-car buying has dwindled from about 900 a day a
year ago to just 300 now. Bus rider ship is up; taxi trips are down. So many
cabbies are having trouble making enough fares to cover gas and car rental that
hundreds of taxis are sitting idle every day. Thinner
wallets also mean people are spending less time in bars, restaurants, movie
theaters and shopping malls. Instead, they’re staying home.
The government, much maligned in the past for botching up mass transit
construction, deserves credit as well. New expressways have opened, and some of
the construction that has blocked traffic lanes for years has been cleared. The
good times may not last, however, at least for motorists. If traffic flow is in
fact a reliable economic indicator, Thailand may be on the rebound. "The last
few days," says taxi driver Boonlarb Srikam, "I’ve noticed the traffic getting
busy again." Bring out those portable toilets. The word "portable" in the last sentence probably means______.