Inside a Bangkok traffic booth

What is life like for traffic police now that they have been ordered to turn off the automated traffic light system and control traffic manually?

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It has been a week since acting Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Sanit Mahathavorn ordered the city's automatic traffic light system be switched off and operated manually.

Here is an excerpt from a much longer story story from the Bangkok Post's "Life" section on what has happened so far. It focuses mainly on one particular police booth. You can read the full story here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1073320/traffic-lights-camera-action

Traffic lights, camera, action

Melalin Mahavongtrakul

In a police booth on On Nut junction, four CCTV screens show traffic flows on Sukhumvit and On Nut roads.

Pol Sub-Lt Thanitsak Ummaratthanawut, who was on the morning shift, said his tour of duty starts at 5.30am and lasts until 2pm. He said each officer gets a shift – either a morning, afternoon or a nighttime run – about once a week on a rotating basis. This is so everyone gets to know first-hand the amount of vehicles on the roads each day.

In his hand was a small remote control he used to operate the traffic signals. His eyes were glued to the screens, his thumb pressing the remote once every minute or so. "Each click of a thumb is based on the number of cars passing through, so there's no definite amount of time to say when's the right time to change red to green, and vice versa. The traffic system can't really be based on a timer, or we would never be able to clear the congestion," Pol Sub-Lt Thanitsak said.

Having to stay inside the air-conditioned booth for about eight hours a day, the officer packs his own lunch and water to minimise the time he has to leave the booth. The small enclosed space has no toilet, and Pol Sub-Lt Thanitsak admitted he has to leave the signals on auto for about two minutes whenever he has to use the toilet at a nearby condominium.

Traffic lights may be on be manual and controlled by officers on the street, or they may still be running on 'automatic' with countdown, especially when officers need to use the toilet.

"Currently, we work in two modes. If it's rush hour, or any other time with bad traffic, the system is always on manual. We can't take meals until the congestion clears," said traffic police officer Somporn Wongkum at Phra Khanong police station. The On Nut traffic booth falls in this jurisdiction.

When the traffic is not heavy, he said there's no problem with leaving things on auto mode when necessary. "We have to incorporate technology too, not just pure human labour," Pol Lt Somporn said.

At Na Ranong five-way intersection, Pol Lt Sujit Muntana said he switches between automatic and manual depending on the traffic situation. "We're quite out on the rim of the city, so it's possible for us to use automatic mode at times," he said.

But is it possible to go completely manual as the acting commissioner wishes it to be? Pol Lt Somporn is saying it is, though he doesn't seem to think it's a feasible option. "If it's an order, then of course we can make it happen," he said. "But we'll also be dead tired. We already have a shortage of traffic police as it is."

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/1073461/inside-a-bangkok-traffic-booth