For another year, today's Bangkok Car Free Day, the local version of an annual awareness-raising event observed in cities across the world, has been reduced to a PR stunt by the city administration and central government.
Deputy Bangkok governor Sakoltee Phattiyakul, together with senior city officials, is to officiate a biking parade that begins at 6am at a department store in the heart of the city and stretches along a 10.19km route.
The biking event is once again a central activity, just like in previous years, because the city administration has failed to initiate any bolder policy or plan to encourage motorists to abandon personal cars for mass transport to ease traffic congestion and improve air quality.
In fact, Mr Sakoltee caused a stir last year when he arrived at the venue in his car, instead of using public transport, to open the event. His avoidance of the mass transit system echoed the fact that this mode of transport remains an inefficient option for city commuters who in everyday life have to struggle to travel from point A to point B.
It is well known that the bus system is inadequate and in a state of disrepair, while the city's electric train system, though visibly improved as the networks are extended, has a pricing issue which makes the service unaffordable for the masses. The trains are also too jam-packed as the operators try to minimise their costs.
The BMA and its business arm Krungthep Thanakom, in dealing with the BTS Skytrain operator, have shied away from maximising the benefits for city residents. In the latest discussions over making the fares cheaper for the extended route, at a capped price of 65 baht, KT made it clear it wanted the central government to absorb the difference with the use of tax money. It will be soon known whether the Prayut Chan-o-cha government will buy into an idea which has drawn much criticism.
At the same time, city taxis are notorious for their misbehaviour, in particular an unwillingness to turn on the meter for some trips.
In addition to the transport network, the BMA has performed poorly in improving infrastructure to make the capital a walkable city or an environment that enables commuters to avoid personal vehicles while enhancing connectivity. There are also many complaints about the sorry state of city pavements which are uneven and sometimes dangerous. Some pavements appear to be in a state of constant repair without clear reason. Meanwhile, the city administration and district offices have no hesitation in butchering trees that provide shade to commuters from the sun.
Bicycling can never be a real option given lack of safe infrastructure and motorists' lack of consideration for cyclists. The Bangkok governor has a poor view of this mode of transport too, criticising the two-wheelers for "making traffic worse". Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob's solutions to traffic congestion still favour the use of personal vehicles.
While the BMA and the government complacency is exemplified by their yearly biking event, other cities, developed and less developed alike, have made impressive progress in lessening car use.
The Rwanda government embraced Car Free Day in the capital Kigali a few years ago to the extent that it has gone beyond a yearly event and taken the bold step of introducing more regular car-free days as well as expanding no-car zones to cover larger parts of the capital.
In the UK, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is determined to expand "no-car zones" with the closure of roads around London Bridge, Tower Bridge and much of the capital today to encourage people to travel by more environmentally-friendly modes. The move is also part of the city's Car Free Day activities that aim to tackle the urban air pollution crisis.
While Mr Khan takes pride in holding "the capital's biggest World Car Free Day celebrations to date", the Bangkok governor and the administration are stuck in their routine and reluctant to come up with their own initiatives or embrace those that are proposed by academics. Among them is the so-called "skycycle project" which was put forward by Smart City Innovative Research Academy (Scira), a think-tank on urban development under King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.
The project which aims to promote the use of bicycles for daily transport, calls for the construction of a 21km elevated bicycle route that will run parallel with the Airport Rail Link from the outer areas of Bangkok to central areas including the Phya Thai skytrain station. If built, said Scira, the route, which has an estimated cost of 1.18 billion baht, will be the longest elevated cycling lane in the world, overtaking the 7.6km Xiamen Bicycle Skyway in China's Fujian province which was completed in 2017.
It may need more studies to see if the project is feasible or not, but it's worth taking a look. That requires the administration and the government to be bold and depart from the conventional approaches to tackling traffic gridlock and go for more innovative and likely more effective alternatives.