Most of the people living in Bangkok are concerned about road accidents if they are to travel to provinces for the Songkran festival, according to the result of an opinion survey conducted by Bangkok University, or Bangkok Poll. On their planned spendings, 67.5%, said they would spend most of their money on merit-making, followed by 52.4% on travels, 49.8% on food and parties, 20% on alcoholic drinks, and 10.4% on accommodations. A majority of the respondents, 51.1%, said the amount of their expense for the occasion would be about the same as last year, 26.5% said it would be less, and 22.4% said it would be higher than last year. Asked what they would be concerned about if they have to travel to the provinces for the festival, most of them, 47.4% said they would be concerned about road accidents, 34.1% about traffic problems, 13.4% about drink-driving, 2.4% about lack of safety in use of public transport, and 2.7% about insufficient public transport. Asked whether they think use of Section 44 of the interim charter to control traffic discipline during the Songkran would be effective, 77.8% said "yes" and the rest said "no."

Source: Bangkok Post April 09, 2017 02:48 UTC