Bangkok ioing to get ws already home to some of Asia’s worst traffic jams. Now it’s get even crankier!

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s new first-time car buyer program, while solidifying future votes, will add an estimated 1.3 million vehicles to Thailand’s streets, much of it in already overcrowded Bangkok. It’s already being called a transportation nightmare, where gridlock slows incoming traffic to an average speed of 16.5 km per hour. A brainchild of Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party, the program offers rebates of up to 100,000 baht ($3, 238, USD) to first-time car buyers who purchase an automobile with an engine displacement of 1500 cc or less. The program is expected to cost the Thai government more than 90 billion baht (approximately $3 million USD) in rebates. 

On top of that, five major high speed rail construction projects will cripple Bangkok’s streets over the next five years. In the final analysis, untold billions of baht will be spent on high speed rail projects intended to get people out of their cars, while 90 billion baht will be allocated to a program intended to get more people into automobiles. As the advertising slogan states, this is why it’s called “Amazing Thailand.”