No Place to Go

The traffic in Phnom Penh is beginning to rival that of the infamous bad-traffic cities like Bangkok. There are multiple problems behind the traffic mess. One is the sheer number of vehicles that increases significantly every year. There is no place to park or drive the vehicles we have, but last year more than 200 vehicles were registered per day on average. So far in the first six weeks of this year, the average is 876 per day. Another reason is government incompetence. Everyone knows there is a huge problem but even the most simple remedies, ones that don’t even entail spending any money, are ignored. The above article is from a new newspaper, Capital Cambodia. An article in the past week in another paper lists several steps that the government is finally going to initiate. There is little expectation of change because of the way the government functions–or doesn’t function.