No Royal Road: Urban Transportation, Capitalist Development, and Monarchy in Thailand

This article examines the role of the Thai monarchy in shaping
urban transportation in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and one of the
world’s most congested cities. With an inquiry into the history of
Bangkok under the reign of the previous king, Rama IX, the narratives
of city staff who received the monarch’s guidance, and the
king’s initiatives that relate to city planning, this article illustrates
the problematic role of the monarchy in urban transportation.
While the palace and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
have saluted Rama IX’s initiatives for building more ring roads,
overpasses, and bridges to solve traffic congestion, this article
argues that these royal initiatives failed to address the roots of
the problem. These include an excessive reliance on motor vehicles,
insufficient public transportation, the dominant role of the automotive
industry in the national economy, city planning that serves
middle-class drivers at the expense of the mass of commuters, the
close association between the crown and car companies, and the
unconstitutional role of the monarchy in such matters. Swept under
the rug during the historic reign of Rama IX, these problems have
started to come to light in the current reign of Rama X.