Thailand: Bangkok, Gridlock City

Programme Outline

00.00 - 01.23

Introduction: aerial shots of city showing the old and the new, followed by a trip with a motorcycle taxi driver.

01.23 - 04.11

Footage of Bangkok - from the air, at street level and on canals - showing the effects of intense investment and the hectic pace of life.

04.11 - 06.57

Focus on the recent explosion in car ownership and the resultant traffic problems in the city. Ingenious ways of coping and conducting business while gridlocked.

06.57 - 09.28

Interviews with a businessman and his wife, providing personal insight into how traffic problems affect family life.

09.28 - 10.28

Shots of an aerial rail network project under construction: one attempted solution to gridlocked roads.

10.28 - 11.49

Discussion of migration from the countryside to the city in Thailand, and the sites migrants choose when they reach Bangkok. Interview.

11.49 - 14.14

Interview with a lady who migrated 15 years ago, in which the pros and cons of leaving the countryside are discussed.

14.14 - 16.05

Further interviews, with footage of the city and its people as the problems of rapid change are discussed. A lady migrant has doubts about the merits of migrating nowadays; these are picked up by a taxi driver and a doctor who both emphasise how the quality of life is getting worse for many people, due to traffic and dust from construction sites.

16.05 - 16.44

The businessman concludes that growth has been too rapid and unplanned. He notes Bangkok's status as an international city: footage covers designer-label stores in the city centre, and wealthy suburbs.

16.44 - 18.03

The taxi driver and migrant from the countryside express worries about their health, and reasons for not migrating to Bangkok at the present time.

18.03 - end

The doctor restates his concerns about health and their economic implications. Footage shows travellers in the city using improvised masks as they commute.