Michael Batson

Phnom Penh’s municipal authorities have come up with a proposal to cure the capital of its increasing traffic congestion – banning buses. To be clear they’re not talking about municipal bus services in the city, there are none. But from 2016, all buses travelling to Phnom Penh from outside the city will have to establish new bus stations on the capital’s outskirts. However, characteristically it’s somewhat vague how this will be enforced. This transport proposal throws up many points for discussion, with many drawbacks but few benefits. Firstly, these stations will be situated in fields recently cleared of livestock, vegetation and even houses, a dust bowl in the dry, a bog in the wet season, and bereft of services. Operators have already said that it will be difficult to find suitable locations in time. Likely they’ll be miles from downtown where tourists want to be and worse, an added expense and inconvenience to locals for whom provincial bus services are their primary means of visiting family and getting to and from work in the capital. If in making this proposal authorities looked to any kind of example it would seem to be Bangkok. There the city’s bus terminals are located away from the city on what once was the urban periphery such as  Mo Chit to the north, Ekemai to the east, and Sai Tai Mai to the south. But given that city’s notorious transport woes, you have to question whether it’s the best example to follow. In the 1960s developers chose to turn the Thai