Rights to walkways and footpaths

If you walk the streets and walkways of Bangkok, you will be familiar with the scene in the picture here. Vendors fill every available spot and passersby have opportunities to buy an amazing variety of goods. Do you regard street shopping as part of the fun of living in the city? Or, for you, are those vendors in your way as you go about your own business?

Look at the picture. What do you think this news story is about? What different groups of people might be involved?

Now read the caption and the story. Is there some information there that you did not already know? Underline those parts. Has the writer talked with all the people involved in order to present a balanced story?

What about talking with more of those people yourselves. Write some questions you can ask during on-the-street-interviews. Make sure you write questions for all the groups of people involved.

Then take a tape recorder with you and go out and ask your questions. The story is about skytrain walkways, but if there isn't a station in your neighbourhood, what other locations would be most suitable?

ring your interviews back to ESL Monkeys and see how many different attitudes others have collected. Did you learn anything new from the people you talked with? Where do your sympathies lie now? Do you think the vendors should stay? Should the laws be changed? Should the walkways be clear for pedestrians?

OUR STORIES FROM THE BANGKOK POST

Blankets come out as inspectors sign off Supapan Danthaola

Supapan Danthaola

A man takes a close look at sunglasses on sale on a footbridge connecting the Mah Boonkrong shopping centre with the Bangkok Transit System station. Vendors have taken up much of the space along the walkway to earn aliving. — JETJARAS NA RANONG

Pedestrian bridges at skytrain stations in Siam Square and the Victory Monument have been reduced to narrow walkways as vendors compete with commuters for space.

Vendors spread out blankets to display their wares, anything from T-shirts, mobile phone accessories to eyeglasses, which disappear in the blink of an eye should they catch sight of the thesakit , or city inspectors.

Selling items on pedestrian bridges and footpaths is illegal under the Cleanliness and Public Order Act. But stalls are a common sight, as are the cat-and-mouse chases between vendors and thesakit .

"We know we can't sell goods here. But it is a location too good to pass up," said a bag vendor on the throughway linking MBK shopping mall and Siam Discovery.

The throughway is owned by BTS Co, but is under the supervision of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, says Sukonta Kitikunphairoj, Ratchathewi district chief.

Vendors caught selling items on pedestrian bridges can be fined up to 2,000 baht. The bag vendor said he had been fined 500 baht and 1,000 baht for selling goods in prohibited areas.

Jumnongrit Yamkleep, Pathumwan district director, said that up to five municipal police work on pedestrian bridges and throughways near the National Stadium station every day.

"We have to keep the vendors off," he said. But after authorities call it quits for the day the vendors come back.

Commuters say the goods stalls block their way. "They really do make it difficult, especially if we are in a hurry," said Wanvimol Chalermnai, a passerby in Siam Square.