A Review of Thailand’s Transport Master Plan for Regional Cities

Abstract

Formulating a transport master plan for a regional city in a developing country can be a challenging task. Regional cities are often lacking financial resources or have limited expertise in the field of transport. Consequently, they are more likely to experience transport problems as they undergo expansion. The tradition of transport planning for regional cities in Thailand began as recently as 1994 with the master plan for Chiang Mai city. Since then, there has been a broad implementation of transport planning across the country, driven by the Office of Traffic and Transport Policy and Planning (OTP). As a result, most Thai cities now have a transport master plan. In this paper, we describe Thailand’s process in formulating and implementing its master plans across the regional cities. We provide three case studies to illustrate the process in practice. The study reveals some lessons learned that could be useful to identify critical planning and governance mechanisms for other developing countries, especially those in the same region, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar.