Do we have a school bus for them ??

Brakes applied to Lao student motorbike riding



By Panyasith Thammavongsa

Luang Prabang, the first world heritage of Laos will be the second province in Laos to launch a project to prohibit secondary school students from riding motorbikes to school.

The project aims to help reduce road accidents and traffic, saving family expenditure and protecting the environment.


This comes after Xayboury province instituted a similar project in 2005.

Deputy Head of Office of the Luang Prabang Education Department, Mr Chanpheng Luangvanna, said the province has launched the project in seven lower and higher secondary schools in urban areas.

?At the end of this month, we will organise a meeting to review, make conclusions and evaluate how it has been put into practice in these schools. Through our implementation, what we hope to see is satisfactory progress,? he said.

?The project also aims to help our students to avoid peer pressure to race motorbikes and engage in speeding or risky behaviour, and they will not be able to use motorbikes to travel far outside the town.?

?Riding bicycles is easy, and schools have plenty of space where they can be parked,? Mr Chanpheng said.

Students were mostly under 18 years of age. So, by driving to school they were already breaking the traffic rules which prohibited driving without a licence, he said.

Licences may only be granted to those 18 years of age or older.

Mr Chanpheng said there were about 7,000 students in the seven secondary schools in the provincial capital. Before the ban was instigated, nearly 2,000 of these rode motorbikes to and from school.

After the ban came into effect, nearly all of these students used alternative modes of transport to get to school.

While most families had embraced the ban, some parents still didn't have a full understanding and awareness of the project, which meant some students were still turning up on motorbikes.

Students who live a long way from their school can get special permission to use a motorbike if it is deemed to be necessary by the school's teachers.

?However, we are trying to limit the number of students using motorbikes to get to school. In the future we plan to build more upper secondary schools in other areas, especially in five group villages with shared schools,? Mr Chanpheng said.

?We can't do this yet because we don't have enough teachers, and some have to teach more than 20 hours a week.?

The building of more schools would help students who live remotely to attend a closer school and also allow more widespread enforcement of the motorbike ban.

There are 56 secondary schools in the province, with many in rural areas where distance is a contributing factor to access.

?We initiated the ban because we learnt from the example of Xayaboury province which was the first province to start this project,? Mr Chanpheng said.

Director of Xayaboury Education Department, Ms Bounphak Inthapanya, welcomed the decision by the authorities in Luang Prabang.

She said the project had discouraged students from riding motorbikes in Paklai district in 2005, where the ban was first imposed.

?Our project currently covers all 10 districts in Xayaboury province, and it is a very good achievement. The number of accidents has fallen and traffic congestion has decreased,? she said.

She said representatives from several provinces, especially Luang Prabang, Oudomxay and Xieng Khuang, had shown an interest in the project, with Luang Prabang the first to follow suit.

--Vientiane Times/ANN

For crying out loud, kids in high school on down should be riding bicycle.  What are their parents thinking.  These kids don't even have licenses for operating motor vehicles.

I've seen these kids on their little moped zooming around town and along the Mekong in front of Wat Chan. They are crazy. They have no fear. They think they own the road. Enforce the law. make them pay fines or impound their bike. Make them pay $100 to get it back. If they don't get the bike in 1 week auction the bike and use that money to buy some police gears. I know the police need all the equipment badly.

THIS IS NOT A VERY BAD IDEA! BUT THE QUESTION IS "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET THERE?"

NOT ALL STUDENTS LIVE NEAR THEIR SCHOOLS, NOT ALL STUDENTS HAVE CARS, NOT ALL PEOPLE ARE RICH OR POOR! SO LET'S THINK ABOUT THE COMPLEXITY OF THIS ISSUE AND THIS SOCIETY.

I THINK TO PROHABIT STUDENTS FROM RIDING MAY COST HIGHLY; THE GOVERNMENT OR THE AUTHORITY NEEDS TO PROVIDE A BETTER PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM FOR THEM. FOR EXAMPLE, QUICK BUS SERVICE, MAYBE TRAIN OR WHAT ELSE! CAN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT DO THIS? IF SO, YES, THE IDEA IS GOOD, AND HOW THE TRANSPORT SERVICES WILL BE EFFECTIVELY MANAGED. WILL THE BUS TICKET, FOR INSTANCE, FIT LOCAL SOCIAL, ECONOMIC NEEDS?, ETC.

IF SUCH AN IDEA ONLY AIMS AT REDUCING TRAFFIC PROBLEMS, WILL THIS REQUIRE MORE CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT THAN THE NEW PLAN? THIS IS THE CRITICAL QUESTION FOR ALL OF US!!!

A Voice of a Lao student

or another way is to change the traffic rule : allowing those kids of 15 to take a test or an exam to get the bike driving license, they'll have better knowledge about traffic regulation, I think it is better than allowing these kids breaking legaly the rule ...I heard that in the USA those who breaking the traffic rule : having no driving license, if caught, they have to go to the court and risk imprisonment.