ABSTRACT
Bangkok’s Ring Road probably conjures up an image of a ten-lane arterial road with speeding vehicles and muddy roadsides. However, with the encircling of Bangkok by the inner and outer ring roads, the positive prospect of the city’s urban growth becomes apparent. Billboards advertising grandiose urban living utopias abound, offering frequent invitations to buy into a lifestyle that does not as yet exist. The rapid increase in the numbers of Thais moving to the suburbs and into secure residential enclaves has contributed to Bangkok’s fragmented urban expansion. It is a form of urbanisation that runs counter to many of the aims of good urban design and social sustainability, yet is one that fulfils the ambitions and dreams of many Thais, and invites a more complex account of their motives and values (Fig. 1). Photographs showing a scene of the western ring road and a close up view on advertising billboards of some gated communities contrasted with a melon seller https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315811871/89c920cd-4d36-4c46-831a-a5740793a6f5/content/fig18_1_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: Karnchanaporn and Kasemsook
