Royal motorcades: Thai king orders new rules to curb traffic congestion

In a bid to address traffic woes in Bangkok -- one of the most congested major cities in the world -- Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has ordered police to stop completely blocking roads in the country’s capital for royal motorcades.

The order followed a rare criticism of royal motorcades and other inconveniences that frustrated Thais commuters have aired online in recent months.

Bangkok ranks 11th on US-based traffic analytics firm INRIX's Global Traffic Scorecard in 2017.

According to Thai government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat, now the police will instead block off only a part of the roads for the royal motorcade.

She also posted a video outlining the new rules, which also included allowing people to resume using bridges that tower over the motorcade route.

"His Majesty the King is concerned his royal travel or that of the royal family's could affect Thai people's commute," said a voice-over in the video.

In 2019, the #royalmotorcade hashtag became one of the top-trending subjects on Thai-language Twitter.

Another recent hashtag, #islandsclosure, also rose to the top of the Twitter trending list over the New Year's holidays, as southern tourist islands were closed off for visits by the king's youngest daughter.

Thailand has a tough law against insulting the king, queen, heir or regent. Anyone who violates this law faces up to 15 years in prison.