Which Chiang Mai road are you?
Six questions. The answer is a record on this site, and it is not flattering to everyone.
You are the moat loop.
6.54 km, one way, and everyone who has ever lived here has driven you twice by mistake. You are the oldest thing on the site and you know it.
You are the 700 Years Road.
Six lanes, seven underpasses, and you never stop for anyone. It took twelve years and 10,070 million baht to make you, and the city grew past you in ten.
You are a red truck.
No route, only a direction and a fare. There were 2,800 of you in 2017 and 2,100 now, and you are still how the city moves.
You are Ratchadamnoen.
Gate to temple, the founding axis, one-way for pedestrians since 2021 and a market every Sunday. A road that became a floor.
You are Route 1095.
Two thousand curves by your own account and a count that doubled in five years. You do not live in the city; you leave it.
You are a hom.
Two metres wide, a cat, twenty families and a dead end. Most of the city’s kilometres are you, and nobody counts you.
You are the Yang Tree Road.
Planted in 1882, bypassed in 1969, polled in 2020. You are the only road on the site that a new road did a favour.
You are Nimman.
1.327 km given away in 1963 and priced like a mine. Seventeen sois and each one is a different evening.
You are the monk’s road.
11.53 km up a mountain by hand in five months and twenty-two days. Nobody has built anything the way you were built since.
You are Rincome junction.
Named for a hotel that closed and the worst light in the city by the planners’ own count. Everyone knows where you are; nobody wants to be there at five.
You are Route 121.
52.96 km round, along the canal under the mountain, and five interchanges on the way for 3,145 million baht. The money is going to you now.
You are Mahidol Road.
121,403 vehicles a day, the busiest count in the north, on the floodplain the founders avoided. You went under in October 2024 and were back by Monday.
You are the Nawarat Bridge.
Teak, then steel, then concrete. The gauge that read 5.30 m is on you and so is the name of the last ruler.
And some arithmetic
The lap figure uses the 6.54 km circuit and the 696 km road distance; the fuel figure uses the price on the day this was built and a made-up consumption, which is why it is on the fun page.