I'm staying at the Bangkok Intercontinental at 973 Ploenchit Road, arriving around 4PM on a Wednesday in October. What is the best way to get from the airport to the hotel?

The reason I ask is I traveled to Bangkok one other time, I believe with the same arrival time. I had a prearranged ride. Traffic went smoothly until we hit the Bangkok area. I recall at one point right near the city where we started to go left, we stopped, and we literally did not move an inch for 45 minutes. I'm not good in those situations. I don't know if it's claustrophobia or something similar, but I finally told the guy to take the right at the fork, which was the wrong direction but I didn't care. I just wanted to move. We went to a restaurant and finally got to the hotel late at night.

Anyway, I'm just trying to avoid a repeat where I sit in traffic and do not move for 45 minutes, an hour, 90 minutes (who knows how long it would have been?). Is it my best bet to take the train from the airport to the hotel, or was that type of traffic very unusual and should I try car transportation again?

Thank you!