One topic that never lacks for opinions is the quality of drivers on the road in Costa Rica. Twenty-five years ago, Teletica, the top viewed channel in CR, posed a daily yes/no survey question to its viewers. One day the question was: Are Costa Ricans good drivers? Ninety-six percent said no. And that was an audience that was likely close to 100% Ticos answering the question.
That was then. Now there are 3 times the drivers on the road. In many ways, Costa Rica is like the US in the 1950s and 60s, as this is the first generation of widespread use and availability of cars. With so many additional drivers on the road, and improved highways, the dynamic has changed for the driving community.
My own observation is that drivers today are better than perceived a quarter century ago. But our roads here are still full of questionably trained drivers making questionable decisions at inopportune times. The scores of pedestrians and cyclists in their own worlds while sharing the highways complicate the situation even more.
I recently drove 12 hours in one stretch here, through urban areas, down the coastline, over mountains, and across rivers. During my sojourn I observed numerous actions (or inactions) that added a touch of challenge to the trip.
The next time you make a long drive in Costa Rica, note how many of the following examples you see, and how close you can come to filling your Driving in Costa Rica Bingo Card:
- Dangerously courteous drivers who stop on busy thoroughfares when they have the right of way, to allow others to make left-hand turns or to let careless pedestrians cross the road.
- Mr. Brightlights – drives at night with brights on at all times, sometimes with additional low fog lights, and/or rows of grille lights, looking like a spaceship coming toward you.
- Motorcycle messengers splitting lanes, changing lanes hazardously, and being a general nuisance.
- Motorcycle drivers who go at 40 kph on a busy road but ride in the middle of the lane and not to the side.
- Same as above for bicyclists, except they are pedaling at 20-25 kph side by side while hogging the road.
- Vehicles that belch so much smoke that you wonder who they paid off in order to pass inspection.
- Drivers who use their hazard lights every time they have to brake quickly.
- The same drivers, forgetting to turn them off and drive for miles with the hazards still flashing.
- Drivers in traffic with one hand on the wheel and the other holding their cell phone while either talking or, worse, texting.
- Big expensive car, lousy driver. Gleaming road hog SUVs driven by people who go too slow and continually drift just enough that you cannot get around them.
- Horn blowers – mostly found in the San Jose area. If you are not moving the second the light turns green, they will let you know it.
- People asleep at the wheel when the light turns green. The main cause of horn blowers.
- Drivers who pass on the curve.
- Pedestrians who walk far enough into the road to make you swerve around them.
- Pedestrians who cross the street just when the light turns green for cars to proceed.
- Tailgaters – most are not doing so because they are angry, rather because they are lousy drivers.
- Getting stuck in a line while going up a long, steep hill, because a heavy, slow-moving vehicle crawls up the mountain and does not pull over when there is space.
- Getting stuck in a line while going down a long, steep hill, because a heavy, slow-moving vehicle crawls down the mountain and does not pull over when there is space.
- And the center square in the bingo card goes to: Transitos, directing traffic at a busy intersection during rush hour, and making the logjam worse than it ever is when no Transitos are present.
Pura Vida!
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Don Mateo
