I normally only read La Nacion or some other Spanish language newspapers as they tend to get it right… and as I suspected, the information reported was not quite accurate.  The actual number of tickets was far less.  By 4 PM yesterday,  218 tickets had been handed out nationwide.

These tickets were for:

Using mobile phones without a hands free device or failure to use seat belts. (¢ 220,050  or $400.00)  (Yeah!!)

Driving in San José in violation of vehicle plate restrictions (¢ 29,340 -   $53.00)

Driving with polarized (darkened) rear window (¢ 117,360 – $213.00) and finally,

two people who were caught driving without a driver’s license (¢ 293,400 – $533.00 ) and whose cars were impounded on the spot. Wow!

Also, La Nacion staffers apparently did a bit of reconnoitering around the country and found that many transit officials had apparently not even been on duty, prompting the response “Promise Fulfilled” by Joselito Ureña, secretary of the Unión Nacional de Técnicos y Profesionales en Tránsito the transit officers union.  Interestingly…. Those officers did give out tickets  were officers who were working directly  under the supervision of Marin Germain, transit director aka the big cheese. Guess that confirms who is the real boss.

So the verdict?  None of the big cheeses (transit bosses nor the diputados) are thrilled about the officers not obeying orders and  handing out those tickets…  still it would be wise to keep your foot under control, not talk on your cell phone,  use your seat belts and generally be good little boys and girls!

In fact I have re-written this post about 3 times, the last time being Friday when they decided not to enforce some laws requiring everyone carry fire extinguishers, those reflective triangle thingies, and a couple of other items (like child seats)  that they probably should have left in! I was running out of time… but my guardian angel told me to wait until Sunday…

So I did wait, only to learn last night that the least likely group of all (that would be the transit police officers union) voted overwhelmingly to not enforce the new laws, but will enforce really tough drunk driving laws and those regarding reckless driving!  Sadly, those are the laws the courts are ignoring with only eleven convictions in over a year. I am thinking now that the police officers (that would be the group with the brains) should perhaps trade places with the diputados!

Interested?  Read on!

Sometimes Costa Rica is kinda like that old fairy tale about the king has no clothes. Everyone sees something is not going to work well, but they plunge ahead.  Oh… yeah!  I guess the USA is about the same, with pols trying to force the stupid, hugely expensive. and almost universally hated Obamacare, down the throats of voters who already know how dumb it is… HA!  And you thought Costa Rica was a better option! But I digress!

So immediately, the transit chief starts making noises (probably correctly) that officers who do not enforce these new laws will be  derelict in their duties.  The diputados, not to be outdone by management, join in the hue and cry for enforcement.  Should be interesting!

OK, so what is the big deal and why won’t the new laws work?

Basically, they are overkill. Costa Rica drivers are arguably the world’s worst. I have driven in a lot of countries, but drivers here just scare me to death. Therefore, new laws are a good idea… right?

Yeah…  unless you make the fines  so large that they can come close to the salary of the police office whose job it is to enforce them.

Oh… and before I begin, there is also a point system.  Once you get 50 points, you lose your license for two years.

Let’s look at a few: (If you want to know how much in US dollars, the formula is colones/550 = $$$  Example: 165,000 colones = about $300.00

Red light / U Turn – 165,000 colones – 20 points ($300.00 – now you do the math!)

Taxi or bus drivers who are rude to passengers 90,800 colones (no points)  (not a joke)

Talking on a cell phone while driving - 165,000 colones – 20 points (castration would be better!)

Taxis that fail to use the meter (la maria) - 90,800 colones (no points)

Driving without a license – 227,000 colones ($410.00)  – 25 points – HUH?

Bribing a police officer – 227,000 colones – 20 points

OK so why am I on a rant?

These fines, for many Costa Ricans, can represent all or close the monthly income of some families!   The last time I checked, a rookie police officer only made perhaps $250,000 colones (around $450.00)  per month.

Now what do you suppose will happen when that officer stops someone to issue a $300.00 traffic ticket? Or maybe a drunk driving citation that costs the driver 293,000 colones ($530.00) plus loss of license, car and jail time?

To put this into perspective, it would be like someone in the USA, earning $60,000 per year, having to pay about $4,000.00 for blowing a red light.

Now, the police officers union is also thinking that trying to ticket a driver who may not only lose his license but may be unable to feed his family or pay his mortgage just might tend to cause a conflict.  Gee… ya think?  The actual wording (translated) is that “officers could be exposed to dangerous situations.  Now you wags could argue that that is their job… but clearly, the officers do not relish these types of confrontations.

Oh… and did I forget to mention? When you go to court, you are asked about your income and if it is larger, these fines can get larger! Ahhh, and as these fines are tied to a base number, they will rise automatically every year. Just gets better and better.

Now…. raise your hand if you think any of this may affect tourists? Tourists won’t care about the points, but they can get tagged with the fines…even after they leave the country if renting a car…  and they won’t fight it. There are many, many stories about bribes being solicted and/or offered.  Most are true.  The nice thing is that tourists won’t report an officer for bribery either way.  They will just pay up and move on!

Another goofy think is that all new and (as I understand it) first time renewals of drivers licenses will now require a psychological exam! Cost will be about $30.00 and INS, your friendly local monopolistic insurance company will not be assisting. This means first time and maybe first renewal of licenses will cost a whopping 85,000 colones!

Life goes on.  The law will be in effect for most of you who will be reading this with your Monday morning coffee.  I have no idea if it will be enforced…. Be well, be careful out there… and pura vida!

The long awaited (30+ years) highway from San Jose to Caldera opened a couple of weeks ago. I had a hunch that anything that long in the making would draw the curious and traffic would be a disaster.  Turns out that I called it, and the touted 45-60 minute trip to the Port of Caldera (Puerto Caldera), Costa Rica’s only commercial and cruise terminal on the Pacific coast, took up to three hours for much of last week

Not so yesterday!

Yesterday, I thought it might be worth a chance, so my wife Maria Luisa, my sister Pamela and I jumped on the new highway and found ourselves pretty much alone with pretty minimal traffic.  Better yet, we were in Orotina in 45 minutes and in  Caldera in 60.  Another 15 minutes put us in Puntarenas and walking on the beach. this is a big deal to expats and Ticos and will certainly have a positive commercial effect in all those locations.

Thirty years or not, this was worth the wait.  Interested?  Read on!

Before the completion of this highway, the alternative was to take the Pan American Highway (aka Route 1, or the InterAmericana, etc) northwest to the Atenas/Jaco cutoff in La Garita, then deal with horrendous traffic to the beach… or, you could continue a bit further on Route 1 and get off around Puntarenas.    Either way, you were in for a nasty time having to  follow trucks moving at 8 mph through winding, but admittedly beautiful, mountain roads.  You were looking at a minimum of 2 hours, or  more likely longer, to get to Jaco or Puntarenas.  Two hours of breathing exhaust, and that was if you were leaving from the San Jose airport.  From downtown San Jose you’d need to add an (optimistic) thirty minutes more. You can see how this will make things a lot better for anyone wanting to get to the the beach quickly and comfortably.

The drive is pretty spectacular too.  The new bridge over the Rio Grande is quite beautiful and the mountain views are worth the trip.

Cost?

This trip is not cheap, and by Costa Rica toll standards, it is a fortune.  There are three toll booths (peajes) en route,  The first and third are 490 colones each and the second is 640 colones. This is a bit under $3.00, cheap by most US standards, but huge by Costa Rica standards. Still, with gas prices at ridiculous levels and the time saving, I am guessing this is not going to deter anyone.

I picked yesterday as I thought that many Ticos might choose to hang around their homes in preparation for today’s presidential elections. Lucky guess!

Road conditions

The road is in beautiful shape as you might expect from something two weeks old. It is generally two lanes wide (one in each direction) though it widens to an additional lane going uphill (for use in passing slow traffic). Now saying that, Costa Rica drivers may be the worst drivers in the world. Patience is a word few Ticos (and some really dumb tourists) understand when behind the wheel of a car.  Illegal passing on all highways (autopistas) is a primary cause of many incredibly violent and needless accidents every week.

Yesterday, I traveled at the 80 kmh speed limit (about 55 MPH) as I was not at all in a hurry and wanted to take it all in.  I was passed by no less than TEN cars traveling at an estimated 120 kmh minimum and at least twice more by semis at the same speed.  All but one of these required crossing a double yellow line.  There was no police presence at all except two on motorcycles chatting under a bridge and I suppose getting out of the sun

This illegal passing thing places everyone in real danger, and while the trip down was a piece o’ cake, the drive back, took nearly two hours because of a really  bad head-on collision (see photo above right), doubtless caused by illegal passing.

Planning

Why only two lanes? Now there is a question.

I love Costa Rica, but honestly, the concept of planning seems to evade the Costa Rican government(s). One might argue that planning for this highway began long before there were so many cars and so many tourists, but to me, that dog won’t hunt. Traffic to and from Caldera certainly could have been predicted ten to fifteen years ago allowing for widening of this toll road. Granted, widening roads here in Costa Rica that wind through mountains and cross many rivers would clearly be a major expense… still,  if they were not planning to enforce the driving laws, then the real cost of reckless driving will must include numerous lost lives.

Another example:  To reach the toll road to Caldera from say the San Jose airport, the most direct route (but maybe not the fastest) would be to access the toll road using the Lindora highway that runs between Panasonic and Santa Ana. The problem here is that there are at least 6-8 new high rise office buildings, several dozen new stores, strip malls and supermarkets, every fast food outlet known to man, a zillion new restaurants  and several hundred new condos and houses lining Lindora which remains not 6 inches wider than it was ten years ago when it was almost all farm land.

That means that the (perhaps) 1.5 mile drive from Panasonic to the toll road can easily take 40 minutes.  Yesterday, it took 15 minutes and the traffic was not all that bad. Still, they are continuing to all new construction almost daily.   Oh well!

Anyway… we had a fine time walking along the beach in Puntarenas and stopping at the many dozens of kiosks selling jewelry, souvenirs,  and clothing.  It was warm (high 80’s) but there was a fine breeze making it all tolerable.  I also got nice brownie points for buying my wife new earrings and a pair of shorts. Life is good!

Crow tasted just fine. Besides, I knew that some offended person would file an appeal with Sala IV, the Costa Rica Constitutional Court.They did, and just days ago, the court  deemed  this restriction unconstitutional and thus declared it null and void.

Basically, the court said that the Executive branch of the government does not have the legal power to impede or violate fundamental rights such as the liberty of transit.Hours later, the Transportation Minister ordered the  Policía de Tránsito (traffic police) to suspend the restrictions.

Now, days later, the traffic is back and San Jose is all but gridlocked. What’s that old Russian saying?  “Be careful what you wish for?”

About 10,000 tickets were handed out since the law went into effect.  None were paid though as the government waited to see if their restrictions were legal.

Clearly, something must be done and the MOPT is making noises about making a restriction under some other guise.  Personal liberty or no, I hope they succeed because the current traffic sitution is truly intolerable.

The government, getting fed up with the huge number of alcohol related traffic accidents and the resultant deaths, passed last December La Ley de Tránsito or simply new driving laws.

Although signed into law and effective last December 2008, I did not blog about it because there were sure to be a ton of appeals to the Costa Rica Supreme Courts, called Salas, regarding the legality of the new laws and the associated punishments which are truly severe. Sala IV has upheld some and is still considering others, but it is time to talk about these new laws. In this post, I will provide my thoughts and more important, a shortened list of the new laws and the associated fines and/or imprisonment.  If this topic is of interest, read on!

The new laws are nasty but are receiving huge popular support.  La Nacion did a survey of Ticos over age 18, and a whopping 77% supported the new laws. Many respondents  (58%) told La Nacion they had altered their lifestyle and simply no longer drink anything if they are driving. I guess the government was not alone in their concern for traffic safety. Further, the law seems to be having the desired affect! In January, drunk driving arrests dropped 53% and that ain’t bad!

Stuck towards the bottom of the results was the interesting fact that women had fewer traffic accidents than men.  OK, this is where you say, “Well Duh!”.  This was probably a shock in machista Costa Rica.   Guess they have not figured out that women tend to drive using their big head… but I digress!

As I said, these laws are tough.  Some of the fines, however, actually exceed the monthly salary of the transit officers, so that might make bribe taking a real possibility.

The new laws not only have the usual fines, called multas in Spanish, they also include a point system though the point system here bears no resemblance to the systems used in the USA.

Everyone starts with 50 points and when those are gone due to traffic violations… well…  so are you, at least on the roads. The points do not come back.

I would suggest readers also check out the section on drivers licenses in Costa Rica and owning a car here.

Below, I will break out the new laws and the associated fines and possible prison sentences involved.   I’ll put them is order of seriousness/fines/penalties.  Note that not all of these laws are effective today.  All drinking related laws ARE in effect, and the others phase in over the next months. All drivers are required to know these laws, so if you do not because you do not speak the language, that will not be a defense.

To be clear here! You get the fine AND the loss of points.

Example:  Driving (you or adult passenger) without seat belts.  Pay $310.00 AND you lose 20 points.  Same thing for talking on your cell phone

Jail – the biggie!

Reckless driving, speed more than 100 MPH (150 kph), death of a person from the accident (and perhaps injury!) blood alcohol level exceeding 0.75%. You get to keep your car (which is not too useful as you are in the slammer), but it may become State property at your trial. Loss of 50 points i.e. all your points.

No jail but real costly!

227,000 colones (or about $415.00 at today’s exchange rate) plus points lost

Category A offenses.

Reckless driving, in this case speed exceeding 80 MPH  (120 kph) 0.5%, drag racing. Lose 50 points.

Driving without a valid drivers license or learners permit  (and I would urge expats, especially those expat “perpetual tourists”)  to read this as this WILL affect you!

Driving under a suspended license.

Driving a child without proper safety seats (and you lose all 50 points).  Included is driving a motorcycle or any other motorized similar vehicle (like quadracycles with a minor and that minor has no helmet.

Transporting or carrying anything considered dangerous.  This is broad and I am not going to go into it, though I do wonder if this would include my menopausal wife…

170,250 colones or about $310.00 plus points lost

Category B stuff.  Includes driving 14 MPH over the speed limit, exceeding 16 MPH when passing schools entrances or exits, hospitals or clinics. PS:  These are many times NOT marked.  Lose 20 points.

Talking on your cell phone not using hands free.  Lose 20 points

Running a stop sign, illegal u-turn,  or driving a restricted vehicle.  Lose 1o points

Driving without the minimum insurance required by law.

Driving with illegal plates…. meaning I think, not corresponding to the car driven. Lose 20 points.

Driving older children but who are still minors not using seat belts. Lose 20 points.

Driving motorcycles or as above ANY similar vehicle without a helmet.  Lose 20 points.

Driving or carrying passengers (adults) and not using seat belts. Lose 20 points.

113,500 colones  ($210.00) plus the loss of points shown.

Driving in the wrong lane (I think).  Lose 15 points.

Driving a motorcycle between cars while stopped or moving.  Yeah sure! This will never be enforced.  Lose 15 points.

Driving too slow in high speed lane. Lose 15 points

Improper vehicle lights. Lose 15 points.

Driving too slow and impeding traffic and failure to yield to faster traffic.  Lose  15 points.

Stopping in the middle of an intersection blocking traffic. Lose 15 points.

Brakes lights etc, Lose 15 points

Driving a souped up vehicle that bypasses environmental pollution rules. Lose 15 points

Driving on the beach. Lose 15 points.

Driving a vehicle without plates.  Lose 15 points.

Improper passing.  Lose 15 points.

Littering or transporting garbage illegally.   Lose 20 points.

These are the biggies and the ones I believe might most affect my readers, whether tourists or visitors.

There are about 60 other items  such as driving the wrong way, excess cargo or passengers, driving without a windshield (I am serious), parking in handicapped zone,  tooting your horn in front of a hospital, driving on a foreign drivers license while in violation of your visa (US is 90 days), jaywalking, playing music too loud in the evening, failure to have your drivers license with you while driving, driving with an expired license,  failure to maintain assured clear distance,  etc.  The list goes on ad-nauseum and covers all the normal stuff.

Those fines range from 90,800 colones ($180.00) down to 22,700 colones ($40.00) and most include some loss of points.

As far as I can see, when/if you lose points they never come back. If you lose all your 50 points, you must take the driver’s exam again and perhaps attend driving school.  I can assure you that neither is offered in English.

In addition, there are another dozen or so that affect taxi drivers and other livery/bus drivers.  As I doubt any of my readers fall into this category, I have not included them.

While I am not thrilled with the fact that the points do not come back over time, I am generally happy with the law, though I also expect the extortion by transit officials to go way up. Clearly the problem is many of these fines, especially categories A and B, exceed or come close to the entire monthy income of many Ticos. The payoffs cometh methinks.