For the first time in all my years of driving in Costa Rica my eyes yesterday were focused on the speedometer and the road ahead, watching for traffic cops with a radar unit. The new Ley de Tránsito had a great effect on my driving habits, which overnight had to change drastically.

Not only now was I concerned with keeping an eye on other drivers, the many “idiots” that circulate on Costa Rican roads, but concerned with keeping my speed under the 20 km/h limit and paying particular attention to the posted speed limits, something I have rarely done.

Like most drivers I have been pulled over on a number of occasion. Save for my “pull overs” in Nicaragua, all my Costa Rican “pull overs” have been for speeding. Hey, I like to go fast and with ¢5.000 colones in my pocket I could easily afford to give myself the luxury, when the road and conditions permitted, of course.

However, yesterday, travelling from San José to Guanacaste was another thing. Although I had expected a great concentration of traffic cops all over the place, especially at major intersections and known radar spots, I only found two traffic crews operating – one in Limonal and the other near the Nicoya intersection, in both places where the speed limit drops from 80 kn/h to 40 km/h, only for an instant.

In all in all, even though I kept a vigil eye on my speedometer and kept within the limits as much as possible, my driving time from Santa Ana to Hacienda Pinilla took only 20 minutes longer than the same trip the week earlier before the new traffic law.

At night coming back, I didn’t have to worry about my speed,, as you see the radar units do not work at night in Costa Rica, especially outside of the Central Valley. Shish, don’t read it aloud, keep our little secret to yourself.

My major concern for being pulled over was simply economical. There is the fine, Ok, it will dent my pocket book, a lot. But more, the points. Accumulating points with a “first world” law in a “third world” country is very simple and can be very fast.

The traffic cops have their new armament, a law that intents to drop the mortality rate on the nation’s roads (28 deaths alone last month) and reduce reckless driving habits, but the roads are still the same.

With the exception of the new highway to Caldera, the majority of the roads lack proper signalization and design to make it safe and easy to offend. Drivers on many of the roads are kept guessing of the speed limit, for example, or incorrect or improper road dividers.

Crossing a median can be very costly. But, a majority of the roads do not have a median painted on the road surface. Maybe it did once, but the rain, the heavy use and the lack of maintenance, many times leaves only a trace of where the median once was.

Two things I noticed yesterday during my tour of the roads: one, traffic was lighter than normal, both during the day and the evening; and two, the new has not stopped the “idiots”, not the many few who commit errors, but have no clue that they are not only committing errors but endanger the lives of others with their idiotic acts.

In one example, a pair of knuckle heads decided to two a vehicle on the new San José-Caldera. The front vehicle was towing the rear vehicle, in total darkness (at 11pm), going up the hill to the Atenas toll station, and without flashing lights and reflectors, going maybe 20 km/h.  I wish I was making this up. But nearly plowed into these two.

For the lack of traffic cops on the road last night – the only traffic cops on the road between Liberia and Santa Ana was the pair at Limonal, in front of the Shell station, probably having a “gallo pinto”, since there are no donut shops in Costa Rica.

I did report the idiots to the toll station operator who told he would report it to his boss, that would probably report it to his or her boss and so on. Fortunately there was no news of an accident on the highway last night.

All in all, I am in favour of the new traffic law and will reduce my speed and change my driving habits.

But, lets get the idiots off the roads, Please.

I urge you to use this space to send me your stories. I promise they will be published here. Send your stories to editor@insidecostarica.com.

PS. The two times I was stopped in Nicaragua, one for a “maniobra indebita” and the second for not pulling directly into the left lane from an intersection.  In the first, I was never told what I had done wrong, only that the other cop way back with the radio had seen me commit an offence. OK, officer will 20 corbobas (us$1 +/-) take of that? And the other, self explanatory, as Nicaraguan traffic rules a little different that the rules I have been used to driving in from Canada to Panama.