Filed under: Quality, Excellence & Design | Tags: bus, carpool, collectivo, environmental, excellence, freeway, government, interstate, mexican, mexico, money, roads, sustainable living, taxi, tips, traffic, transportation, travel
For those of you who know my passions, you will recognize the sparkle in my eyes since traffic is the topic.
I couldn’t believe my eyes as we left the Cancun International Airport. A divided highway with overhead lights on the median. Not only in the city , but in the country stretching for many kilometers. The highway was well marked, well signed, well maintained and in most ways as safe as any other north American Highway.
Good Highway in Mexico South of Cancun
Illuminated LEDs embedded in the roadway guided vehicles to merge. it was impressive even if this tourist highway was not typical of highways elsewhere in mexico.
This highway was a “1/2 freeway” not Interstate standards, but pretty close.
The highway was limited access, had some at grade crossings as well as overpasses. Also seperating it from freeway standard was the provision of the uturn “retournos” where traffic could exit the fast lane, turn around and enter the opposite fast lane. The roadways in mexico often use metal speedbumps embeeded at different interfals where traffic is expected to stop for a police check or an at grade intersection.
Mexican Police checkpoint
I noticed other modes of transportations in cities. Playa del Carmen had more scooters than I’m used to. and more bicycles. Playa had dedicated bidirectional bicycle lanes seperated from traffic by a curb. Practical tricycles pedalled by union tricyclests carry many local deliveries.
Taxis (Playa is a tourist area) are plentiful as well as busses and collectivos. The taxis were similar to anywhere else except for the reputation that Mexican taxi drivers have for being daring. Taxis are not metered there, so negotiate your price before you get it and pay when you get there.
The busses are like the greyhound or charger coaches seen in Canada and USA. Plush seats, airconditioning, TVs, curtains (some seatbelts). Taking a 20 minute ride between towns cost only $1.80 which is a bargain considering a similar trip would cost $5-15 in Canada. It seems that those busses run very regularly. Hourly or every 15 minutes. In Canada you are lucky to get 1/2 a dozen busses in a day. So as a Canadian I can’t help feel like we are being ripped off here. A poorer country like Mexico can make nice regular cheap bus service an option? (Maybe everybody owning a car up here has made that a difficult challenge for the operators here?) I wonder what I’m missing here?
Mexico has something special I haven’t seen elsewhere in North america. Collectivos are 15 passenger vans that operate somewhere between bus and taxi. Heading down the freeway they will pick up people who need a lift as long as there is room left. When full, the collectivo will travel at alarming speeds to get you to your destination and it becomes more like a taxi at that point, leaving main roads to drop you at your destination.
Collectivo
Those are the neat observations I made about Mexican transportation. Thanks for listening, I’m glad I could share some of the things that impressed and surprised me.
Peace
Greg.
Filed under: Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: culture, mexican time, mexico, time, travel
Before our visit to Mexico, we were cautioned to accept “Mexican Time”. Learning to relax and enjoy the ride has made all of the difference in our trip. It works.
(flickr credit: Omar Omar)
In Mexico there aer some things that run precisely on time like busses and airports and lunchbreaks. Other things are scheduled a little more vaguely;
I was told I was scheduled for 10:30 or 11AM if they come today. So it was a definate appointment with a variable start time and optional existence (it never happened) “Es Mexico”. I noticed on the appointment slip that if I cancelled there was the threat of a $20 USD cancellation fee. <insert fist shake here>
Some evening entertainment scheduled for 9:45 had people arriving from 9:45 to 9:55 with 3 seperate welcomes from the MC who each time indicated there would be further delay before starting. (after stating that “this is the main event”)
An information session was first “promised” to last only 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then in reality it lasted 45 minutes.
I noticed at the beach that the “dive shop” which would lend kayaks and snorkelling gear was steadfast about not allowing gear to be borrowed 10-20 minutes before lunch hour. Hundreds of acationers used the beach and even ate on the beach over lunch hour, but the dive shop created a 1.5 hour “hole” in the beach activities by being so zealous about their lunch break. It seems there is still a love for “rules” in a culture where some timelines seem option.
I also noticed Mexican staff at the hotel hustling to serve customers and I’ve observed that staff who are constantly working outdoors in the heat tend to work at a constant but slower pace. This makes sense when I understand that many work (10-16 hour shifts).
The heat gave me reason to pause as i observed how low my energy level became. Suddenly any “convenient stereotypes” of a bunch of lazy Sombrero topped Mexicans snoozing in the shade fell apart, replaced with an appreciation for hard working people who in many ways have a healthier more realistic pace of life.
Enjoy!
Greg
Quality In Life - Living Smarter... 