Autopista General Cañas, Queen of Hearts
The Autopista General Cañas, the 15 kilometre highway that connects San José from the Agencia Nissan to the Juan Santamaría International airport and points west is not only the busiest highway in the country, but also reigns for the most hearts painted on its surface.

The highway counts, according to figures by the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi) with 42 hearts, each symbolizing the place where a pedestrian died after being being hit by a vehicle.

The highway is placed at the top of the list with the number of hearts. In second place is the Braulio Carrillo (San José-Limóm), with 26, and is followed by the Florencio del Castillo (San José- Cartago), with 17.

Almost three years ago, the Cosevi started painting the haloed hearts in an effort to diminish the number of pedestrian deaths on the highways. The hearts are a reminder to both pedestrians and drivers and the need to use more caution.

"The objective is to prevent deaths", explained Giannina Reyes, project director at Cosevi.

The process of painting the hearts is a complex one, and at the current rate of pedestrian traffic deaths, our highways will be completely yellow in no time,  explained Reyes.

Reyes added that Cosevi has so far painted a total of 245 hearts on the major highways around the country since its beginning and each heart costs ¢60.000 colones (us$116).

The director could not say how many hearts it as on the list to paint, though she did add that there are five private requests for the hearts. The requests are from family members who lost a loved one and are asking the Cosevi to paint a heart in homage.