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Not Enough Tráficos and
Resources to Properly Patrol the
Roads
The Policía de Transito is ill
equipped to handle the growing
number of cars - almost one
million - on Costa Rican roads
and their work is further
hampered by administrative
problems that reduce the number
of officials and patrol cars at
their disposal.
There are only 884 "tráficos"
(transit officials) in all of
Costa Rica that maintain a
watchful eye on drivers and the
movement of vehicles on the
country's roads. But at any
given time, according to
Huanelge Gutiérrez, a
subdirector de Tránsito, some 88
or 10% of the tráficos are not
available for duty for reasons
of illness or on vacation.
In addition, of the 212 patrol
vehicles used by tráficos, only
127 are in service. The rest are
in the shop waiting on repairs.
Gutiérrez says the situation is
different with the motorcycle
patrols, that out of a total of
170 motorcycles, only six or
seven are out of service.
Gutiérrez attributes the low
repair required on motorcycles
to the fact that each
motorcycle, unlike the cars, is
assigned to a particular officer
and thus takes better care of
the unit.
What this means for the Policia
de Tránsito is the lack of
manpower and resources to
properly patrol the thousands of
kilometres of roads in Costa
Rica. At any given time during
the day only 330 tráficos are on
patrol.
At night the situation is worse.
Only 116 tráficos in the whole
country work during 9pm and 6am,
which means each is responsible
to patrol some 309 kilometres of
road, an imposible feat,
especially when there are no
patrol vehicles available.
Reports in the last weeks quoted
some tráficos on the San José -
Guapiles route resorting to
having to hitch rides or use
their own or borrowed cars to
attend to the scene of an
accident.
Tránsito officials say that
ideally there should be 1.500
tráficos circulating, each being
responsible for 10 kilometres of
road. In areas with high traffic
volumes, like San José's Paseo
Colon and the airport, there
should be a greater presence of
tráficos.
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