OK - I have only been here 4 months but in that time i have seen one accident at a crossing point and two very near misses. What exactly is the meaning of the yellow striped crossing points on the road? The ones marked with a yellow sign and a black silhoutte crossing? A woman was nearly flattened last night outside the Forum Centre (Hotel Zone) by a bus - she only just got out of the way in time and her trailing hand bag was hit by the bus.
Hummm. The yellow stripes could mean a few things. Could be considered a good vantage point to cross the street or could mean the Fonatur guy had spare yellow paint he wanted to use after painting the curb. Whatever they mean - NEVER walk into the road here expecting the traffic to stop. Even if one car stops a another my sneak up the side and nail you. Run fast as possible across the road when you feel it is safest. The only time traffic may stop for pedestrians is at those massive topes/hills found on Av Tulum etc.
CROSSWALKS Some drivers seem to feel a crosswalk at least entitles you to a "honk" before they come through- better than what you get, other places.... There is a very simple rule of the road that operates, here, biggest wins. Big truck has right of way, then buses, then delivery trucks, then vans, then cars, then motorcycles, then bicycles, then us.... But I'll be damned if I yield to a bicycle!
If if is a raised tope, the pedestrian (maybe not th law but the general rule) has the right of way, and it is almost always followed. I cannot think of any rasied topss in the HZ but there are dozens downtown Downtown, on Tulum for example, if you are at Palacio Municpal, you cross the service road, then then main part of the avenue going north, then you are in the middle of the road, then you cross the two southbound lanes and end up (finally) on the opposite sieewalk. The main offenders are the buses and taxis, but normally only if someone is just barely on the tope/crosswalk and the bus/taxi can dart across without impeding your process. I try to always cross with authoriy, not obviously looking at the approaching traffic, but looking out of the corner of my eye. My worst experiences with rude drivers while crossing at a crosswalk seem to have all been at the airport. I swear loudly at them and have been known to slap their car.
99% of the bus and taxi drivers here would be arrested for reckless endangerment/driving if they were in the States...yet they are VERY rarely stopped by the police here. ( I'll let you use your imagination as to why that might be :wink: ) Just look at the buses.. do you think all of those scratches along the sides magically appeared... It is a miracle that hundreds of people are not killed everyday while crossing the roads in Cancun. I've personally been forced off the road on several occasions by the hotelzone buses... and I wont even mention how terrible the taxis can be.. :evil:
Cycling Try it on a bike. The drivers, for the most part, give me about five feet of clearance as they pass: I have had some cut it to three, and I can feel the breeze, as they go by! I agree with T.J. about those raised crossings on Tulum, where the drivers do (grudgingly) yield, most of the time. Still, you must be cautious. As for "running across," I'd NEVER do it (unless about to be hit). The problem with running, or sudden changes in direction (like suddenly deciding to go back to the curb), is that they make it impossible for drivers to accurately judge your trajectory, and avoid hitting you. Nobody tries to hit you, intentionally, but errors of judgment can occur on either party's side, with an unfortunate result.
Down here think of them as bullseyes. If the crossing is not a raised tope, you are crossing at your own risk. While harrowing tales of "almosts" are interesting, Cancun is relatively flat and crosswalks are not generally painted around blind curves or beyond the crest of a hill. Just as they told us in kindergarten, look both ways before you cross. If you choose to thread your way across and through traffic, you're doing so at your own, and I might add, great risk. To repeat, for all practical purposes, despite whatever the law might say, pedestrians do not have rights of way, except on the topes.
I used to live in a little town in the Berkshires in Massachusetts (think quaint) and there the laws protected the pedestrians. If you were caught driving through a crosswalk with a person in it (even just one step into it) there was a $200 USD fine. This was strictly enforced. The locals all did just fine, sometimes stopping just in case that pedestrian on the sidewalk might think of stepping into the crosswalk. People from MA think ahead like that. But the New Yorkers who would come up to stay in their weekend homes...oh my god...it was as if their cars didn't have brakes and the drivers couldn't read the signs! When you crossed the street there you needed to scan the approaching cars for NY license plates first, and if you saw a NY plate you just had to wait for that car to go by before crossing. I haven't been back there in ages, but my daughter wants a tour of the college there, so I'll be going back this winter. It will be interesting to see if the NYers are still menacing pedestrians there. (No offense to my favorite NYer.)
I've never claimed New Yorkers were civilized (nor civil, for that matter). In my previous life, having driven daily in NYC, as well as Rome and Paris, it took great concentration to dial down the aggression level when tiptoeing through the verdant lanes of rural Massachusetts, obeying the 15 MPH speed limit and giving way to each squirrel, fawn, turtle and child crossing the road. Unlike the US (and in theory, but not practice, New York City) in most European cities, including those in Spain, the right of way is taken, not given, except when marked ("Cedo el Paso" is not a direction sign for a city in Texas). Considering the Spanish-Mexican historical connection, it's not unreasonable to see why the same rule emerged here. As far as people from MA thinking ahead, I've lived in Springfield and Boston and the average driver in both those cities carried aggressive driving to a degree way beyond New Yorkers, but with less than half the skill. Perhaps they're all too preoccupied "thinking ahead" about matters of politics and science to concentrate on where they put their four wheels. The thing that has been hardest to adjust to down here is the car turning in front of you into the adjascent lane. Oh, and brake lights. What's the deal with brand new cars with only one brake light? Do they pull the other bulb and save it as a spare? I nearly rear-ended a guy who jammed on his brakes for no apparent reason (probably thinking ahead about something) on Kulkulcan. At the next light I pulled up next to him to give him a hard time. He replied that he indeed had one brake light. When I informed him to the contrary, he apologized. What blew me away was his attitude that his 2008 SUV was just fine with one rear lamp. You even see transitos with the same setup. Baffling!
