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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2007 
Mexico City Adopts System to Curb Unruly Motorists
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
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| | Mexico City police officer Alfredo González issued a ticket last month to a motorist who parked on a crosswalk. The city adopted a point system modeled on programs in other nations. (Luis J. Jimenez/Copley News Service) |
Mexico City – Traffic cop Reyes Guzmán has seen it all on Mexico City's streets: drivers running red lights, making illegal U-turns, parking on sidewalks.
But even Guzmán was surprised when he saw a motorist speeding – not forward, but in reverse – for three blocks.
“Anybody can get behind the wheel,” Guzmán said between blasts of his whistle during rush-hour traffic. “When people go for their driver's licenses and they're asked if they know how to drive, everybody just says, 'Yes.' ”
In this city, speed limits and stop signs are seen as mere suggestions, not legal obligations. With more than 3 million cars on the roads, that adds up to chaos.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is trying to reform the city's errant drivers, a seemingly quixotic effort that past mayors have unsuccessfully attempted.
But Ebrard's plan comes with a twist: Drivers who flout the law are slapped with points every time they get a ticket. If they accumulate 12 points in 12 months, their licenses are revoked for three years.
Before the point program went into effect in September, nobody feared losing a driver's license. It didn't matter that police issued more than 1 million tickets a year, because almost nobody paid them. Nor did people care if they were arrested for drunken driving, because the penalty was nothing more than a 36-hour stint in jail.
The city's new system is modeled after programs in Europe and the United States. In California, for example, a driver is considered negligent after receiving 4 points in 12 months. Once the motorist is deemed negligent, his or her license is suspended for at least six months and can be revoked for up to two years.
Mexico City's sanctions are even stricter because points can pile up quickly. A few motorists lost their licenses on their very first offenses because they were caught speeding while under the influence, both 6-point violations.
Driving on sidewalks carries a 6-point penalty. So does drag racing on city streets. Driving with children 11 and younger in the front seat is a 3-point penalty. Gabbing on cell phones without a hands-free device is a 1-point offense.
“We don't think this is a panacea,” said Joel Ortega, Mexico City's minister of public safety. “The capital's residents are very disorganized in the way they drive their cars. The change will be gradual.”
Officials say the new law has already reduced some of the most egregious offenses: nudging traffic cops out of the way with the bumpers of cars, cutting off pedestrians in crosswalks and refusing to pull over for ambulances.
“Before, people said: 'Go ahead and write me a ticket. I'll decide whether I pay it or not,' ” Guzmán said. “Now, they are afraid of accumulating points. People are obeying.”
Privately, many motorists scoff at the new laws. They say hardly a week had passed before people fell back into bad habits.
They're also skeptical of the sharp decline in traffic tickets reported by Ortega's office. They suspect that more motorists are simply paying bribes to keep the points off their records.
While Ortega doesn't acknowledge that corruption is a factor, he says his office is reshaping its police force. By March, 1,000 veteran traffic cops will be retired and replaced by 20-something men and women armed with handheld computers to record traffic violations and issue tickets.
Ortega said the goal is improving traffic safety while pushing the limits of the city's overburdened transportation infrastructure.
“This city has a finite amount of space,” he said. “The only way we can add new roads is by building double-decker highways, but that construction is expensive. So the only options we have are improving public transportation and improving the operation of our existing roadways by making traffic flow more smoothly.”
The measures will also save lives, Ortega said. That's no small matter in a country where vehicle accidents are the fourth-highest cause of death, after diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Last year, traffic accidents claimed an average of 3.6 lives per day in Mexico City, compared with 1.8 deaths from violent crime. One-third of the traffic accidents involved drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
At Vargas Driving School, owner Andrés Vargas isn't convinced that new police or new driving rules are going to make Mexico City motorists better drivers.
“These are First World laws for a Third World country,” he said.
Vargas points to the experiences of his own instructors as an example of just how unruly the city's drivers can be. He said some motorists delight in scaring student drivers by acting as if they're going to hit them.
“People steer their cars right at us. They are aggressive,” instructor Armando Sánchez said.
Mexico City drivers aren't required to take a driving test to qualify for a license. They just pay a fee at a city office – often in a grocery-store complex – and walk out with their license.
“Imagine how many people have a license who don't know how to drive,” instructor Arturo Navarro said.
Although it may take a while for the new laws to change years of bad driving habits, Mexico City motorists can boast of one advantage.
“Anybody who drives here can drive anywhere in the world,” Vargas said, “because here we have learned defensive driving.”
S. Lynne Walker: slwalker@prodigy.net.mx |
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