This is a fact of life in Bogota, at almost any time of day. But that’s true of any large city, right??
Still, Bogota is probably unique in some of the unusual causes of trancon and in some of the possible solutions that are NOT implemented.
First, there?s the matter of the carts being pulled by horses or by humans that travel on any street they choose–even the autopista, the largest highway in the country.?? Of course, a vehicle taking up a lane that is traveling about 3 kilometers per hour is going to slow things down a bit.
MOre trancon is caused, though,?by the roadwork, when it occurs.? There seems to be a great effort to keep the autopista in fairly good repair in the north of the city (excluding replacing missing manhole covers, which hardly ever happens).? However, this means frequently closing one of the three lanes of the highway, with very little notice to oncoming traffic, in order to do work.? And this happens at any time of day, and ESPECIALLY during rush hour.? Where the logical thing to do would be to work at night or at least in the off-peak hours, the government here seems to do just almost exactly the opposite.? On top of that, there?s more than half a chance that the closed down lane will not actually have any work being performed at any given moment, so when you finally work your way up to the source of the trancon and see a construction site with no construction, it gets a little frustrating.
If there should be an accident, and there WILL be one on a daily basis, everyone involved and all onlookers stop where they are to deal with it.? Problem is, dealing with it can take all day.? It’s not possible or legal to move to the side of the road, so an accident that takes up a lane and a few feet more must then block off two entire lanes.? The police and everyone?s friends and relatives have to be called, and tape measures pulled out so that measurements can be taken in every direction, up, down, on the cars, on the road, on the people.? It?s unlikely a fender bender can be cleared in less than four hours.
Of course, no roads that I have ever seen, even the major highways, have any kinds of shoulders.? In fact, the road is often built below the normal level of the ground, since when they dig out the roadway, the dirt is just piled on the side and allowed to become little artificial hills lining the road.? This means, in a place where the rain can come at a fast and furious pace, there’s no possibility of water runoff. Not having shoulders also means, of course, that if anyone breaks down, which happens frequently because many of the cars are old and in poor repair, there’s nowhere to pull over.? Instead, rush hour just takes an? hour longer.
Compound all this with the driving habits of the people in the city, motorcycles weaving in and out and driving between the lanes (cars too, when they can fit), the culture of “cutting off” at any opportunity, the buses lurching to the side every 5 meters or so, and the traffic can choke you.?
Amazingly, I have not seen much road rage (almost none, actually).? People are aggressive and hope to cut other people off, and will try to muscle thier ways into traffic, but when they get cut off or muscled in front of, they just back off and think nothing of it.? People don’t try to get back at other people who abuse them.
People say that the Latin culture of “manana,” meaning that there’s no hurry, and showing up for an appointment or meeting an hour or two late is not rude, is rooted in the idea of enjoying life in the hear and now.? Maybe that was true a hundred years ago, but I think now it might have more to do with no one being able to get anywhere else in a reasonable amount of time.
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