If January’s lowered alcohol-related traffic deaths are a sign of things to come, then Costa Rica’s streets are getting a lot safer. Mario Calderón, director of Traffic Police, said his force was able to stop 228 drunk drivers last month through increased efforts. This may have led to a lowering by more than two-thirds the road deaths connected to drunk driving in January compared to December. ...

Hardly a day passes in Costa Rica without a road fatality. Bicyclists are taking up the banner for road safety in the wake of recent tragic accidents. Yesterday, downtown San José’s streets were flooded with helmeted cyclists who pedaled from La Sabana Park to Curridabat via downtown to demand respect for their safety on the country’s streets. The turnout almost doubled the organizers’ expec...

By Wendy Anders An alliance between the CNFL electric company and BMW has allowed Costa Rica to offer recharging stations for electric cars in the county. Two such privately stations already exist, one in Escazú and another in Pinares (Curridabat). The third, which will offer public access, was just inaugurated in La Uruca near downtown San José, reported the CNFL this week. The BMWi Proj...

By Wendy Anders By 2021, San José, Costa Rica’s westbound Route 27 should have some major changes in place. Costa Rica’s National Concessions Council (CNC) found that the existing road has reached a saturation point of 70 percent and requires expansion. The highway’s current operators, concessionaire Globalvia, are required under their contract to expand the stretch between La Sabana Metropo...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rican Transportation and Public Works Ministry is preparing for a big push on the expansion of the Virilla Bridge which connects San José with Cariari, Belén, Alajuela, the international SJO airport, and other westward points. Work to expand it from its current rough 4 lanes to an impressive, solid and wider 6-lane expanse is going to involve some further closures in up...

By Wendy Anders Business owners expressed concern at an announcement late today by the Costa Rican Transportation and Public Works Ministry (MOPT) that the main artery connecting San José with points westward including the main international airport in Alajuela would be closed for six weeks starting Saturday, January 21, 2017 in the direction of Alajuela-San José. The bridge, known as "La Pl...

Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.  By Britt Nelson The Mexican-American border wall remains a high priority for President-elect Donald Trump. He continues to talk about it, but without specifics, and he still maintains that Mexico will pay for it in one way or another. What would it...

By Wendy Anders According to Riteve, the company that carries out vehicle inspections in Costa Rica, there are about 125,000 vehicles that still haven’t passed inspection this year. Some of these are vehicles that failed inspection and need to undertake repairs in order to pass; and others simply haven’t bothered to make an appointment, said Riteve. "The main concern is that many of these...

By Wendy Anders Inauguration of a bridge at the entrance to Quepos, Puntarenas, photo courtesy of the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT). Yesterday, transportation authorities inaugurated a new bridge at the entrance to the Central Pacific port town of Quepos, the gateway to Manuel Antonio National Park. The cement structure replaces a bailey bridge that spanned the Boca ...

Guatemala yesterday welcomed into its market the U.S. application found in more than 70 countries and 480 cities. Among those who joined in congratulating the arrival of Uber to Guatemala was the United States Commercial Service. An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons "This country has all the potential to receive Uber, and we are sure that Guatemalans will find the benefit of a new al...

Obnis App Costa Rica Private Transportation - Cab service Costa Rican company Obnis launched today their application, a competition of UBER. Obnis was created as an alternative in the private transportation sector, and in order to give clients a “Test drive” of their service they will be offering free trips for all new users for a limited time and with some restrictions. Over 4,000 users...

By Wendy Anders Photo posted on the Accidentes de CostaRica Facebook group page. As Costa Rica’s traffic police bolster their year-end patrols in an attempt to prevent the typical spike in traffic accidents and fatalities that accompany the holiday festivities, some hopeful data came in for November. With 20 traffic-related fatalities November 2016 had the lowest recent traffic mortality...

By Wendy Anders The Caribeño busline bus that went up in flames Weds., Nov. 30 on its way to Limón. All people aboard were uninjured. Three buses burst into flames over the past week in Costa Rica, bringing the total to at least 35 buses gone up in flames this year. Channel 7 TV, Costa Rica’s Teletica station, reported last Wednesday on a Caribeño busline fire. According to Fire Chief Hé...

A total of 5.38 km (3.35 miles) of bicycle track should be ready by February 2017 in San Pedro, Montes de Oca confirmed the mayor of this town Marcel Soler who also confirmed the Municipality is studying the possibility of extending the bike paths to other areas in the county in the future. The path consists of three different tracks, one will connect the Law Faculty of the University of Costa ...

By Wendy Anders Officials of the Guanacaste Conservation Area published a statement on their website this week saying they had not been consulted on a proposed mega-port that would serve as the Pacific end of the proposed dry canal project that is once again gaining momentum in Costa Rica. Park officials said the proposed project as presented by the CANSEC company to the National Concessions...

By Wendy Anders A family in Escazú forced into the street by a taxi parked on a sidewalk, photo published by the Accidentes en Costa Rica Facebook group. This Monday, a draft "Framework for Safe and Sustainable Mobility of People" was presented to the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly by Legislator Marcela Guerrero, as reported in elperiodicocr.com, a digital Spanish news source. The prop...

By Wendy Anders A Costa Rican traffic police officer. A group of 15 Costa Rican traffic police took matters into their own hands and have outfitted themselves with helmet-mounted videocameras. For most of them, this blew 1/2 their month’s paycheck. It was worth it though, said officials who spoke with La Nación, Costa Rica’s main Spanish daily paper. The videos of their patrols can help ...

HELENA, Ala., Oct. 31— One worker died Monday and at least five others were severely injured when a gas pipeline exploded in central Alabama, just south of Birmingham, authorities said. Blast at Alabama gas pipeline, source Facebook. A petroleum gas line owned by Colonial Pipeline exploded in Shelby County while a crew was performing maintenance, sending several workers to area hospitals. ...

By Wendy Anders OIJ police, photo for illustrative purposes. Yesterday morning, Costa Rican police carried out 13 simultaneous raids throughout the country after a 9-month investigation on a gang dedicated to stealing the content of containers arriving and leaving the country's ports. Among those arrested in connection with the group’s criminal activities are two police officials from Ma...

Google transit is now including Costa Rica's train stops, routes and schedules to make it easier to use this method of transportation. This was made possible by the joint efforts of Google, Costa Rica’s Train Institute (INCOFER), and the company Bus.cr. The tool Google Transit is part of the app Google Maps and it’s designed with the purpose of making information available to users that need...

Los Angeles, Sep 3.- The story of the legendary motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson is coming to the small screen in a three-episode mini-series that aims to bring TV viewers the sounds and sights of the iconic American bikes. Produced by Discovery Channel, "Harley and the Davidsons" will premiere tomorrow, Monday September 5, in the United States, and features "Game of Thrones" actors Michiel Hui...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT, in Spanish) and the National Roadways Council (CONAVI) gave orders yesterday to begin the design and construction of an access road to the new Moín Container Terminal (TCM, in Spanish) at Costa Rica’s largest port in the Atlantic coast region of Limón. The four-lane Moín port access road of 2.1 kms in length must...

By Wendy Anders Official (red) taxi representatives cancelled a meeting last Tuesday that they had requested with the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) during the national taxi protest they held Tuesday,  August 9. When Roberto Jiménez Gómez, Costa Rica’s general regulator, called the cancellation “unfortunate,” Rubén Vargas, president of the Costa Rican Taxi Union (UTC) responded w...

By Wendy Anders The country’s Ombudsman’s Office (Defensoría de los Habitantes, in Spanish) felt the need to intervene in a troubling situation in which 12 ocelots have been killed on Costa Rica’s roads since January, pointing out that there are also human risks involved with wild animals crossing roads. Although the need for special passageways for wild animals to cross highways has been cl...

By Wendy Anders Pedestrian deaths are the second largest type of traffic-related deaths registered in Costa Rica this year, reported the Transportation Ministry today. Of the 42 pedestrian deaths reported so far this year, the ministry claims 37, or 88 percent, could have been prevented by people using pedestrian aerial bridges or crosswalks within close walking distance from where they deci...

By Wendy Anders At ten this morning, the country’s public service regulator, Roberto Jiménez, received taxi sector leaders as they demanded to be heard one more time on the issue of Uber’s legality in the country. Jiménez reiterated that his agency, the Aresep, has done everything in its power to regulate public transportation services, and that any further decisions are pending court decisi...

By Wendy Anders The bridge over the Virilla River along the main highway leading from San José to Alajuela’s international airport was partially closed last night from 10:00 until 5:00 this morning for repairs. All traffic from Alajuela to San José was completely closed during that time. Thursday night-Friday morning, all traffic from San José-Alajuela on the main highway’s Virilla bridge wi...

By Wendy Anders Publications on social media of a major protest by official taxi drivers throughout the country starting at 5:00am today have public authorities and local residents preparing for the worst. Many parents will keep children home from school, embassies are suggesting people schedule appointments on other days, and police are planning a major counter-operation. The official ta...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) The probe into last week's coach fire which killed 26 people - including 24 Chinese tourists - took an abrupt turn on Friday when prosecutors announced that the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol and could have drunken alcohol to commit suicide. "Tests of the blood, urine and stomach residue of driver Su Ming-cheng showed that his blood al...

Wikimedia Commons CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (“CEMEX”) (NYSE: CX) announced earlier this month that its subsidiary, CEMEX Latam Holdings, S.A. ("CLH") (BVC: CLH), participated in the expansion and improvement of a section of the Inter-American Highway, the main road in the Costa Rican highway system. CLH supplied approximately 200,000 tons of high-strength cement for this highway’s expansion, a ...

By Wendy Anders Official taxis have seen better days. A Costa Rica CID Gallup poll published today shows that official “red” taxis are the preferred choice for over half of Costa Ricans, but that Uber is chosen 3-1 over official taxis by those who have used Uber’s services at least once. The 52 percent of those polled who prefer red taxis tend to live outside of the Central Valley metropo...

By Wendy Anders Thursday night a 23-year-old woman from the United States was found dead inside her car after it crashed head-on into a pick-up truck near the Tarcoles River along the main Central Pacific highway, stated the Judicial Investigative Agency (OIJ) in a press statement this afternoon. The regional Garabito OIJ unit was called to the scene of the crash around 9:00 pm. Trave...

Costa Rica Railway with Passenger Train By Wendy Anders You aren’t alone in feeling there’s been lots of talk and little action on urban trains; the law to modernize the sector that finally passed the Legislative Assembly on April 26 has been under discussion since 2011. It appears that some concrete changes might actually start to take place soon, as the law has already passed scrutiny ...

By Wendy Anders You may want to take a trip to the gas station today or tomorrow. An increase in gas prices recently approved by the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) will take effect later this week.  It more than doubles the decrease that went into effect this past March. In the past such hikes have caused long lines at stations as people stock up to save a little before prices go ...

By Wendy Anders While business owners, legislators, and government offices alike consider a host of measures to alleviate commute times and its stress on workers and families, the vehicles keep pouring in. Car imports for the first five months of the year are up 26 percent over last year’s same time-frame as reported today by CentralAmericaData.com. And car sales in March, as reported in ...

By Wendy Anders Last year’s mid-term July school vacations were dampened by 12 deaths, over 536 traffic accidents, and over 4,500 other accidents in just a 2-week period, stated the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation in a press statement today. This year, Transit Police will have 744 officials conducting intensive preventive operations from Sunday, July 3 - Sunday, July 17. In ad...

The 2011 World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton, UK.- Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, Jun 11 (EFE).- Hundreds of bicyclists rolled into the streets Saturday, both in Mexico City and in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, to take part in the World Naked Bike Ride. Among the objectives of this 6th edition of the show-all ride was, first, to raise awareness about the environmental advantages of bicycles ove...

An Uber driver in Bogota. Wikimedia Commons San Juan, May 31 (EFE).- Traffic chaos prevailed in San Juan on Tuesday as taxi drivers and truckers protested the arrival in Puerto Rico of Uber, the private ride-hailing service, which links passengers and drivers via a mobile application. On Tuesday morning it was difficult to find taxis on the capital streets, while some tourist excursions had...

Source: City of Key West Miami, May 27 (EFE).- Investigations by authorities in Key West at the southern tip of Florida have succeeded in locating the owner of a car similar to the one used by the Flintstone family in the famous animated television series. The vehicle was about to be towed away because it was parked on a street where no parking was allowed "The owner has been located! Th...

SJO on April 27 The second day of the Mother of All Strikes (MOAS) in Costa Rica caused headaches for passengers at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), which serves the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area (Spanish initials: GAM). Access to SJO via the main highway that connects the airport with San Jose was blocked by MOAS protestors who marched in the vicinity of the San Rafael...