Meaning to Life

Admiration from German and Japanese Industry Just-In-Time Experts

The motor car and bus dominate the transport scene here in San José. There is a quirky rickety little single railway track with a quirky two carriage train that slowly passes very near-by continually sounding its horn and quaintly tingling its bell in warning because there are no level crossings and I suppose also because it does run right in the middle of the street. If the trains were a frequent occurrence I would imagine it could become irritating but seeing as they are few and far between the fanfare of its passing adds another dynamic dimension to the local bustle and an almost romantic yesteryear dimension in contrast to the humdrum of the all-pervasive motor transport.

It seems to me that Cost Ricans are drastically different animals when they are behind the steering wheel. In the limited time I have been here they appear to be amiable, placid, polite and considerate when you meet them in person but I would not describe them that way if I were to judge their temperaments based on their car driving.

On the bigger scale I get the impression that they have completely given up on a concept of car and pedestrian integration. It seems to be starkly one or the other. Where the car roams they not only have thrown up their arms in surrender to its power but have arranged things to accentuate its dominance. Thankfully there are some extensive pedestrianised central thoroughfares where you can walk mostly oblivious to this other dualistic landscape.

The overriding objective seems to have been to speed the cars on their way as much as possible thereby encouraging drivers to believe even more in their right to priority. Most of the roads are one-way. Traffic lights hang up high often at difficult-to-see angles when you are not in a car seemingly intentionally denying the pedestrian the opportunity to anticipate whether a car is about to stop or start at junctions. Then the road surface seems to be maintained in surprisingly good slick-asphalted condition, at least here in the downtown district, in complete contrast to the poor pedestrian who has to negotiate over and around countless holes of every magnitude to get to wherever he or she might want to go on the sidewalk. Next come the gulleys separating the roads from the sidewalks. I suspect that this was not intentional but set up to handle the not infrequent torrential downpours but all the same adds to the sense of alienation between car and walker. On top of this there is very little on-street parking which certainly creates less of an eye sore but, my goodness, the greatest beneficiary is the motor driver who can whisk through the city just as fast as he likes with the only impediment to his progress being that of the traffic signals.

This whole observation came to my attention because of the surprisingly narrow margin of safety I noticed when trying to cross the road. I haven’t seen anybody injured yet, though at the same time I have yet to see a single old-aged, infirm or invalided person have a stab at such a challenge. It could be I haven’t seen it because none has ever made it to repeat the exercise!

If you put your foot on the road you have the sense that any hint of hesitation could be your undoing. You will be allowed time to cross but it is an interval that demands an efficiency level that even German and Japanese industry would admire. I brought the subject up with Geraldo the resident maintenance man, a man with dual US Costa Rican citizenship and he was quick to agree that it was a problem. Excusing it by being a gap in Costa Rican education but swiftly added it is notably worse in Mexico – “Dios Mio!”