Ever have your plans go awry due to the license plate restrictions that limit your movement in and around the downtown San José area? Well, the newly approved traffic regulations, which include stiffer fines for several infractions, and also provisions for cars being ticketed for parking in no-parking areas, also include a perk for eco-friendly vehicles. Vehicles considered eco-friendly - el...

If you are a user of the highway between Escazú and Caldera, (Route 27), take into consideration that as of this Thursday, June 8th the payment of the toll fees will increase in 120 colones ($0.21). According to concessionary Globalvia, the raise in the fee obeys to the fluctuation of the exchange rate in the past few weeks. The toll in Escazú will go from 350 to 370 colones for passenger ve...

(Image used as reference only) The Costa Rica Drug Institute (ICD in Spanish) will hold an auction to sell 21 luxury cars that belonged to to organized crime and were seized by the police. The expectation is to be able to raise 280 million colones (close to $490 thousand ),“The idea is that we can collect some funds for the ICD and at the same time we get rid of unused vehicles that are curren...

The Solís government continues to work on delayed infrastructure projects throughout the country, and is moving forward with two bridges in the Drake area of the Osa Peninsula, the biodiversity hotspot in Costa Rica’s southern Pacific region and home to Corcovado National Park, said the president’s office this week. A program of the Office of the First Lady of the Republic called “Tejiendo Desa...

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Works and Transportation received a petition this week from the president of the Costa Rican Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, Rocío Solís, requesting authorities consider raising the minimum age for a driver’s license to 21 in an effort to reduce road-related injuries and fatalities. Road transit laws in Costa Rica set the minimum age for obtaining a regul...

The Costa Rican Medical Professionals Association (Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos) recently issued an alert to drivers in Costa Rica to avoid scams when getting the medical certificate required to obtain or renew a license. There have also been changes to the medical certificate procedures, as now all certifications are entered into a digital system. To avoid falling victim to a scam, and pa...

Finally! That’s what the vast majority of Costa Ricans exclaimed when the news was released that the bridge Alfredo González Flores, better known as “La Platina”, will finally open on Thursday, May 25. The bridge over the Virilla river in the General Cañas highway which connects San José to Alajuela, will open to allow normal transit on this date, some last detail work though, will have to be d...

The third date of the Costa Rica Touring Car Championship takes place this Saturday at Parque Viva. The 150km (93 miles) Shell Cup is happening on the night of Saturday, May 13 when 15 professional drivers will participate in the endurance competition that starts at 5 p.m. in what is known as “Circuito Sur” in Parque Viva, the track has been illuminated with 23 mobile light towers. “Last y...

Former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz, current director of Ad Astra Rocket Company, expected to have the country’s first hydrogen-fueled bus running in May, there was a slight delay, but the prototype should be ready to go in June. According to the Costa Rican physicist and mechanical engineer, the importance of this achievement is that it opens the door to a new transportation system, a cl...

Well, two days after the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation announced no more closures on the revamped 'platina' bridge north of San José, they will be closing it after all this weekend - from 10 p.m. Saturday until no later than 5 p.m. Sunday, said MOPT officials. The road on both sides of the Virilla River needs to have storm drains installed, said officials, which means large machin...

Fatal road accidents have become a daily occurrence in Costa Rica, and it's no wonder many slogans and messages aimed at encouraging safe driving refer to the situation as a "war on our streets." This weekend was especially tragic with five young people dead in three separate accidents in just two days. Two children aged 5 and 8 died in the first accident, in Valle de Estrella, Limón, when t...

After taking a lot of flack for closures and delays, Costa Rican transportation officials announced one more total closure for the mega-overhaul of the Alfredo González Flores bridge spanning the Virilla River bridge along the General Cañas highway, the main artery into San José and to the international airport in Alajuela. The bridge will be completely closed starting Saturday, April 29 at 3 p...

If you want some extra income, and have a 4-door car no older than a year 2000 model, you can register at Nova to be a driver. The company is seeking applicants throughout Costa Rica's seven provinces. The driver phone/computer application will be released May 24, and the company says they plan to start offering services, complete with a legal services department for drivers, July 24, according...

Last night, Guanacaste police chased a car from Sámara along the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica to the district of Nicoya, also in the province of Guanacaste after being alerted by tourists that their car was robbed. After the "intense" chase, police detained the car and arrested three male suspects in the robbery by the last names Morales, Zúñiga and Prieto. After receiving the alert,...

Costa Rica’s state-owned Banco Nacional has taken steps to encourage employees to bicycle to work, reported the entity this week. The initiative, launched this year at the bank’s downtown main and La Uruca offices, includes a bike parking area, dressing rooms with showers, and lockers, said Carlos Abarca Rivera, deputy general manager of operations. This year 10 - 15 employees have been cycl...

The beginning of the rainy season will also bring the long-awaited opening of the completely overhauled main access bridge connecting San José with the international airport in Alajuela. After some unexpected recent delays, transportation officials said they estimated the new 6-lane Alfredo Gónzalez Flores bridge over the Virilla River would be fully ready and open by the end of May. Until t...

This year's road fatalities among motorcyclists are showing a worrying increase over previous years, with an average of 15 motorcyclists having lost their lives on the roads every month so far this year, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT). From January 1 - March 31, 2017, 54 of the 126 road deaths, or 43 percent, were among motorcyclists, said the MOPT. Note that only t...

Recent weeks have seen an increase in actions targeting Uber drivers in the San José, Costa Rica metropolitan area - from tickets to removing their license plates, to occasional street scuffles. The ongoing uncertainty swirling about as to whether or not other types of taxi services are permitted to operate in Costa Rica has created a climate of tension in which "official taxis" have tended to ...

Drivers beware: The Water and Sewerage Department (AyA, its initials in Spanish) just started replacing potable water pipes in downtown San José. That means ripped up roads, and probably a bit of mayhem as traffic gets rerouted on the narrow and traffic-choked streets. It also will mean better quality water and an improved drinking water system. The city-wide infrastructure project is fairly ma...

Yesterday, during the classification rounds, the temperature in the race-car cabins marked 50⁰C (122⁰F), these were the conditions that the pilots from the Costa Rica Touring Car Championship had to deal with, still they battled through the heavy heat and pilot Danny Formal, part of the Hyundai team, won the pole position for today's race. This Sunday, however, the heavy rains that affected th...

The second date of the Costa Rica Touring Car Championship CTCC 2017 is scheduled to take place this weekend, April 1 and 2, this date is known as the Hankook Cup. The free practices began yesterday, Tuesday, March 28th with the trials of the Ford and Toyota Teams, this Wednesday the teams Hyundai and MG got the chance to test their cars and tomorrow will be the last day of practice and will ...

The Costa Rican comptroller’s office gave the green light last week to begin to adjudicate the remaining road widening works due to take place over the next two years along the stretch between San Antonio de Belén and Santa Ana (Route 147) to the west of San José, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. The expansion of the bridge along that highway will begin in April, and the larger ...

Transportation officials announced early today a slight delay in the planned opening of three of the completely overhauled “Platina” bridge’s eventual six lanes. The three lanes they had hoped to open today will be ready early next week, allowing more time for workers to fit and install the bridge’s five expansion joints, a very precise and time-consuming process, said Minister of Public Works ...

The new cars fair “Expomóvil” kicks off this Thursday and will extent through Sunday, March 26th at the Pedregal Event Center in San Antonio de Belén, Heredia. More than 20 cars and motorcycle agencies will take part in this fair, as well as 9 banking institutions. Entrance tickets will have a cost of ¢3,000.00 ($5.50 USD), and the same cost for parking. The fair will open Monday through Fr...

If you are planning a trip Thursday night from the Central Valley to Limón or nearby points on the Caribbean coast, beware that the tunnel on the main highway will be closed for repairs. The closure will be in effect for five hours, from 10:00 p.m. Thursday, March 16 until 3:00 a.m. Friday, March 17, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT).   A detailed evaluation...

While crossing bridges around San José used to just be time-consuming - it may be getting quicker, even though potentially more tongue-tying. The newly inaugurated, widened bridge connecting San José’s La Uruca with Heredia via Pozuelo-Jardines de Recuerdo has been named after Costa Rican writer Yolanda Oreamuno (1916-1956). Better not try out the pronunciation while navigating traffic, ther...

Meet the most recent player on the Costa Rican taxi scene: Nova Transportes, a 100 percent locally owned business. The company is recruiting drivers, and also clients, on its Facebook page, and says it will accept car models from 2000 on. The newly formed Costa Rican company, Nova Transportes, is basing its model on Uber, and will begin operating in the second half of this year, said the com...

When is the last time you texted while driving or answered an urgent call before pulling over? Living in Costa Rica, without the ease of finding shoulders on main roads, maneuvering overcrowded streets, and dealing with harried schedules, we are all guilty of texting while driving on occasion. It is no secret that taking your eyes off the road while driving, even for a fraction of a second, ...

The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) is moving forward with a project that will improve road safety at 91 railroad crossings along the three San José metropolitan train lines of Pavas-San José-Curridabat, Heredia-San José, and San José-Cartago, said the agency this week. Carlos Villalta, Transportation Minister, explained that three offers were received from different companie...

Amidst increasing traffic accidents and road-related fatalities, Costa Rican police are calling on drivers to always, and correctly, use safety seats for children. A safety device is required for all children in a private vehicle under the age of twelve in Costa Rica, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT, in Spanish), who said in January this year 69 drivers were fined for...

Costa Rica is slowly digging its way out of decades of delays in infrastructure improvements, one of the main priorities of the current Solís administration. Along these lines, much needed improvements to another Virilla River bridge, this one on the heavily transited highway connecting Belén to Santa Ana, will begin at the end of March, and last an expected 13 months. Ministry of Public Wor...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Ombudsman's Office has given the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) a timeline to insure their compliance with across-the-board road safety educational programs in all of the country’s schools, from pre-school on up, said the Defensoría de Los Habitantes this week (The Defender of the Inhabitants or National Ombudsman’s Office). The country’s traffic and road saf...

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. ...

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...

If you are a fan of auto racing, take note, as the first date of the Costa Rica Touring Car Championship CTCC 2017 is taking place this coming weekend, February 4 and 5 with the Pennzoil Cup at Parque Viva. 14 cars and two new categories are part of this year’s edition of the CTCC in which the pilots will have to use all their skill and push their cars to the limit through three heats of 20 min...

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 Rica’s National Liberation Party Legislator, Ronny Monge, has introduced a measure with the support of 20 of his colleagues to end the use of fuel-consuming vehicles in Costa Rica, said a report on Costa Rica’s Teletica news station. “If we didn’t have to depend on petroleum imports, we would save millions. Also as a country that has sold itself to the world as a destin...

Madrid, Jan. 16 — Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC said Monday it will pay a total of around 671 million pounds sterling ($810 million) to law enforcement authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil to settle bribery and corruption charges, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires. The company, which manufactures jet engines and marine diesel engines, said it had reached deferred ...

By Wendy Anders Starting Saturday, February 4 at 10:00 a.m., car enthusiasts can check out hundreds of antique and other “exotic” cars on exhibit at the Puntarenas tourist boulevard on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast. "It will be one of the biggest events in Latin America. We will have modified cars, motorcycles, ATVs and more,” said Johnny Quesada event organizer. Lasting until Sunday...

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...