On traffic in Ecuador

While I was in Guayaquil (Day 44), I wrote a little bit about the traffic in Ecuador and that it is so terrible.  I promised to write some more about it. But at that moment I was just mostly fed up with the traffic in Guayaquil. 2 Years ago, I wrote a small piece on the traffic in India (in Dutch), which didn’t seem to have any rules but “horn please”. Sure enough, the traffic isn’t as bad here. At least they drive on the right side and the horn isn’t used as much. Mostly just by taxi drivers who pass by, hoping to pick you up, while you are just waiting for a chance to cross the road. There was one particular street in Guayaquil which gave me a lot of trouble on this matter. When taking the bus back from the office, I had to cross a broad street, which was almost impossible. Pedestrians are usually left on their own, traffic lights aren’t set so there is a space open for us to cross. Moreover, on these broad (2-3 lane, one-way) roads the cars are nearly racing. With busses and taxis stopping everywhere they like, this makes the traffic in Guayaquil a pain in the ass.

In most of Quito, things are better. Recently there is a new programme in the centre called “Pico y Placa”, which simply states that on certain days you can’t enter the centre during certain hours if your ‘placa’ (plate number) ends with a certain number. In practice, this means that during certain other hours, the streets are busier. Here’s what a friend writes about the traffic in Quito (in French). Some streets are still difficult to cross, but in the busiest streets, like Amazonas, there are at least traffic lights for pedestrians.

In driving, equally when walking, people can be disrespectful towards you, by cutting across or just not moving aside. Though only in driving, this can provide potentially dangerous situations. Luckily, Quito has a very good bus system. There are 3 lines going in North-South direction, including an Arnhem style ‘Trolebus’. And at night you can take one of the 8800 taxis that drive around here.