MAD traffic. CRAZY traffic. WHAT-THE-HECK-IS-GOING-ON-NOW traffic. Whatever you want to call it,
el tranque is an everyday part of life in Panama.
The simple truth is - driving in Panama is a stressful, sometimes frustrating and yes, even dangerous past time. While reasons for the latter will quickly become apparent to you and we´ll discuss at length in future articles , here we focus on the main cause of the stress and frustration, traffic.
Sometimes it will take you 15 minutes to get across town. Others, exactly the same route, will take you 40 minutes. Why? Well, there are many factors that determine how crazy traffic will be on any day, at any given time. The following are the most likely:
Rain
Something about rain makes Panamanians 1] panic and 2] drive worse than usual. Almost at the first drops, the roads will instantly become filled with people rushing to get home. This includes buses and taxis, both of which will be extremely difficult to obtain. During this insane rush to get somewhere, there are many accidents. These, in turn, block the streets, and the cycle of traffic jams continues.
Police
 Local traffic cops very kindly direct traffic at main intersections at morning, lunch and evening rush hours. They turn
off the traffic lights and attempt to keep the traffic flowing at optimum levels during these key periods. Sadly, the results are rarely good. It used to be better, when there was one officer per intersection. Lately, however, the force has taken to assigning two or more officers to handle the same locations. Results are: conflicting instructions [just yesterday I was directed to move forward and cross a huge intersection at the same moment as the traffic started crossing in front of me. Had I not been vigilant, I could have been seriously injured] and longer [LONGER!] waits at junctions. Am I saying these underpaid civil servants make things worse? Absolutely!
Pay Day
For reasons that you will come to understand while learning about the local culture, pay day or
quincena is a crazy time in general. In terms of traffic, Let´s just say when you get up in the morning and encounter triple the vehicles you normally see one of the first questions you´ll ask yourself is what´s the date! If it´s on or near the 15th or 30th of the month, you´ll groan inwardly and wish you´d gotten around to picking up your dry cleaning the day before! Pay Day = money. Money = gas. Gas = everyone driving to pay all bills and shop. It´s definitely a good idea to plan around these times of the month. I am known for refusing to go further than the local shop, and actually stay home to hide from it all. The less stress the better, I believe!
Holidays
Any approaching holiday makes the days preceding it a living nightmare, both on the streets and at any commercial/public location. It also makes for a lot more accidents. Most locals either hunker down for some serious partying, or take off to the Interior for holidays. In the meantime, something about trying to get where they need to be, or get what they need before leaving is incredibly distracting. In turn, there´s somewhat of a careless rush that leads to noticeably more fender-benders. On the actual
day of the holiday, the streets are wonderfully empty. Not much may be open, but the streets will be clear! A good time to drive around and explore areas you might not in normal conditions.
Malfunctioning Lights and Road Works
Last, but not least, the wonderful world of haphazard road works, and traffic lights that don´t work or are out of sync. I´m guessing you´ve experienced the former in your own country. The latter is not very interesting, but it does make for traffic problems. The interesting thing about road works in Panama though is the timing. For some reason, instead of undertaking such projects during the empty-streets of a holiday, or even Sundays, the Ministry of Transport seems to always contract serious, traffic-inducing road repairs on the crazy days
before a holiday. They especially love to have us wake up to morning rush with only one lane where there´s normally three! Perhaps these friends in charge of all things asphalt have a secret pact with the makers of ulcer medication. Bottom line, you´ll wonder what on earth they were thinking.
 What can you do to beat it? Leave earlier than any other sane person would. Better 20 minutes early than 40 late. There´s always that ulcer medicine I mentioned, but sometimes just accepting things as they are and going with the flow is the best solution. With a little vigilance you can quickly learn the best routes to take to any given destination. In turn you can figure out which individual lanes are best, and when. Let me tell you, sometimes just the lane you choose can make a 10-minute difference.
But wait...I haven´t mentioned buses and taxis, yet! Shoot, and we`re out of time. Darn, they are just so juicy a topic, too. Guess we will save that for another segment. Meanwhile, There they are - The five most common causes of traffic in Panama. They really are just the tip of the iceberg, though. In upcoming articles we´ll address:
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Future Solutions to the Traffic Problems ? Ha,Ha!
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What if I have a Car Accident? - Good Luck with That
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Public Transportation ? What is WRONG with them?
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Getting a Panamanian Driving License ? You mean there´s no driving test?
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Traffic Cops and Tickets - $5 Goes a Long Way;
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Getting to Know your way Around the City ? Aren´t there any maps!?
Okay, you got me - I´m joking about those titles..But rest assured we will have new articles about
Living in Panama each month. Keep coming back and feel free to leave your comments about this or any of our articles at
ThinkPanama.com.
For All your Panama Lifestyle, Panama Travel or Panama Real Estate needs, contact
Douglas M. Choy at
ThinkPanama.com
. They will be happy to provide any guidance and information you may need.
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