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Police in the states have problems with Puerto Rican driver's licenses... and once you've been behind the wheel on the island, you'll find out why.
The best one: Was driving to school one day and a couple hundred yards ahead of me it looked like a car had missed the Piñero exit, so he STOPPED, BACKED UP on the side of the highway UNTIL HE GOT CLOSE TO THE EXIT, and went on his way. It was very early in the morning, but still extremely dangerous!!!
I would say just about every day is a driving adventure. Cars passing on the inside making a one lane into two, routine running of red lights and turning from lanes other than the turn lanes, cars going as slow as 30 on the highway interspersed with those going 20 miles or more over the limit, etc. Some interesting quirks: many cars routinely honk when there is a red light I guess in the hope that the honking will cause the signal to change, traffic on many roads by common usage goes in the wrong direction, there is a shortage of traffic signs and lights in general, manholes which are common along streets are usually indented about 4 inches from the surface of the road to make permanent pot holes, most highway exits and entrances are side by side rather than spaced out to make for a card shuffling effect, and instead of putting in a light at busy intersections they have traffic cops direct traffic during the mornings when people are going to school/work. The rest of the time these intersections are a free for all.
I was there for superbowl sunday back in 1999. i was drunk. no question about it, here in the states I would have gone to jail. I wasnt so drunk I was falling down or anything, but I would have failed the breathalizer test.
Took off on an errand during halftime with one of the guys from the bar. When the light turned green I gave it too much gas and spun the rear tires a little bit. The cops came after me though at this point I didnt know it. Soon I was doing 85 in my ford bronco going from Luquillo to Fajardo. Saw the cops behind me. Pulled over, he told me I was going 85 in a 45(I think it was 45 or 55) gave me a ticket for the speeding and one for spinning the tires. he also told me I had enough to drink and I should go home lol (not one of my proud moments drinking and driving, and don't even drink at all now)
Total cost of tickets=15.00 each!!!!
i told my buddies, heck, 15 bucks isn't enough to slow me down haha
Tickets are insanity expensive here now. So be careful. Also, police will profile cars (kind of reverse racial profiling). If you drive a nice car they will pull you over to give you a ticket, where as a clunker doing the same or worse will go without being stopped.
My general observations are: The worse the car is the faster it will drive and more moving offenses it will create. Police ticketing is completely non-logical, since I have seen cars at night with no lights functioning (front and back). I seen cars that should not be legal to be driven on the street. Yet, they are not pulled over.
Just recently I passed a car on a traffic light where both driver and passenger were stoned beyond comprehension (I mean like falling on each other and barely being able to sit up).
Three things are amazing to me. (1) people will ride up your ass, honk, and hand-wave as you sit and wait on red, then when the light transitions to green, they just sit there. I joke that we have lots of book readers on the road (2) people will make split second decisions, cutting cross traffic in the distance of 10 feet just to get to the other side of the street. I see people go to the left most lane with honking and crazed look on their face, just to do the reverse the next minute. I stopped asking myself why they may need to do this? (3) people will use ramps until the last possible moment. All drivers will not transition into traffic until the ramp or lane actually ends. This of course creates traffic and congestion. Had they transitions earlier in an orderly manner, then the traffic would flow much smoother.
Location: The Circle City. Sometimes NE of Bagdad.
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On the honking at a red light issue, it was very common to go through a red light if no traffic was coming in the opposite direction or if there was no cross traffic.
yeah there's A LOT of aggresive drivers in PR,i hate it everytime i go to visit home because of all the disorder on the roads. At the same time it's kinda nice cause u can get away with a bunch of stuff sometimes and it's kind of a "whatever" attitude.
I just returned from a week in PR and was worried about how much of a challenge the driving would be. It really wasn't all that bad. Traffic was heavy at times on the freeways but was light in Old San Juan, probably only because it was a holiday.
I guess the drivers where I live must be just as aggressive, as it didn't seem that unusual in PR. Perhaps it is worse during a normal work week. The biggest difference I saw was very few people in PR use their turn signals. And they are absurdly quick to lay on their horns if someone is slow to take off at a stop light. No it wasn't me they were honking at.
That's nothing......SR 3 going down to Luquillo, a guy with a really small crappy car, driving not in one lane, but within two lanes, and if there were cars in either one of the lanes, they needed to step aside to let the crappy car pass.....
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(2) people will make split second decisions, cutting cross traffic in the distance of 10 feet just to get to the other side of the street. I see people go to the left most lane with honking and crazed look on their face, just to do the reverse the next minute. I stopped asking myself why they may need to do this? (3) people will use ramps until the last possible moment. All drivers will not transition into traffic until the ramp or lane actually ends. This of course creates traffic and congestion. Had they transitions earlier in an orderly manner, then the traffic would flow much smoother.
