by Rod Hughes

You can add a new traffic jam-generating hazard to San Jose’s streets to go with cars swerving to avoid pothole, pedestrians with death wishes, smoke-belching trucks and a plenitude of cars: attractive young ladies wearing short shorts or scanty skirts passing out advertising flyers to appreciative drivers.

Three of the lovely hazards, one 17 years old, work for Multiservicios La Macha, ironically in the streets near the Traffic Safety Council headquarters. La Macha (Spanish for “a sweet young thing”) deals in processing of drivers licenses and such, reports the newspaper La Nación. Male drivers, reporter Jairo Villegas observed, slow down to admire the flyer-distributors but often stop altogether in order to exchange a bit of appreciative chit-chat.

“These persons impede the flow of traffic,” primly observes Viviana Martin, Deputy Minister of Transport. But she also says that no law exists against the practice, although the girls expose themselves daily to danger of being run down and distract male drivers. Nor can they be singled out, because the practice of selling newspapers at traffic circles by young men is a tradition here.

Meanwhile, male drivers will gawk, running the risk of having a bus attempting to get into the trunk of their cars because they braked unexpectedly.