by Rod Hughes

The Ministry of Transport is studying the possibility of extending the one-day-per-week downtown San Jose driving ban to all day instead of just during peak hours. So reported the daily Al Dia today, quoting Deputy Minister Viviana Martin.

The driving ban is aimed at reducing the consumption of gasoline and is levied by the final license plate number during weekdays. The measure is intended to reduce the use of imported petrolum, which is resulting in a negative balance of trade as petrolum prices climb and exports decline. Although the consumption of gas is down marginally over June 2007, the use of super actually increased in the first half of the year.

The Ministry instituted so-called “smart” traffic lights in order to reduce time spent idling at intersections and keep traffic flowing. Another plan, to construct a network of bicycling routes in such comparitively flat provincial cities as Limon, Puntarenas and in parts of Guanacaste is stalled because the ministry does not have the needed $8 million in its budget. A proposed express train from Heredia into downtown San Jose was found to cost beyond the government’s ability to even get started.

Meanwhile, those who must be on the road to earn their living are suffering from recent fuel price increases. “In eight hours of work, I was only able to make 3,000 colones,” mourned taxi driver Manuel Benevides to an Al Dia reporter. Others told the paper that they have to save fuel by staying parked, no longer patroling the streets to seek passengers. One driver told the weekly Tico Times that he has to work extra hours to make the same amount as he did last year.