Jake the Snake

So today, in most of the main cities in Costa Rica, the taxi drivers went on strike.

Background info:

In Costa Rica the official taxis are red with a yellow triangle on the side.  They form the fuerza roja or the red force.  These taxis use the normal meter to determine the cost of your ride.  Then we have the porteadores which are often referred to as “pirates”.  These taxis are essentially anyone with a car that wants to make some money, so they pick you up and drive you to your destination.  You negotiate a price with them upon entering their car.  Many people are apprehensive about using unlicensed taxis, but in the past, I’ve had no problems with these guys.  Most of the time they will just give you their phone number so you can call them directly anytime you need a ride, as opposed to calling the main taxi number and being placed on hold for ten minutes.

Both have their benefits and drawbacks.  Obviously it would be safer to use a licensed taxi, but it can be cheaper and more convenient to use a pirate.  I don’t really care one way or another…(I tend to use taxis only while I’m out drinking anyway!)

Back in December, Costa Rican lawmakers passed a set of new traffic laws, one of which is of great concern to both types of taxi drivers.  Any person found to be operating an unlicensed taxi will be fined 227,000 colones, or about $409 at today’s exchange rate.  Needless to say, the pirates are not too happy about this new system.  The fuerza roja is angry that the government seems to be taking their sweet time to start enforcing the new transit law.

Starting today at around 6 am, a huge number of both the fuerza roja and the pirates gathered to protest.  In past strikes, the taxi drivers have created road blocks and majorly disrupted the flow of traffic for hours at a time on some of the busiest roads in the country, however, today is different.  The government is taking this very seriously and has guaranteed that there will be no interruptions in daily commutes.  Transit police are out in full force today to issue tickets and confiscate the license plates of any taxi found to be disrupting the traffic flow.

I’m glad that the transit police are not taking this lightly and are finally doing their job.  I understand why the licensed taxi drivers are upset at the government and that they have the right to protest, but they don’t have to drag the whole country into this issue and they certainly don’t have to block the roads and make me sit in traffic for hours.

I think today N.W.A. would give the police a break…