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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,398
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by San Pedro Traffic Department
1. Everyone who owns a vehicle should keep that vehicle in the best working condition possible, both for safety and reliability.
2. All motorized vehicles must be licensed and insured.(This includes heavy equipment)
3. Everyone driving on the roads must abide by the laws set out in the Road Traffic act of Belize.
4. Drivers should be more considerate of other road users, not drive like they own the road.
5. Aggressive driving should not be tolerated.
If the people of San Pedro are serious about helping reduce the complaints about our traffic, they are the ones that have to change; one only has to stand on the side of any street and watch how people are driving. The way people drive here would not be tolerated anywhere else in Belize, they drive to fast and have no consideration for anyone else including pedestrians; it is only by chance that someone has not been killed. You can see the arrogance of some drivers as they bully their way through traffic, overtaking dangerously just to get one vehicle ahead. The island is small no one has miles to travel to get to work or school, so why do they feel it is necessary to drive so aggressively and dangerously to go just a short distance. I have driven in many countries as a professional driver and have never seen driving as bad as here in San Pedro.
People should wake up and see the bad impression they are leaving on the minds of our visitors.
The number of vehicles on this island is not the problem it is the way these vehicles are being used that are creating the problems.
So if people started to drive more responsibly and be more courteous to other drivers and pedestrians a lot of the complaints we are hearing would go away, so it might take you a couple more minutes to reach your destination if you drove slower, but you would have less stress and less tickets�
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 6,267
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The worst offenders are motorcycles and trucks.
The huge rock trucks are bad but the pickups with youthful demolition derby drivers at the wheel are super scary too.
Suggest that traffic department has a serious talk with the owners of these trucks. They can and should educate and discipline their drivers.
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 462
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The worst are by far, still the taxy drivers, very surprising that there haven't been more "road rage" incidents.
And of course the pvt cars/suvs, most of these drivers have never driven anything but a golf cart, then getting into a full size vehicle...
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Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 371
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A good start would be speeding tickets on the North road within a mile or two of the bridge..
A little known fact... Women who are overweight tend to live longer than men who mention it...
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 350
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by San Pedro Traffic Department
1. Everyone who owns a vehicle should keep that vehicle in the best working condition possible, both for safety and reliability.
2. All motorized vehicles must be licensed and insured.(This includes heavy equipment)
3. Everyone driving on the roads must abide by the laws set out in the Road Traffic act of Belize.
4. Drivers should be more considerate of other road users, not drive like they own the road.
5. Aggressive driving should not be tolerated.
If the people of San Pedro are serious about helping reduce the complaints about our traffic, they are the ones that have to change; one only has to stand on the side of any street and watch how people are driving. The way people drive here would not be tolerated anywhere else in Belize, they drive to fast and have no consideration for anyone else including pedestrians; it is only by chance that someone has not been killed. You can see the arrogance of some drivers as they bully their way through traffic, overtaking dangerously just to get one vehicle ahead. The island is small no one has miles to travel to get to work or school, so why do they feel it is necessary to drive so aggressively and dangerously to go just a short distance. I have driven in many countries as a professional driver and have never seen driving as bad as here in San Pedro.
People should wake up and see the bad impression they are leaving on the minds of our visitors.
The number of vehicles on this island is not the problem it is the way these vehicles are being used that are creating the problems.
So if people started to drive more responsibly and be more courteous to other drivers and pedestrians a lot of the complaints we are hearing would go away, so it might take you a couple more minutes to reach your destination if you drove slower, but you would have less stress and less tickets�
So if this was posted by the San Pedro Traffic Department, why doesn't state that all drivers will be checked for drivers license, insurance, and registration? A traffic police officer on either side of the bridge, one south and north of town, and one roving along middle street actually WRITING tickets, would solve a bit of the problem. But they are essentially "telling" people to drive safer? SAD DC
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 2,160
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There are regular road block check points set up with Police and Traffic checking licensees and Insurance and tickets are given. Probably a weekly occurrence.
However rather than suggesting Motorists should keep their vehicle in decent condition they should be forced via an inspection to a certain specification/standard test that it should have to pass a yearly prior to receiving it's sticker.
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 23
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Inspections seem to me to be a money grab by the government/garages. I think the money is better used by drivers to maintain their vehicles. We have "Drive Clean Tests" and we all know how well they work (VW). We have daily operator inspections for trucks over a certain capacity, and FORD/GM sell de-rated versions to avoid the inspections. Have there actually been accidents because of poor maintenance? Maybe in a place as small as Ambergris Caye it would be better to give police officers the power to order an inspection, when they see something "way out". In my experience most people drive appropriately for their ability/vehicle. Aggressive drivers will just be worse with new brakes.
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 7,479
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"Have there actually been accidents because of poor maintenance?" Yes, I witnessed a ball joint break on a taxi and then slam into the post by the RC school narrowly missing the shaved ice vendor and some pedestrians. That particular taxi is falling to pieces and for quite a while it had to do a 3 or 4 point turn to make it around most of the corners in town. There are plenty of blatantly unsafe vehicles on the streets.
When I lived in Orange Walk district they made you slam on all brakes to make sure they all locked up to prove they actually worked. Something simple like that along with a physical bearing check on the front wheels would be easy and go a long way towards making the roads safer. Commercial vehicles larger than a golf cart (taxis, delivery vehicles) should also be inspected every 6 months instead of a year.
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Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 23
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There is always one! Some kind of police officer supervised test like you described, with an order for further testing if that test fails sounds very reasonable. Here's a reference for the US, most states seemingly don't require any inspection. Judging by the number of cars by the side of the road it's drive it till it dies here too!  I'm not sure there is a perfect solution. What I am sure about is that if you want to double the cost of something, get the government involved! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_United_States
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 350
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There are regular road block check points set up with Police and Traffic checking licensees and Insurance and tickets are given. Probably a weekly occurrence.
However rather than suggesting Motorists should keep their vehicle in decent condition they should be forced via an inspection to a certain specification/standard test that it should have to pass a yearly prior to receiving it's sticker. I've personally witnessed locals asked for drivers licenses and other info by traffic police ( they had neither) , and just passed through. Especially at the bridge. DC
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