Traffic Worsens for Lack of Cops

(Acapulco, NA 30 November) Yesterday motorists were stalled for up to two hours at the crossroads of the Scenic Highway (linking Acapulco with the Diamond Zone) and the road from Puerto Marqués up to Coloso and on to El Cayaco. Construction crews have demolished the overpass and for several weeks have been building a new intersection there. Without traffic control, it is “every man for himself,” with the result being gridlock between stubborn drivers of all kinds. A few volunteers even got out of their cars to direct traffic for a while, just to break up the deadlocks. An empty, abandoned, broken-down police car sat on the apron of the gas station on one of the corners as a sad reminder of the city government’s inability even to regulate construction sites and traffic jams. Some residents of neighborhoods on the eastern side of Acapulco, who work downtown or in the Golden Zone, have started renting spare bedrooms nearer their jobs so they do not have to pass this intersection twice each day.

Not only have the construction crews held up traffic for hours along one of Acapulco’s main arteries, they also broke one of CAPAMA’s main water mains, with the result that almost two-thirds of Acapulco had to go without water for over a week. CAPAMA has made a legal claim against the contractor.

Complicating the passage of traffic by the construction area is the extremely rough and uneven pavement and the large quantities of drinking water that have been flooding out of broken water pipes.

The absence of traffic control has not been explained. The city insists that two shifts of policemen have been assigned to the location for rush hour traffic control, but none were in evidence yesterday or on several other days in the past. Some speculated that until traffic police are given weapons and armored vests to protect them from drug violence, the patrolmen will not be assuming posts where they are especially vulnerable.