The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) has announced a plan to “cleanse San José” of the growing problem of vehicular congestion in the downtown area.
Silvia Bolaños, the deputy minister of Transport, explained on Friday that the project includes the demaracation of some 48 roads in the area between Avenida 11 (north) to Avenida 18 (south) and Calle 21 (east) and the Called 42, Sabana park (west).
The plan includes additional traffic officials and camera system with a traffic official at the controls to notify fellow officials of traffic conditions and problems.
The plan, named the “Plan de Reordenamiento Vial del Casco Central de San José” will include defining loading and unloading area of trucks, restrictions for heavy trucks during peak times and new road signs. Bolaños said the creation of “exclusive lanes” is also under consideration.
The plan aslo includes establishing controls at intersections to avoid the grid lock and better traffic flow through the timing of the change of lights. (Some years back the MOPT installed “intelligent” traffic lights to better traffic conditions in San José. That project fell to the way side when the trasport ministry ran into problems with the operating control centre.)
The area in gray in the following illustration is the area included in the plan.
The plan, according
