Panama judged fourth-worst country to drive in

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Panama judged fourth-worst country to drive in

Andrea Gallo 14 sep 2016 - 20:38h

Panama occupies fourth place on a list of the worst countries to drive in according to a survey done by the traffic and navigation aid Waze.

Waze analyzed the experience of driving of million of users active of the application in 38 countries and 238 cities.

El Salvador was listed as the worst place to drive, followed of the Philippines, Guatemala, Panama, Indonesia, Peru, Singapore and Colombia.

Traffic and services for drivers were the worst categories for Panama, while it received better scores for road quality and safety.

Waze reported the best countries were the Netherlands, France, the United States, the Czech Republic, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia and Italy.

The evaluation was carried out in six categories: traffic, both its density and its severity; the quality of the roads, safety, obstacles and weather.

http://www.prensa.com/in_english/Panama-cuarto-peores-paises-conducir_21_4575502413.html

[Gordon Bakke]

I suspect that these ratings are skewed towards the larger metropolitan areas. If you compare Panama City to Bogota Colombia - no comparison. Bogota is FAR worse in terms of congestion in my opinion.

[Ricco]

If they use the quality and courtesy of driving then Panama should be number #1 WORST.

[Uncle Doug]

To be fair, the survey admits to only covering 38 countries, ignoring India, and virtually all of Africa and Asia.  Panama is skewed because the overwhelming number of Waze users are in Panama City, which is a challenging place to drive.  But if you've ever driven in Rome, Italy, it's not substantially easier. The survey is necessarily weighted by the experience of Waze users within a country.  But Rome makes up 5% of the Italian population, and Panama City is perhaps a third or more of the Panamanian population?

Panama definitely needs to improve (and it's certainly attempting to bring mass transit to improve transportation).  But it's certainly not the fourth worst in the world.  It's easily in the top half. Imagine driving in Pakistan or in Nigeria.  

[Roger B]

2 hours ago, Uncle Doug said:

To be fair, the survey admits to only covering 38 countries, ignoring India, and virtually all of Africa and Asia.  Panama is skewed because the overwhelming number of Waze users are in Panama City, which is a challenging place to drive.  But if you've ever driven in Rome, Italy, it's not substantially easier. The survey is necessarily weighted by the experience of Waze users within a country.  But Rome makes up 5% of the Italian population, and Panama City is perhaps a third or more of the Panamanian population?

Panama definitely needs to improve (and it's certainly attempting to bring mass transit to improve transportation).  But it's certainly not the fourth worst in the world.  It's easily in the top half. Imagine driving in Pakistan or in Nigeria.  

Doug

Even that I dont like driving to much in Panama City and I only do it when it is absolutely necessary and I have to do it because of business matters or personal matter I have to agree with you about the results and the ranking.  It is well known in statistics that depending of the input data and the "universe" of the samples taken the information could be biased and not a 100% reliable or accurate.   

Having traveled, mostly, in Latin American countries I have to say that driving in other places than Panama is not an easy task.  Traffic conditions, road conditions and other variables affects in higher degree the driving and traffic problems makes Panama, as you say, to be in the top 50% but not in the top 10% of the world.  This statistics comes from information given by Waze users so it has another factor to be considered when explaining the results.  

Let's talk about traffic problems in Panama.  Main cause of traffic problems.   

City design and limits.  Panama City has an special geographic condition.  It only can grow in one direction.  To the east.  Why? Because on the west we have the canal, on the north we have the Metropolitan Park and some canal areas, on the south we have the Bay of Panama so the only direction for the city to grow is the east.   

All the big companies, the financial district, the government agencies, jobs in general are located in downtown Panama and the financial district.  The streets on those places are very narrow and with limited space for parking.  So moving in that area is very hard and difficult on weekdays.  

Bad public transportation. Public transportation is not good. Yet.  It was worst when people has to rely on the infamous "Diablos Rojos".  Old school buses discarded in the US for transporting kids used in Panama to transport people.  Some years ago the public transportation by buses was given in a concesion to a private company that did not meet the expectatives and there are still problems in mass transportation.  The government take back the concesion and will try to improve the service.

The Metro system.  Only Line 1 of the Metro was built and is working actually.  It covers only a section of the city.  So actually it is only a partial solution of the problem.  The Metro authorities are surprised to see that this project exceeded their projections.  They estimated a daily use of the system by 150,000 people.  The actual statistics shows that this Linea 1 is being used daily by more than 250,000 people.  

Because the bad and unreliable public transportation system people try to save money to at least buy an old used car.  That means that everyday the car or automobile number in Panama City increase with the same amount of roads making the traffic terrible at all hours.  You can drive fast in the city only from midnight to 4:00am.  On sundays and you could sit in the middle of any avenue on long weekends when city people travels to the interior of Panama.  In some middle class/professionals people you could see that each member of the family owns a car and everyday they use their own car to move to and from their jobs, schools, etc.

Some time ago the Transit authorities were looking for alternative to ease the extreme traffic conditions in the city on weekdays.  They tried to bring Panama the traffic measure used and implemented in Bogota, Colombia.  It is called "Peak & Plate"  or in spanish Pico y Placa.  That is a measure that in some days of the weeks at the peak hours cars with license plates odds numbers could not be on the streets and other days the cars with license plates with even numbers could not be on the streets.  As usual, some people rejected this idea and it was not implemented.  Looks like the authorities will be meeting again and explore this and other alternatives to limit the amount of cars on the streets at certain hours of the day.

 

Quality and Courtesy of Drivers.

In every city with traffic problems the levels of stress increase when people stay more than one hour stuck in a terrible traffic going to and from jobs and homes, or simply moving around.  It is not an excuse but people become impatient, their tolerance levels decrease, their aggressiveness increase and you find rude drivers on the street doing a lot of infractions and almost crashing your car.  In Panama City most women are so aggressive while driving in the middle of the traffic.  It is not a sexist comment but it is a real fact that I am other members of my family and friends have found.  

 

Solutions?

It is probable that we could have a partial solution at long term.  The bus public systems is in the hand of a government corporation and let see how their directors work to improve the system.  In 2018 the Linea 2 of the Metro system that goes to the east side of Panama City should be finished and start operations.  I dont know when the Linea 3 in Panama City and Linea 4 that will go from Albook Bus Terminal to Arraijan and probably Chorrera will be open to bid and start their construction.  Probably in ten years from now.  It will be a long time for the problem so I think authorities will implement another measures to limit the amount of cars in the streets on workdays.

[Keith Woolford]

Great synopsis, Roger. The Metro, as you mentioned, has been a terrific innovation as people are saving hours every day in transportation time.

I do feel that there's a glaring lack of common sense and knowledge of highway safety being exhibited by drivers. I just came from the area around Multiplaza and despite being in operation more than two years, many people still don't know what to do in a traffic circle or roundabout besides indignantly blowing their horn and cutting in front of others who have the right of way.

patience is a virtue