Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "Driving in the DF: Mad Max would be proud."
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2008 > February > 11 > Entry
Driving in the DF: Mad Max would be proud
I finally earned my Mexico City stripes last week: I drove the Federal District’s streets for the first time, and at rush hour no less. In the nearly two years Nancy and I have lived here we’ve simply never had the need to drive. Taxis, buses and the city’s usually-efficient subway system make navigating the city a virtual breeze. We don’t see much of a need to add yet another car to the city’s six million vehicles and its mind numbing traffic jams.
And as anyone who has visited the megalopolis can attest, driving here is not for the weak of heart. I’m from Boston, a city notorious for bad drivers (we would say “aggressive”) and I have never encountered anything like this. Mexico City drivers make New Yorkers look like little old ladies.
Drivers regularly clump into four lanes when there should only be three, think nothing of turning left from the right lane across multiple lanes of traffic and nose their front bumpers into the exhaust pipes of the guy in front of them. Anyone who can’t keep up is hounded into submission with constant horns and withering glares. Rotaries resemble a death cage match out of Beyond Thunderdome. The rules are simple: if you can get away with it, it’s OK.
So it was with a mixture of excitement and dread that I rented a car to drive to nearby Queretaro for a story there. We began the journey at 4 p.m., the beginning of Mexico City’s maniacal rush hour.
We took Reforma, Mexico City’s version of Congress Avenue, and lurched our way through near-gridlock. Once I got over the amazement that I was actually driving in this madhouse, I got to the business at hand: maneuvering past Mexico City’s peseros, city buses driven by raging lunatics who think nothing of bullying into your lane if they think they can save a couple seconds off their route.
All was going as well as could be until I arrived at our turn off for the Periferico, a traffic-choked loop that circles the city. Once on the Periferico we were presented with another challenge: getting gas. The diabolical fiends at the rental agency had given me a Jeep with less than a quarter tank and I began having nauseating visions of running out of gas as we idled in the full blown rush hour traffic. I had to exit onto the equally crowded access road to reach a Pemex, Mexico’s nationalized gas station chain.
Exiting, I came face to face with perhaps Mexico’s greatest road system perversion: the lack of merge lanes. To get off the highway I had to navigate the Jeep into oncoming traffic that had no intention of slowing, let alone stopping. Luckily, I remembered one of Mexico City’s driving maxims - might makes right - and simply barreled my way in front of a much smaller sedan. The driver appeared to let loose a stream of curses and I knew I had arrived.
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By Pochoton
February 11, 2008 1:22 PM | Link to this
It’s about the same between Mexico DF, Los Angeles & New York.
The only difference is, when you get lost, everyone in Mexico tries to help you get to your destination.
By Wayne
February 11, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this
After 14 countries and multi-100K vehicles myself, I think the very best drivers I’ve ever seen are the chauffeurs of the bullet-proofed limos running from the DF airport into the heart of the city. Those guys are literally breath-taking, and manage to seem nonchalant.
By Gail
February 12, 2008 5:07 PM | Link to this
On a trip to DF a few years back, I saw a report on the news that exposed the tragedy of 13 deaths in the previous year that had resulted from buses getting in accidents. I turned to my friend to make sure I had heard right and he was looking at me with an amazed expression. We were absolutely shocked that the number of deaths was so small considering the traffic insanity we had witnessed. The drivers in Mexico City are mad geniuses.
By Ron
February 13, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this
That’s DF for you. I have been here 6 years and you will find them do all sorts of insane things just as you mentioned. Put on your turn signal, and they will cut you off. There is no American courtesy here at all, only between other Americans. They also have no concept of a four way stop. Mexico City is also the only place where it seems those going into a traffic circle have right of way, while those already in it, do not.
By Joy
February 13, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this
It’s easy for me to say this, since I only drove up and down Insurgentes in the D.F., but I think NYC is way more difficult — because of all the bridges and tunnels and insane pedestrians in Midtown.