A survey released in August found that commuters in the Central Valley spent an average of 99 minutes daily fighting traffic between home and work or school.
President Luis Guillermo Solís is asking the legislature to let him hire more than 1,000 new traffic officers, among other measures the government is pursuing in hopes of alleviating traffic.
Residents and entrepreneurs from Costa Rica’s northern zone on Wednesday met with President Luis Guillermo Solís and asked him to move faster with the project to build a new road to San Carlos, a project they have been waiting for more than 40 years.
Legislators put Public Works and Transport Minister Carlos Segnini in the hot seat this week, forcing him to defend the government's slow progress on promised highway projects.
Officials from the Public Works and Transport Ministry hope the new solar-powered traffic lights will help prevent accidents and traffic jams in San José.
Advertising spaces along streets and at bus shelters around Costa Rica's capital have gone blank and will be removed. Some are illegal; others must be scrapped, city authorities say, because the contract governing them doesn't say who owns them now that the contract is up.
The gravel road currently has a large number of potholes and becomes very difficult to drive during the rainy season, affecting tourism, local business owners say.
