By Ivo Henfling 

Costa Rica speeding fines are becoming a major topic in all newspapers and on Costa Rica online forums. The Costarican Ministry of Transport is installing cameras on the roads that register the most accidents and Costarican legislation changes the traffic fines from ridiculously low amounts into serious fines that are higher than you will find in many 1st world countries. The cameras have reduced 90% of the abuse of crossing the speed limit. Eeven though people are talking badly about the installation of these cameras, opposed to some others, I don´t think Costa Rica real estate will be affected by this. In fact, most who will realize that this is done to make the roads safer, will agree with me. For those who complain tourists will get a speeding ticket I can assure that most other countries in the world also have traffic laws and speding tickets. These expensive tickets make Costa Rica living much safer though.

Complaining about your ticket

People are complaining about fines you only receive when you are exceeding the legal speed limits.  Don’t speed you don’t get a ticket, don’t steal and you don’t go to jail, that’s how I see it. The bad habit of doing what you feel like on the Costa Rican roads are over and the Costa Rican government is finally doing something about speeding that provokes the highest percentages of death in the country.

Where is the limit of a traffic fine that will stop you from doing it again? Is it $10 or $25 or $50 or $100 or $300 or $500? I guess it depends on how much money you make. Speeding on a US highway for example is very easy. You have these 6 lane roads with hardly any traffic on it, so what stops you from going faster than 80 - 110 miles on these roads? Yes, the fines. And those are not $20 fines either. But even with the high fines, most Costaricans and others are still happy people it seems. Others buy a radar detector as seen below for only $30.

Costa Rica democracy

Even though the fines are again blocked by Sala IV, the court that was created to stop any further development of the country, they were to my opinion very high too. The  $616 fine for 20 km more that the permitted speed is definitely a lot of money. I paid $520 some months ago for speeding o the highway to Atenas and I will not do it again, I can assure you that. The fine for going faster than 120km per hour, a reckless speed on any Costarican road, is $822. Some have been caught so many times by the cameras that they have run up thousands of dollars in fines.
 

Bank loans to pay your traffic tickets

Costarican banks have now started to create loans to pay the fines. To my opinions banks are crooks and especially Costarican banks have no idea about customer service and they think we work for them, instead of the other way around. But that’s another story for a different blog.
 

Deaths on the Costa Rican roads

These fines were created with the idea of stopping the killing on Costa Rican roads. In other countries cameras were installed as long as 30 years ago and you just get your fine mailed home. On the first day of having the cameras installed, there were 2,616 drivers fined and now, one month later 250 drivers are fined. That is still an amazing amount but most of it is because the speed limits are very strange at some places. They go as low as 30 km per hour which is like standing still and dangerous too. They’re working on it because nothing is perfect to begin with. Of the 234 deaths on the road in the first 9 months of this year, 61 died in accidents related to speeding.  
 

Discipline in an undisciplined country

To my opinion it is all about discipline and cooperating with the development of society. The population is growing tremendously and if you don’t make rules, you have disaster. Most Costarican road were built in the 60ies and 70ies and speeding is outright dangerous and irresponsible in most places but many drivers don’t realize this. One day, the locals will accept the change in the rules and it will make the Costa Rican roads safer and Costa Rica a safer place to retire to.

Does the government need to adjust the fines so they are affordable for all the drivers who don’t make more that $500 - $1,000 so they keep killing themselves and others? What do you think? Do you agree with the installation of the cameras? Feel free to comment yourself on this issue below.

By Ivo Henfling, your Costa Rica realtor of GoDutch Realty who sells homes in Costa Rica and Costa Rica real estate in general but also writes blogs about the good and the bad that happens in Costa Rica and loves to have you comment on these below.