Ecuador: chaotic neutral. Drivers disobey any law they can get away with. Pedestrians search for tiny gaps in traffic to squeeze through. Mix in motorbikes going 20 under the limit but not slowing down in traffic, buses and trucks that randomly stop or change lanes, lanes ending suddenly with a couple of cones to serve warning at best, bus drivers that drive like they're driving cars... No one is trying to make it harder for anyone else, but no one is trying to make life any easier.
Roads: Crazy. Autopista does not mean freeway. It means there might be a couple of interchanges, a lot of RIROs, assorted driveways, occasional undivided sections, traffic lights, bus stops that come out of nowhere (btw the bus does not stop as you get on or off), local access... There are usually multiple lanes but the number seems to vary on a whim.
E28A (or was it C) has a truss bridge. It's a 6 lane urban boulevard and major airport access that suddenly narrows to 2 lanes, winds down a hill, over the bridge, and back up. There's a modern bypass just to the south, but unnumbered. Of course.
Major routes have Interstate shields but they say ECUADOR on top and the numerals are supposed to be yellow, as per the flag. Sometimes they're white. Minor national and provincial routes have Interstate shields but green instead of blue. Numbers can duplicate between systems.
Any questions?
Sounds like my travels in Tijuana. Or the Dominican Republic.
I forget if I ever posted the pics, but the Dominican Republic has some awesome traffic light setups. The walking sign is actually a graphic of a guy walking. And the lights have timers on them, so you know how long you have to wait, or how much time you still have before the the light turns yellow.
That said, the stuff breaks all the time. I went down two years in a row, and some of those features weren't working the second time.
And the drivers...yeah, most laws are suggestions. If you think your American city has it bad, take a ride to the DR. Insane.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on July 07, 2019, 10:00:39 AM
Sounds like my travels in Tijuana. Or the Dominican Republic.
I forget if I ever posted the pics, but the Dominican Republic has some awesome traffic light setups. The walking sign is actually a graphic of a guy walking. And the lights have timers on them, so you know how long you have to wait, or how much time you still have before the the light turns yellow.
That said, the stuff breaks all the time. I went down two years in a row, and some of those features weren't working the second time.
And the drivers...yeah, most laws are suggestions. If you think your American city has it bad, take a ride to the DR. Insane.
Argentina had more of the signal timers (Ecuador has some). Quito has the animated walking (or in one case running) man.
Quote from: Alps on July 06, 2019, 11:10:11 PMAny questions?
Autopista probably means toll road?
As I understand Ecuador improved its road quality significantly since 2000 by awarding toll concessions (as is the case in much of South America).
This map shows the road quality in 2001 and 2011
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FKow5Z.jpg&hash=7562cf15b6f60d7b2f4f7d1d4a97b32499f8ea29)
Road quality was by and large top notch by South American standards - generally paved if it went anywhere, only unpaved if it was local or ending without a through connection. Better than Argentina! It was hard to tell if these terms mean anything in general, because peajes in every country are placed seemingly randomly. Some of them looked quite easy to bypass, in fact.
Quote from: Chris on July 07, 2019, 03:43:41 PM
Autopista probably means toll road?
It means that in Mexican Spanish, at least.