What's with the Trafficos all of a sudden?

Mexico will not crack down on "too many people in a car", "People in the back of pick-up trucks", or "5 people on a scooter" anytime soon. It would cause serious hardship to a great number of people and probably have a negative affect on their economy.

Sightem of the days: A whole pickup truck bed filled with cops, standing up.
Nary a seat belt in sight.

I don't see gringos being especially targeted. Just a lot of us driving around here.

And, in case anyone hasn't noticed, the general safety policy in Mexico is:
"Watch your own ass." You fall in a hole.........you shoulda been looking. Nobody to sue. Something to be said for that.

Jajaja.....I forgot about the Policia needing to ride around in the back too.

Just for the record......I was riding in the back of a pick-up truck while drinking cervezas a few weeks ago in PV. We passed a lot of transitos who couldn't care less. It reminded me of my youth in Canada before the seatbelt laws were passed.

VIVA MEXICO!!!!!!!!!!

We used to ride on running boards regularly; also on tractors, wagons, buggies and two or three kids on a horse. We all lived.

I see many kids not using seatbelts. I also see many Mexicans with scars on their foreheads from accidents when they were young, it is as common a sight as the vaccination scar on their arm.

No more laws please, lets learn to enforce the ones on the books and let natural selection take its course.

Amen brother..........

CanuckBob wrote:Mexico will not crack down on "too many people in a car", "People in the back of pick-up trucks", or "5 people on a scooter" anytime soon. It would cause serious hardship to a great number of people and probably have a negative affect on their economy.

Last year 12 avocado pickers were killed in a pickup crash that was carrying them to work on a ranch over by Uruapan. These pickup pools carrying workers or families to where ever is the only transportation they can afford or a way of saving money for other things.
It's a choice, they can live or die by, so let it be.

My point exactly.

I counted 27 people,mostly women and children piled into a late model pickup tooling down Lazaro Cardenas in Guadalajara awhile back.
The kids who were put at risk didn't have much say in the matter.
There's a reason for having traffic laws and enforcing them,the DUI checkpoints in Guadalajara seem to be producing good results.
Like they say,hace falta cultura vial.

Gamina wrote:Insist on the ticket as it's MUCH cheaper than the mordida and you can pay at OXXO.  If they refuse just say, "Folio o ya me voy".

Is that how you say traffic ticket -- "folio"? I've been wanting to practice saying "Give me the ticket" until it is engrained as a deep down reflex but couldn't get the lingo right. I know for sure it isn't "boleto". Google translate says that "traffic ticket" is "multa de tránsito" but they often don't have the right idiom for our corner of the Spanish-speaking world.

holdrja wrote:

Gamina wrote:Insist on the ticket as it's MUCH cheaper than the mordida and you can pay at OXXO.  If they refuse just say, "Folio o ya me voy".

Is that how you say traffic ticket -- "folio"?  I've been wanting to practice saying "Give me the ticket"  

Folio is correct,just say (dame el folio por favor).

Agree.....
Multa would be the fine you pay, legally at the recaudadora, mordida if you pay the Transito.

The potential problem you have not paying off the cop is there is no dickering when you pay and the cop may be irritated enough to up the offense so you will pay more with no practical recourse.

If you pay mordida, you are part of the problem and just reinforcing corruption. Please don‘t do it. The ticket is much cheaper anyway and half price if paid within 5 days. Just keep asking for the ticket (escribe el folio, dame el folio, etc.) and generally the transito will give up and leave.

RVGRINGO wrote:If you pay mordida, you are part of the problem and just reinforcing corruption. Please don‘t do it.  The ticket is much cheaper anyway and half price if paid within 5 days.  Just keep asking for the ticket (escribe el folio, dame el folio, etc.) and generally the transito will give up and leave.

Amen.  Encouraging bad behavior by rewarding it just reinforces it. However, if you're way out of town, it might be another story.

If you are in another state, don‘t worry about it. If in your own state, it can be paid at the recaudadora office anywhere; even after you get home. In either case, you can usually pay at the nearest OXXO, etc.

gringal wrote:  However, if you're way out of town, it might be another story.

Yep,that does add another dimension to things.

Gamina wrote:Insist on the ticket as it's MUCH cheaper than the mordida and you can pay at OXXO. If they refuse just say, "Folio o ya me voy".

Too true Gamina. Shame on anyone who pays mordida. Not availing yourselves of rule of laws leaves you no recourse for complaint and only feeds the beast. The right solution is the easiest, doing exactly as Gamina suggests. If you do pay mordida, don't come moaning to us about unfair treatment at the hands of the ugly monster you help to create.

If they give you the ticket, then chances are you really did break a traffic law so belly up.

If they actually are corrupt and balk at giving the ticket or threaten to impound (I believe that is no longer legal but I could be wrong) then try delay tactics. Try becoming very talkative and inquisitive (and always very very polite), even if you are rattling away in English (who cares if they understand). Your objective is to slow things down to a snails pace. Tell them things like you were told to call your lawyer first if this ever happened so that you could find out what to do, then call one, or call a friend to come and be a witness, or at least make the motions to make a call, this is sometimes enough to send them on their way.
Alternatively, you have the right and it may help to asf for their name and badge number and to take a photo of them and their truck with plates. As a last resort, a car cam also does wonders, especially if you tell them to smile into the camera, that they are on a live feed with sound to YouTube through your car phones wifi system.

Essentially, any delays for a corrupt cop means they lose money (time is money) so they often will wave you on so they can go after the next putz (they will be angry but who cares about those turds feelings).

I have used delay tactics successfully successfully for many years, changing the tactic to suit the occasion. For example, when pulled over in GDL for speeding on a street I was no where near. I took my time getting out of the car and searching my grocery bags in the back for a receipt with the time stamp showing where I was at the time they said I was speeding. Needless to say I made a great show of having a lot of trouble finding the receipt. All the while I was asking them a million questions and explaining why their charge was impossible (all with a friendly voice and a smile). They became quite exasperated with me after I asked for their names and badges and asked did they mind very much if I took their picture. Instead, they simply got on their bikes and left. 2 seconds later they had pulled over another car.

I just saw on MSNBC, a photo of about 20 police/corrections officers in the back of a pickup truck in New York State, up by the area where they are looking for the escaped convicts.
I think they were new recruits that had been sent to a police academy in Mexico for training.