Tijuana driving schools teach basic road survival
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060709-9...
By Anna Cearley
July 9, 2006
TIJUANA ? Pedro Felix Escalante shook his head as he pointed out the traffic violations taking place in front of his driving school during the span of
three minutes.
Cars rushed through the downtown Tijuana intersection, ignoring clearly posted stop signs, while a water truck rumbled to a stop, double-parking in
the middle of the street.
A woman talking on a cell phone went the wrong way down a one-way street. She made a quick U-turn while still chatting nonchalantly on the phone.
?Look at this ? just look at this!? Felix said, rolling his eyes.
About a dozen driving schools exist in this city of 1.3 million, but they are waging a losing battle.
No one is required to take the courses, and a license is relatively easy to obtain here. As a result, most driving schools have all but given up on
instilling the importance of proper driving techniques and following the laws.
They have become, in effect, survival courses.
Felix dutifully gives his students copies of traffic laws and signs, but the school focuses more on teaching aggressive driving techniques and quick
reflexes.
?We ask them to respect the laws, but if they don't do it afterward, it's not our problem,? said Felix, who runs the Escuela de Manejo JD.
So how did things get to this point?
Some pin the blame on exploding population growth, poor street infrastructure, and lurching old cars that disturb the traffic flow.
The city has 458,000 registered cars, but driving instructors say the actual number of vehicles is much higher because many autos aren't accounted for
or are registered in the United States.
Others see roadside manners ? or lack of them ? as a reflection of Mexican institutions, where laws and codes exist but aren't always enforced.
Instead, order is maintained, and problems solved, on a more personal level or through cues.
?There is a code that is, perhaps, of improvisation . . . people are able to react quickly at the last minute,? said Guillermo Alonso Meneses, an
expert in cultural studies at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a think tank near Tijuana.
Drivers acknowledge each other through eye contact and verbal exchanges more effective than traffic signs. The practice of ?fixing? a traffic ticket
with a cooperative police officer is common practice.
?People know there is a way of arranging things that can't be done in the United States, and many people are emboldened to run a red light,? Alonso
said.
Some Tijuana drivers say that when they cross into the United States they drive differently ? more cautiously.
Felix, a gruff and somewhat cynical man, said Tijuana is a hodgepodge of border driving styles. Some U.S. tourists, perhaps fearing for their lives,
?drive like they are part of a funeral procession,? he said.
And Mexican-Americans, back in their homeland, seem to go to the other extreme.
?Up north, they obey the laws closely, but here they disobey all the laws,? he said.
Felix also throws blame for the city's traffic woes at people who have moved to Tijuana from Mexico City, where he alleges the people drive even worse
? on the sidewalks, even.
?Ever since the (1985) earthquake, and all these people from Mexico City came up here, it's become very bad,? he said.
Driving schools here seem to be a preferred option for certain worried parents. Many of the students are teenagers, but the majority ? anywhere from
60 percent to 75 percent, according to several traffic schools ? are women who used to rely on their husbands or boyfriends to drive them places.
Widows in their 80s have come to the schools, determined to finally learn how to drive.
Students of both genders say that entering and exiting one of the city's many traffic circles is one of their toughest challenges. Most driving
schools won't even train students to drive on the city's main thoroughfare ? the Via Rapida ? because it is considered too dangerous.
There was a time when the city seemed headed down a more orderly path. Rafael Fregoso Hernandez, who is said to have started the city's first driving
school in 1970, made it his mission to educate people on the rules of the road.
Fregoso, a career schoolteacher, hosted a public service program on television then, mixing live music with safe-driving tips. He started a magazine
with articles on traffic laws, which he distributed at medical clinics.
His driving school, Escuela de Manejo Pacifico, offered 10 hours of auto experience and two hours of classroom learning, some of it based on the
California Department of Motor Vehicles' study programs. He tried unsuccessfully to get the state of Baja California to create standards for driving
schools.
Fregoso, who remembers a time when people stopped at stop signs, said that over time Tijuana literally was overrun by people from out of town who did
not know how to drive.
?Instead of teaching them, their style became our style,? he said.
Yet Fregoso persisted in a quixotic manner. At the end of his classes, he gave his students an exam that he claimed was harder than the one required
by the state to get a driver's license, which consists of a multiple-choice exam of about 10 questions and a brief test spin in a car.
Fregoso, who taught a few students who already were licensed drivers, says the state's standards should be higher.
But the city's residents didn't have the patience to learn about how the weather can affect driving and how they should regularly check the position
of their rear-view mirrors. Other schools that offered to teach students how to drive in five hours over a week won favor.
Felix's classes, which take the shorter approach, focus almost exclusively on taking students to the roads, to learn from experience. Potholes abound,
and strange dips and exaggerated speed bumps ? often minimally marked ? can challenge an auto with the best suspension. Buses and taxis make constant
stops at the side of the main roads, forcing cars to maneuver around them, and traffic lights are viewed more as suggestions than directives.
City police acknowledge things have gotten out of control, but say they are outmanned and can't stand guard at every intersection. Between 250 and 500
people are cited a day here, though that doesn't seem to deter drivers. Last month, police handed out fliers encouraging drivers to follow the laws ?
to no notable improvement.
Felix, despite his grumblings, admits he is used to the way things are in Tijuana and sort of likes the unpredictability of life on the road.
?Here we have more liberty in Mexico, and things manage to work out,? he said.
Fregoso, 64, views freedom differently.
?If there is no education and application of the law, then there is disorder,? he said.
Last year, Fregoso presented to city officials a traffic education program for schoolchildren called ?Un Nuevo Camino,? or ?A New Road,? but he said
he hasn't heard back from anyone. As other traffic schools have taken the more popular ?learn how to drive in a week? approach, Fregoso no longer runs
his school on a full-time basis, though he continues to dream of a world where traffic laws are followed.
Inside his mostly empty office, he creates cheerful driving education DVDs ? in case there is a demand someday ? depicting a universe where cars stop
at stop signs.
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