Driving in Mexico

Highways, routes and road hazards

If you have only a limited time for travel or are in a hurry to arrive at your destination, taking advantage of the Mexican toll roads (Carreteras de Cuota) are the way to go. They are well maintained, wide and often divided highways that can cut miles and hours off your trip. Some of the tolls are among the most expensive in the world but often the savings in time and maintenance costs are well worth the price.

Look up tolls and distances for Mexican highways

If you have the desire to wander, the smaller highways will take you to many interesting and varied destinations, including smaller towns and villages, archaeological sites and wonderlands that have yet to be overrun by the masses. Be aware that many of the roads and highways – even major ones – are without shoulders and therefore provide very little maneouvering space should it be needed. Drive cautiously.

Plan your trip in advance, arm yourself with good maps, ask for information from tourist agencies and organizations from the places you wish to visit. Drive the highways only during daylight hours.

Be sure your vehicle is in good condition: Check tire pressure, alignment and balance, steering, brakes, hoses exhaust, lights and fluids. Don’t forget your spare, jack and lug wrench, fire extinguisher, first aid kit and a flashlight.

As anywhere in the world, follow sensible driving safety practices:

• Play it safe and use your seat belt (seat belt laws are now in effect in many Mexican communities, although by no means all of them)
• Do not speed
• Do not drive tired – If the trip is long, rest or get out and stretch every 2 or 3 hours
• Do not drink and drive
• Watch out for road hazards, any of which may be as foreign to you as the rest of the country (scroll down)

In case of an accident

If your car is still on the road, blocking or slowing traffic, place signals ahead and behind to warn other drivers. If you don’t have a cell phone for communication, flag down other drivers and have someone notify the police and wait for them.

The equivalent to “911” in Mexico for emergencies is “066”. This is the number that should be dialed if you have an emergency or need help,  24 hours a day.

If medical help is needed, do not move the injured unless they are in danger from traffic, fire or blood loss.

If you are not injured do not leave your vehicle, wait for the police and ask them to help you to gain the release of your vehicle from the accident site. If you are involved in a multi-vehicle accident, do not make deals with the other drivers, wait for the assessment of the police.

Documentation to keep in your control

• Your car visa and the hologram on your windshield.
• Your personal visa
• Your drivers license

Road Hazards

Wherever you decide to drive in Mexico here are some of the hazards to be aware of.

Speed bumps or ‘sleeping policemen” are called Topes (toe-pehs) in Mexico. These destroyers of tires, shocks, and suspension are often unannounced and unpainted, although usually they are marked with signs (such as this one at left), lights or painted stripes on the road. Keep a close look out for them at intersections, in towns, even occasionally on major highways. They come in a variety of configurations: some are smooth, rounded humps, others are series of car-rattling vibrators, yet others are bone-jarringly high and abrupt.

Army and police checkpoints are common but usually well marked with highway cones and signs. The guards may want to check your papers (passport and tourist card or immigration paper) and look through your vehicle for guns and /or drugs. The checks are not often thorough or very time consuming and we have never had our persons searched. Most of the soldiers we’ve met on trips have been friendly, often with family who live in the US or the desire to travel there themselves. If asked to pull over, all passengers are expected to exit the vehicle to allow inspection.

Livestock is a common sight both on and off the roads even on superhighways, so don’t get complacent. Keep an eye open for herds of cattle, goats and pigs and be especially wary of narrow roads with little or no shoulder and closely growing vegetation that can conceal the animals. We see many horses and burros with carts or riders all over the more rural areas. We are also seeing more and more tethered animals instead of loose ones on the northern Mexico roads, but the country is still a long way from effectively implementing tethering and fencing laws to keep livestock safe from vehicles, and vice versa.

Beyond the livestock problem, one should also be cautious, particularly at night, with wild animal crossings. We have variously come across deer, sizable iguanas, armadillos, raccoons, coatimundis, opossums, badgers, skunks, thick boas and very large tarantulas crossing the roads both day and night – and whereas most of the wild animals aren’t large enough to cause damage to a rapidly moving vehicle, we’d like to think that drivers in Mexico would rather avoid killing these animals needlessly by proceeding with caution rather than contributing to their demise through lack of care.

Farm or road maintenance machinery is often seen moving slowly down the highways or repairing them. Road repairs in Mexico can appear without warning, blocking a lane or entire road. Backhoes, plows, and unusually wide loads are often encountered with no warnings or pilot vehicles in accompaniment.

Public transport: Watch out for little vans and buses with ‘paradas continuas’ (frequent stops) written on the back, they will stop unexpectedly to pick up and discharge passengers, and often have no tail or brake lights.

Potholes and bad road conditions: Some roads are worse than others, many states now have a billboards posted at the state line showing road conditions.

Bad weather: Watch for fog and sometimes ice in the mountains (even in summertime) and slow down in the rain, especially at the beginning of the wet season, as roads can become slick with a water and oil mix with the accummulation of oil after the long dry season.

Expect the unexpected, we found a wedding party blocking the road on a recent trip. The line of people was a couple of hundred meters long.

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