Stop signs and traffic lights are optional in Panama-Boland

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3/15/14, "Thoughts and traffic patterns from Panama," Newsday, Erik Boland

"The traffic?

Envision the Cross Bronx Expressway with a lane closed due to an accident. At rush hour. During heavy snow.

Rod Carew Stadium is about 5.6 miles from the hotel most media members are staying in. A trip via taxi Friday afternoon from there to the stadium took 40 minutes. The return trip took an hour-twenty. There were no accidents and certainly no snow.

For tonight's game, a Saturday, the estimated time for those leaving after 3 p.m. was 60-90 minutes.

The taxi drivers themselves are cautiously aggressive, mostly the latter, which you learn is a necessity in the constant road clog. Passivity doesn’t pay as stop signs are optional as, it seems, are many traffic lights. The rare moment a half-car-length gap opens, if your car doesn’t go for it, one or two others will.

This is for certain: I won’t be complaining about New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston traffic ever again.

Or, at least in the near future."

Newsday baseball reporter Erik Boland is in Panama to cover Marlins-Yankees exhibition games.

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Comment: I've heard the same or worse about Puerto Rico, cars go racing through stop lights at full speed.


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