The bill for Electric Transportation was approved by the congressmen at the Asamblea Legislativa on Thursday afternoon. This new regulation benefits those who want to import or sell cars that operate 100% on electricity by establishing several tax exemptions, cars with a cost of under US$30,000.00 will benefit form 100% exemption, while vehicles with a higher cost will also have their tax rate...

Photo Credit: Accidentes de Costa Rica A tragic car accident that took place at 5:54 a.m. this Tuesday, December 12 in the area of Route 34 close to the bridge in the area of Portalon de Savegre, Quepos, Puntarenas, caused the death of three people. The crash involved a sedan and a 4x4, although the causes of the accident are not confirmed, apparently one of the drivers lost control of his v...

The bill 19,744 of Electric Transportation was approved in first debate by Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly (Congress) after two years of being in discussion. The purpose of this bill is promoting the use of electric vehicles by making them more affordable, while also helping the environment and help the country reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2022, as these vehicles produce zero ...

Costa Rican congressman part of the National Liberation Party for the province of Guanacaste, Juan Marin, passed away this Thursday after his car crashed against a protection wall in the Rio Segundo, Alajuela tollbooth (General Cañas highway). The congressman was driving his Hyundai Tucson 2013 when the accident occurred, for reasons still unknown, at around 2:51 a.m., according to the hour reg...

This Satuday, November 11 at around 2:30 p.m. an incredible car accident took place in Route 27, more precisely in the area close to Construplaza in Guachipelin; another car (not involved in the accident) captured the exact moment when the accident took place (Date and Hour Showing in the Video Are Incorrect, the accident occurred November 11, 2017 at around 2:30 p.m.) . The video shows the mom...

Banks and credit unions in Costa Rica started receiving payments of the annual end-of-the-year vehicle registration fee, called the marchamo, on November 1. Vehicle owners have until December 31 to pay the 2018 marchamo fee to the National Insurance Institute. This year, banks have diversified their offers to attract customers to pay at their site. Some 1.4 million vehicles in Costa Rica wil...

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE) will be auctioning a total of 267 used vehicles, among these: cars, motorcycles, and four-wheelers. In order to participate, those interested can go to the ICE in Rincón Grande de Pavas, between November 8 and November 17 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to take a look at the vehicles, each of which will have a complete description. A deposit must be made f...

If you usually take the beltway (circunvalación) specifically the area that connects La Uruca with Los Anonos, take into consideration that it will have regulated traffic as of this Tuesday, November 5 . The National Roadways Council (Conavi) will be working on this 2.9 kilometers of road starting at 10 p.m. on Tuesday and will carry on 24 hours a day until concluded which means there will be r...

It is time to pay the marchamo again and if your car is not up to date with Riteve, the annual vehicle inspection, you won’t be able to get your marchamo, you still have time to get the inspection done of course, but take into consideration that as of November 10 prices will be adjusted. The Public Services Regulatory Agency (ARESEP) approved an adjustment of 35% in Riteve, after more than 12...

The Costa Rican Public Services Regulatory Authority (Aresep) this week imposed the first sanction on an Uber driver for illegally providing transportation services. The penalty amounts to ¢2,017,000 (about US$3,500). Both the car owner and the driver are responsible for what is deemed the illegal provision of transportation, because, said the regulatory agency, Uber is not just a technology...

Four foreigners had the scare of their lives when they crashed into a bus and overturned this Wednesday evening near the Backyard in Hermosa Beach, Puntarenas. Firefighters had to use special equipment to free two of the expats who were trapped inside the car. Fortunately, only one of them, a woman, had to be transferred to the local clinic for further medical evaluation. The causes of the a...

Monday at the Jacó Walk shopping center, the first recharging center for electric vehicles was inaugurated in Costa Rica's Pacific region. Jacó Beach, a town about an hour and a half from San José the Central Pacific coast, is expected to receive increased development in the next few years. The town is now out and ahead of the pack on green energy with this joint program of the Costa Rican and ...

Good news for people with handicap license plates in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), through its Directorate General of Traffic Engineering (DGIT), is now granting permits to people with disabilities so they can use their vehicle any day of the week in the downtown San José sector which has restricted access. The Costa Rican National Council of the ...

A car accident registered at 4:18 a.m. this Sunday in the area of Las Juntas in Abangares, Guanacaste, claimed the lives of six people. According to preliminary information there were 7 passengers in a pick-up car with capacity for 5 people. The car crashed into a tree for reasons currently under investigation. Five of the victims died at the scene as a result of the crash, a sixth one died ...

It’s that time of the year again when the Costa Rican government starts charging for the 2018 marchamo for the more than 1.4 million cars registered in the country; the collection of this tax begins November 1st. The marchamo is basically the vehicle’s circulation permit, similar to the registration payment in the United States; this tax must be paid by December 31st for the 2018 period, otherw...

A recent ranking of road infrastructure in Latin America lists Costa Rica as second to last, followed by Paraguay and Haiti who are tied for last place with similarly dismal rankings.   The information came to light in the most recent 2017-2018 competitiveness report issued by the World Economic Forum and focused on the quality of roads. The ranking is based partially on the percepti...

The San José Half Marathon that took place this Sunday morning was struck by tragedy as one of the participants was ran over and killed by a reckless driver that disregarded the safety measures. The 35-year-old runner identified as David Yañez Pacheco from Venezuela, was ran over near the Zapote church close to 6:15 a.m., the organization of the event posted the information on their Facebook pa...

A Costa Rican man traveling to Sixaola, a town on the southern Caribbean coast, aided a sloth who was attempting to cross the main drag into town. "We were arriving in Sixaola ... and saw a sloth was crossing the street. A Dos Pinos delivery truck was headed right towards it, so I jumped out of the car, and helped it across the street, and then the critter posed for the photo," said Yeraldo Agüer...

Emergency medical technicians from the Costa Rican Red Cross in Jacó on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast treated four patients at neighboring Playa Herradura who were injured in an unusual accident this afternoon. The four U.S. citizens who were visiting the upscale Marriott Los Sueños resort and marina, were injured when the golf cart they were traveling in tipped over on one of the roads in...

Feature Image Photo Credit: Accidentes de Costa Rica / Facebook The afternoon of this Saturday, October 14 a multiple collision between three vehicles and a truck on Route 27 (San José-Caldera) caused a car to catch fire while the driver, a 54-year-old woman was not able to escape the burning vehicle. The accident took place close to 1 p.m. and occurred between Atenas and Orotina, in the roa...

Uber Costa Rica announced that Wednesday, October 11, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. drivers will deliver free-of-charge donations of items that will be distributed to those affected by Nate in various parts of Costa Rica. Here's how it works: Gather up your items to be donated. Check they are all in good condition, and that food items are non-perishable and within their expiration date. Then packag...

A stretch of highway north of the turnoff for Puntarenas along Costa Rica's Northern Inter-American Highway will be completely closed to traffic from 9 a.m. and until 12 noon Monday, October 9, said transportation officials. The closure at the Seco River is necessary to make repairs to the bridge over this river along this highway linking Central America which suffered damages from Tropical Sto...

Yesterday the report by the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation in Costa Rica (MOPT) showed 18 roads closed while 13 others had regulated transit after damages caused by Tropical Storm Nate. Landslides, damaged bridges, fallen trees or collapsed sewerage systems were the main problems reported. The MOPT has been working since Tuesday evening in reestablishing the transit through the diff...

Photo Credit: Interamericana Sur /Jessica Webb Castillo As The Costa Rica Star has reported, many communities in Costa Rica have been affected by Tropical Storm Nate, with the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas reporting the largest number of incidents. In Miramar, Puntarenas, according to a report by daily paper La Nación, the Aranjuez River devastated the town of Bajo Caliente, where t...

Traffic police and municipal governments in 16 of Costa Rica's counties are joining forces to bolster monitoring at specific areas with high car accident rates, such as Jaco beach said the Ministry of Public Works and Transport this week. The effort comes as the calendar approaches the end of the year, a time when car accidents historically spike in Costa Rica. "We want to focus on areas that ...

Costa Rica's 300-odd electric vehicle (EV) drivers have some welcome news with new charging stations coming to rural areas. Two stations to join the grid will be located in the mountains south of San José along the Interamerican Highway: one in San Marcos de Tarrazú and the other in the vicinity of the Los Santos Wind Farm. The recharge points are being built by the National Consortium of El...

Electrification of the transportation sector is a crucial component of tackling global climate change. This is the topic of the Third Annual Latin America Clean Transport Forum in San José, Costa Rica organized by the Washington, DC think-tank The Inter American Dialogue. The event will be held Wednesday, Sept. 20 with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the keynote address starting at 9 a...

Heavy downpours this past Saturday, September 16 created flooding and mudslides on several parts of Costa Rica's Highway 27, a toll road linking the capital city of San Jose with popular points in the Central Pacific region including Los Suenos, Jacó, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, and areas on the southern Nicoya Peninsula such as Tambor beach. A cascade of water dumping water and mud onto the hig...

"Life is too short to be sitting in traffic jams," is the slogan of Costa Rica's Car-Free Day event which is part of World Car Free Day celebrated every September 22 in a growing number of cities and countries throughout the world. Costa Rican event organizers encourage those who will participate by leaving their car in the garage for the day on Friday to use the hashtag #RetoSinCarro, which me...

The 64-kilometer stretch linking San José with the Atlantic-region town of Guápiles is considered the most dangerous in Costa Rica, according to experts who participated in the 2017 Geotechnics Seminar held in San José. This year's event focused on mountain routes, and was sponsored by the Costa Rican Geotechnical Association (ACG) a non-governmental organization belonging to the Costa Rica Civ...

Private business sector leaders criticized the Costa Rican government for interfering with individuals' and businesses' right to chose the transportation service they wish to use as police continue to crack down on Uber drivers. Alonso Elizondo, executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, is critical of a recent warning by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) to ...

Starting September 1, stricter regulations on the amount of sulfur allowed in gasoline will go into effect, according to the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Minae) along with the Costa Rican Oil Refinery (Recope). This and other measures announced last week at a press conference are aimed at improving air quality through the use of cleaner fuels. The changes will bring about a slight increa...

The traffic police (Transito) and the municipality cops had made the warning several weeks back that with the changes in the transit law they had the authority to write tickets and take down the plates of any vehicle that is partially or totally blocking the road, or parked in restricted zones, whether the driver is present or not; this applies even in residential areas in the event a report is fi...

Those eligible to get a foreign driver's license validated in Costa Rica can do so at any of the COSEVI's 13 regional offices, said the Ministry of Transportation and Public works in a press release. Regional offices of the Road Safety and Education Council (COSEVI) are taking such applications on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 7 - 11 a.m. A list of the regional offices and phone numbers can be f...

Jean Todt, acting in his capacity as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, met with stakeholders in Costa Rica to promote United Nations road safety legal instruments and share established road safety best practices, said the Costa Rican Ministry of Health. Todt is president of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA, an association found...

Costa Rica is among the Latin America countries seeking new sources of suppliers for cars, and other items such as apparel, said the Canadian Manufacturing trade magazine. A recent study by UPS on import activities by businesses in Latin America have opened a window on new opportunities for exporting countries. Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru were found to have the highest percentage of impor...

Costa Rica's red taxis have more than competing transportation services to worry about these days. All official taxis under new regulations were supposed to have new "talking" taxi meters up and running by July 1, said the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT). According to the Public Transportation Council, only 8 percent of official taxis have the correct type of meter, but th...

The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) announced the third phase of its solar conversion project, whose ultimate goal is to have all traffic lights running on solar power in the year 2022, said the institution in a press statement yesterday. This year, an additional 76 stop lights will have photovoltaic systems. The project has received US$1 million in funding from the Co...

The President of the Republic, Luis Guillermo Solis, and now-resigned Minister of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), Carlos Villalta, together with the Executive Director of the National Roadways Council (CONAVI), German Valverde, last week carried out an inspection of National Route N606, the road linking the Inter-American Highway with Monteverde. The windy, bumpy 17.5 kilometer stretch is at...

A decision this afternoon relating to Uber, Wednesday, June 14, by the Public Transport Council (CTP, its initials in Spanish) and the Public Services Regulatory Authority (Aresep, its initials in Spanish) has taxi drivers planning protests yet again. The authorities said they, "Have no legal competence to block the operation of private transportation ... in the country and that, therefore, the...