By Bob Askew for Panama-Guide.com - You have 90 days to get a Panama driver's license from the date of entry into Panama. Steps for getting initial Panamanian driver's license if you have an valid US state driver's license (under 70 years of age**). Step 1. Authentication/Certification of State DL by US Consulate in Clayton: A. Take your US state DL to the American Consulate in Clayton. Bring your passport and pensionado card (cedula, work carnet, etc., if applicable) during the entire process. You may need to park outside the embassy compound (I’m not sure of the latest policy). B. Go to the cashier at the consulate and ask for a DL certification form. C. Fill the application but DON'T SIGN it at this time. D. Take the application to the cashier and pay $30.00. E. Take a seat until your name is called. F. When they call your name, go to the assigned window and sign the form in front of the consul. G.You will be given a photocopy sheet of your driver's license with all the required stamps and signatures. You will need to take this form with you to the Panama Foreign Ministry office (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) as well as to the SERTRACEN (the contractor who runs the driver’s licensing operation) driver's license office. (Map to Sertracen follows in Step 4) (more)

Prices at the pumps will be going up by about 17 cents on Saturday, 16 January 2010. In Panama City a gallon of 91 octane gas will go up to $3.02 while 95 octane will go to $3.19 per gallon. Diesel will go up to $2.76 while light diesel will go to $2.82 per gallon. These new prices will remain in effect until Friday, 29 January 2010. (Source: Denise Lara for Telemetro)

The bus crash on the Coastal Strip which left 39 people injured remains under investigation by the authorities, said Marcos Mora, of Panama's Ground Transit and Transportation Authority (ATTT). Mora, who appeared on the Telemetro Reporta channel 13 news this morning, said that although the second driver fled the scene he was arrested thanks to tips from citizens. He was arrested in Panama Viejo as the suspect tried to remove identifying signs from the bus. This driver tested positive during a drug test conducted in August 2009 by the Transit Authority, so he underwent a rehabilitation process. In December 2009 he started driving again on the Panama Viejo route. Marcos Mora said at the time of the accident neither of the drivers tested positive for drugs. They are working under the hypothesis that speeding was the cause of the accident, although they are doing the assessments, added Mora. Máximo Sosa and Domingo Cerrud Gutiérrez, the owners of the two buses involved in this accident, should fulfill their responsibility for damages caused. (Source: Kathyria Caicedo for Telemetro Reporta)

Editor's Comment: Positive for drugs and (supposedly) rehabilitated? Fleeing the scene of an accident? Drag racing buses packed full of passengers? Can we please find this dude some other way to make a living? Anything that requires no personal responsibility, places no other members of the pubic at risk. These two drivers should never be allowed to operate a bus, ever again under any circumstances. I mean, like never. Rehabilitation, my ass... Guys, listen up. The bus drivers do whatever the hell they want because there is no credible threat against them if they do something wrong. They can have $1,500 in outstanding tickets and they just keep driving. Get popped in a drug test, and just keep driving. Crash a bus or two, and just keep driving. I mean, WTF, over?

Amarilis Ulloa, the Director of Operations of Panama's Ground Transit and Transportation Authority (ATTT) said that tomorrow they will be reactivating the "intelligent traffic light" system in different areas of Panama City. Ulloa said tomorrow they will reactivate the traffic signals in the areas of Villa Zaita and Milla 8, on Wednesday they will reactivate the traffic signals in La Moya, located in the area of Los Andes as well as those at the entrance to Vía Boyd Roosevelt, while on Thursday they plan to reactivate the traffic signals in front of the Instituto América. According to Ulloa they plan to have all signals turned back on and working smoothly before the start of the next school year (in mid March 2010). On another subject, she also said there is a new traffic pattern at 43rd Street in Bella Vista, which allows drivers to use that street to access Balboa Avenue. (Source: ARTURO CARLOS CASTILLO for La Estrella)

Editor's Comment: Smarter, anyway. The last time they tried to turn these things on the entire city went into gridlock for about three days before they threw in the towel and turned them back off. This time they are slowly going to turn the system back on, one intersection at a time, which will give them the opportunity to work out any bugs and tweak the system as they go. The ATTT took a PR shot to the teeth last time, and this time they are trying to get it right. Hopefully when they finally get this system up and running traffic will flow more smoothly in the city. That's the plan, anyway. Now let's see if it actually works.

A bus with license plate number 8B-3388, en route to Panamá Viejo and packed full of about 60 passengers, flipped over in front of the Santo Tomas hospital, leaving 58 injured, one seriously. The injured were taken to the Santo Tomas hospital and the Social Security hospital for medical care. Immediately after the accident happened, ambulances from the 911 system, police and fire units descended on the scene to attend to the wounded. (In this early report) the exact number of people injured and the severity of their wounds is unknown, and some people remain trapped in the bus. According to unofficial information, the bus driver, identified as 20 year-old Elvis Eliécer Guerra, was driving at excessive speed which apparently caused the accident. Panama City Mayor Bosco Vallarino, who arrived at the scene, said the full weight of the law should be applied to both the driver and the owner of the bus, and they should both go to jail. The National Police director Gustavo Perez - who witnessed the accident - confirmed that the driver was racing with another bus that fled the scene. Firefighters and rescue workers are still working to free one of the passengers who remains trapped between the bus and the pavement with a serious injury to one arm. (Source: Panama America)

Editor's Comment: I'm sorry, but at this point, who gives a crap? I still have the photos I took on 23 October 2006 at the scene of the bus fire in Martin Sosa of the people who died in the bus fire. I arrived just when the firemen had gotten the flames under control and before the police arrived on the scene in force. Those photos are way too graphic to show to the public and they are enough to give anyone nightmares - charred bodies, faces twisted in the pain and agony of their last seconds of life. Use your imagination, then dial it up and multiply "horrific" times ten. Panamanian governmental authorities (first Martin Torrijos and now Ricardo Martinelli) have NOT DONE ENOUGH to crack down on this crap. Now, there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, finger pointing, or whatever else. I'm glad Gustavo Perez saw this one with his own eyes - it's his traffic cops who should be spending less time trying to suck bribes out of the drivers of private vehicles for the holidays, and more time arresting bus drivers who regularly and routinely break the law. Last week a bus driver supposedly lost his brakes and drove into a tree. It turns out he had more than $1,500 in unpaid traffic tickets. How hard is it to make sure that each and every one of these guys are clean and safe? And, why is that not priority #1? God Damn It, put me in charge for 30 seconds and I could fix this shit literally overnight. I'll need a place to put the prisoners, a bunch of tow trucks, and someone else to appear on Channel 2 to make the public feel better about shutting down the (completely *censormode*ed up) mass transit system until all drivers and equipment is in compliance with the law. Any cop who takes a $1 dollar bribe gets five years in prison (hey National Assembly, please get that done by Monday.) So, this accident was caused by a 20 year-old punk drag racing down Ave Balboa with 60 people packed into a retired school bus. Wunderful. But hey, is anyone really surprised? I know I'm not...

"All of the companies have requested more time to prepare their proposals for the METROBUS system," said the Minister of the Presidency, Jimmy Papadimitriu, on TVN News this morning. The one company that requested the most additional time is the one that created the TransMilenio transportation system being used in Colombia and Brazil. They asked for a 6 month extension of the deadline for the submission of proposals, currently 26 February 2010. But this is not the only request. Several companies have requested that the concession period offered by the state be extended from the current 10 years to 15 years. Papadimitriu said that today there will be a meeting between all of the government agencies involved in this project, in order to make a decision on these special requests. The minister said he understands that to make a study and a proposal for a public transportation system is complex, however he does not like the idea of delaying the project very much. "We will make a decision today," he said. Furthermore, Papadimitriu confirmed before the start of the school year, they will deliver to the Ministry of Education the first 17 former "Diablo Rojo" buses that will be turned back into school buses, ready and in perfect condition. "The Ministry of Education will be charged with distributing them," he said. (Source: ABDIEL AUGUSTO PATINO for La Estrella)

Panama's Ground Transit and Transportation Authority (ATTT) said this morning they will reactivate the new traffic light system in Panama City with a centralized control system on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. They said the traffic light system will be activated at 8:30 am in the intersections along Ave. Boyd-Roosevelt at the Mis Provincias commercial center and the entrance to Villa Zaita. The ATTT explained that both lights will be operated in a "synchronized manner" and that they would adjust the times to the number of vehicles circulating in the area. What's more, these lights are also connected to the Traffic Center. "The traffic lights at the Mis Provincias commercial center have pedestrian crossing signals in order to provide better safety to people who are crossing Ave. Boyd-Roosevelt," said the ATTT press release. (Source: Manuel Vega Loo for La Prensa)

Editor's Comment: The initial attempt to turn on this new system was an abject failure. The contractors installed the lights, drew up a plan on paper, and threw the switch one day - and traffic in the city came to a dead stop. These were billed as "intelligent signals" but of course since the implementation and programming was all screwed up, the public immediately started calling them "really stupid lights." The government ordered the system to be turned off and the designers went back to the drawing board. Now it appears they will be reactivating the system slowly, maybe even one intersection at a time, and fine tuning the light cycles and timing for the intersections based on reality and actual traffic flows. Some intersections see more traffic in the early morning hours with commuters coming into the city for example, and in the afternoon other routes and intersections are more heavily used. I mean, that's obvious and you would have thought that "experts" who are getting paid millions of dollars to figure this stuff out could have or should have anticipated these problems. Whatever. Maybe once the bugs are worked out of the system maybe it might make a difference on traffic flows in the city. Let's hope.

Wednesday morning the government revealed what will be the first route of the new Metro mass transist system in Panama. The first line will start at the Grand Transportation Terminal at Albrook and will go to the sector of Los Andes. According to Robert Roy, the Secretary of the Metro, there will be 16 stations in Panama City. He further explained that this new urban transport system will have underground sections in the center of the city, while in areas such as the Vía Fernández de Córdoba and Albrook there will be elevated tracks. Roy said the cost to ride the Metro system has not yet been determined. (Source: Denise Lara for Telemetro Reporta)

From 7 to 14 January 2010 the Panamanian government will conduct a formal approval process for the tender specifications for the new Metrobus system, confirmed Jimmy Papadimitriu, the Minister of the Presidency. So far about 20 companies have expressed their interest in participating in this process. According to Papadimitriu the winner of the Metrobus contract will be announced by about mid-March 2010. With respect to the compensation that will be paid to bus owners he said those payments will be made once they begin to renew the bus fleet. He added that when a particular bus is replaced, then they will make payment to the owner. On the same topic, Rep. Marcos Gonzalez confirmed that the National Chamber of Transport will establish which routes and which carries will be compensated. The old buses turned over to the government will be rehabilitated by the Inadeh and then returned to the Ministry of Education for use as school buses. (Source: Kathyria Caicedo for Telemetro Reporta)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - A long time ago the Panamanian government passed a law saying that all private taxi cabs will have to be painted yellow, and with that they established a date for the implementation of this regulation. Then they pushed the date back. And they pushed it back again. And again. Well, not anymore. Today the Director of the Ground Transit and Transportation Authority (ATTT) let everyone know that the 1 January 2010 deadline was set in stone and that there would be no more delays or extensions. He said there would be a sixty day grace period to allow those who still have not painted their taxis to get it done, but that after two months any taxi that was not painted yellow would have it's permission to circulate revoked. The original idea behind this measure was related to safety and security - to make it easier for an average person on the street to spot a "real" or "valid" taxi, rather than just some dude in a Toyota Yaris who buys a "taxi" sign and slaps it on his roof to make some extra money.

Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.