Mopeds are dangerous to ALL

[Dave Dillehay]

to All,

Each of the last three days I have personally seen an accident involving mopeds. That is just the ones I personally ran across. Today it wasn't a moped but a four wheeler that ran into a car on the main street (Rafael Melgar). It looked like the 4 wheeler was going the wrong way on main street. The drivers, tourists of course. Yesterday at the intersection of Ave 30 and Calle 15 (Xel HA /Chedraui ) pretty ugly with a moped down and lots of scratches for the locals. The day before it was two tourists on a moped that hit a car on Rafael Melgar and Calle 3, not too bad for injuries.

There are multiple points to this post:

1. There are so many mopeds here now and they swarm like cockroaches, but if they impact a car, the car driver is most at risk legally. That means Jail until the authorities work it out. So if you rent a car, please be careful. If there are serious injuries to the moped riders and they are Mexicans it can be a long time in the lock up.

2. Any tourist would be well advised, as most of you already know, NOT to rent a moped, it is just too dangerous and you will not have the same legal protections as locals.

3. If your resort offers bicycles, take them and be careful. On a bike you should never be legally for anything. IF not, use the taxis as the cost can be infinitesimal compared to the situations described above.

4. Finally, I am personally terrified every time I am out driving now. The swarms of mopeds are overwhelming. They pass on the left, pass on the right, stop in front of you, maybe looking for a settlement. Five years ago it was not this way, be careful.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Wookie]

Survival of the fittest, Dave. Seems like Darwin is alive and well and culling the herd in Coz.

 

[Brules]

I will never forget the poor SOB I saw in the Coz airport leaving 5-6 year ago. The guy had oozing road rash on both forearms elbows to hands, shoulders, knees and shins on both legs were gone. Hands were a mess. Have not seen a more miserable person in my life.

Won't ever catch me or anyone i know on one!

 

[amoses]

That's why I like the idea of just staying in town and walking everywhere

 

[RayfromTX]

Dave, would you propose more cars on the road as the alternative to the mopeds? If you replace the mopeds with more cars and taxis you will definitely have something else to worry about. The only dangerous encounters I've personally encountered were while walking in Coz. I will agree that many people in Cozumel have no business on a scooter and a large number of those are tourists. It seems they view them as slow and harmless when they are not that at all. What they are is easy peasy to park. Shall we start building parking garages? Look at the scooters parked along the road and tell me where they would all be parked if they were cars.

 

[MMM]

I've reached the point where I feel that if tourists want to rent a moped, then good luck and God-bless. Hopefully they won't get themselves killed or maimed but if so, well, that's life. I DO have a different opinion about locals on mopeds however. They USED to use bicycles or walk but as San Miguel has gotten bigger and bigger and with more jobs at resorts outside of town, they need a way to get to work and mopeds are more feasible financially than a car. However, some of the locals drive like crazy people on them. And I really don't want to get into an accident (either in a car on on my bicycle) where their language skills in Spanish are better than mine...regardless of how much insurance I'm carrying.

 

[5 Star]

As a doctor and long term DAN member, I can't think of any situation where a Diver on a vacation would truly need to rent a moped for transportation. Most Dive Shops have shuttles. With all of the safety training we have with Diving, why take such a risk. I wouldn't think Moped rental, particularly in a foreign country would be considered remotely safe compared to Scuba Diving.

 

[Schwob]

As a teenager I went skiing with a moped a very few cold times. If you ever saw a couple of kids on a Vespa scooter, in skiboots (where else would they go), skis vertically crossed on the rack behind, driving through ice and snow in 79, that might have been me and a buddy.
I won't, but I'd rather do that again than driving through some of the traffic I've seen in various places.
Add rules conspiring to "get you" and no thanks.
But hey, I once managed to get a speeding ticket on a single speed bicycle in China in 88 (a hill and passing a bus was involved). Got personally caught by a sidecar motorcycle cop. Had to come to the station and listen to the 1+hour lecture. Got away easy I heard. But there, at that time at that location there was no more practical way then a bicycle.
There are choices other than mopeds in Coz I presume...

 

[RayfromTX]

As a doctor and long term DAN member, I can't think of any situation where a Diver on a vacation would truly need to rent a moped for transportation. Most Dive Shops have shuttles. With all of the safety training we have with Diving, why take such a risk. I wouldn't think Moped rental, particularly in a foreign country would be considered remotely safe compared to Scuba Diving.

Can you cite statistics to support this opinion? I have heard of no tourists that died on a scooter in the last year. The number of fatalities while diving is not supporting your argument. Yes, there are risks involved but making blanket statements about the relative danger of an activity that you don't choose to participate in is just like telling me I am crazy to skydive or ride my bike on the hill country roads near my home or in NYC for that matter. The likelihood that the scooter I ride in Coz is what is going to get me is not as high as the risk of driving to work. I see countless acts of lunacy committed on scooters but that doesn't mean that I have to be a lunatic when I'm on my way to the Mega.

Horses for courses.

 

[driftwood]

Coz doesn't have a true moped problem yet. Yeah, there are a lot more of them but nothing like Rome or god forbid Naples. I don't rent cars on the island because taxis are relatively cheap.

If the island's government really wanted to address traffic problems, they would develop system of small buses running along Melgar every 15 minutes between they ferry dock and the international pier. To the big AI's and beach clubs south of the International Pier, call it every 30 minute to a hour depending on demand. How to handle the cruise ships, you buy a monthly resident card or a daily/weekly wrist band from your hotel.

In San Miguel, develop a simple grid plan along the major streets. The system works where tried.

Initially the taxi union will scream bloody murder for a while. But can't be helped.