It’s Awful!
Traffic in Lima is unimaginably awful. Certainly worse than anywhere in the United States! And, according to Daniel, much worse than it was when he left 36 years ago.
Why?
Lots of Cars
Lima is more populous and much more prosperous than it was 36 years ago. Metropolitan Lima’s population has doubled to almost 12 million. Per capita income for Peru has increased from about $6,000 to $15,000 as measured by PPP (purchasing parity power) in constant 2024 dollars. There are a lot of people who can afford to take taxis or own cars.
Mix of Vehicles
Every kind of vehicle you can imagine crowds the streets of Lima. Cement mixers, garbage trucks, delivery vans. Long distance buses, city buses, small 30 passenger buses called Coasters and even smaller 15 passenger vans called combis. Moto-taxis (the glorified motorcycles with enclosed space for the driver and two passengers). Motorcycles – both private and delivery – often with a passenger clinging to the driver. Bicycles. Electric scooters. Street vendors walking between the spaces of vehicles waiting for a stoplight. Pedestrians (who most assuredly do NOT have the right of way!) darting across the street.
Left Turns
Most major streets in Lima are wide boulevards with 2 or 3 lanes of traffic in each direction, separated by a lovely tree-lined grassy median 15 to 30 feet wide. When making a left turn, cars do not line up in a well-marked left turn lane. They crowd into the space for the cross-street as tightly as possible, often blocking through traffic on the left, waiting for a break in the oncoming traffic or for the light to change, and when they can, make a mad dash turning into the cross-street. As they try to funnel into the cross street, they often block oncoming traffic, occasioning lots of honking. Eventually, the cars all merge and complete their turns and the intersection is clear.
One-Way Streets
The street sign in front of our apartment. Arrows indicate the direction of traffic. Both streets are one way. Street signs indicate a two-way street with an arrow pointing both directions.
The abbreviation Jr. stands for Jirón, a word for street that Peruvians use instead of the more customary Spanish word Calle.
One-way streets are very common in our part of town. We often have to take a very circuitous route to reach our destination. And the return trip will take a different path.
For example, the best path from our apartment in La Virreyna to the family home in El Rancho is about half a mile shorter than the return trip.
Pick Up and Drop Off
Since at least half of the vehicles on the streets are taxis, Ubers, buses of one sort or another, or delivery trucks or motorcycles, vehicles are constantly stopping in the right-hand side of the street for a minute or two to drop off or pick up someone or something. There is a particularly congested spot on the route from our apartment to the house where Daniel’s family lives. We pass a church. If there is a service, the right side of the street is clogged with taxis dropping off elderly señoras, often accompanied by middle-aged daughters, who need extra time to extract themselves from the taxi and shuffle onto the sidewalk toward the entrance to the church.
Traffic Circles
They’re called Óvalos in Lima. There is an enormous one near our apartment – the Óvalo Higuereta. Six major boulevards feed into it. There is an underpass for through traffic on Avenida Benevides and another underpass connecting Avenida Tomas Marsano with Avenida Santiago de Surco. Image! Double decker underpasses! These underpasses reduce traffic around the circle to those needing to make a turn into a different boulevard. Even so, during rush hour it can easily take five minutes to make one round of the circle. People – including us – take routes through the back streets to avoid the Óvalo. This of course spreads the traffic into quiet residential areas.
Note the elevated metro line on the far side of the óvalo.
Lack of Mass Transit
There is only one fully operational metro line in Lima, running generally north-south through the more inland parts of the city. It is quite nice – very modern, safe, clean stations. Trains run every 4 minutes during rush hours. The Jorge Chávez station is a five-minute walk from our apartment, but the line itself passes just up the street. We hear a gentle rumble that we have learned to ignore completely. It is the longest elevated metro line in the world outside of China.
Lima has also constructed one BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) line. It is called the Metropolitana. It also runs generally north-south, but closer to the coast, connecting the wealthy southern municipalities of Miraflores and San Isidro to downtown and the northern suburbs.
Unfortunately, these are the only fully operational mass transit lines.
A second, east-west metro line is currently under construction and partly open now. When completed, it will start in the port of Callao, connect with the Metropolitana, pass through downtown, then connect with the Metro Línea 1 and finally reach the eastern suburbs in the foothills. A third line to the airport is also under construction. The second and third lines will be entirely underground.
But a city the size of Lima should have about a dozen metro and BRT lines. Lima’s system is small and inadequate, even by Latin American standards. The other Latin American megacities with more than 10 million people (Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Bogotá) all have more extensive mass transit systems.
There is a historical reason for this. Lima began construction of Línea 1 back in the 1980’s but work was halted as the country slid into terrorism, fear and poverty. Once the terrorists were defeated, the country made a remarkable economic recovery but work on the metro lines didn’t resume until the 2010’s. Lima lost 25 years.
Way Too Much Honking!
Drivers honk for all kinds of reasons: The instant the traffic light changes to green (people ahead of you might not notice). When a pedestrian looks like they might step into the crosswalk in front of you. If a bus takes too long picking up passengers. When someone is double parked, blocking the lane. If someone cuts in front of you. When you spot the person you are picking up waiting for you. And sometimes, just for the fun of it!
There are signs in lots of places prohibiting honking, but these are generally considered suggestions rather than commandments.
Aggressive Drivers
A majority of drivers are taxi drivers and bus drivers, who are aggressive by nature. Drivers are impatient: Pulling out to pass a stopped taxi rather than waiting 30 seconds for the passenger to get in. Crowding into an intersection to make a left turn. Cutting across a lane or two of traffic to make a last-minute right turn.
Personal Space for Autos
Just as different cultures have different ideas about personal space, Peruvian drivers seem comfortable with less space between their automobiles than we would be in the United States. For cars stuck in traffic, it seems to be about 8 to 12 inches in Lima, compared to about 2 or 3 feet in the United States.
But It Could Be Worse
In spite of all this, there are a couple of mitigating factors that make the traffic less awful than it might otherwise be.
Speed Bumps
Speed bumps are strategically placed before crosswalks and busy intersections that don’t have stoplights. They create breaks in the traffic, allowing pedestrians to cross and cars to make left turns in front of slower moving oncoming traffic.
Low Speed
The traffic doesn’t move very fast. Traffic in residential areas doesn’t exceed about 15 miles per hour. 25 miles per hour max on the major boulevards. And no more than 45 or 50 miles per hour on the Panamericana expressway during those rare times when the traffic flows smoothly. If there is an accident, it is likely to be a minor fender bender with no injuries.