Bigger topes for pedestrians in Yucatan Mexico

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 Yesterday I made a post about how to fly in your car in Mexico by hitting a speed bump (tope) without slowing down to drive over it.  They are everywhere in the city and also many more per block in the pueblos.  

But there is another kind of tope that is seen a lot, but not as much as just the speed bumps.  They are pedestrian tope crosswalks.   And as the name implies, they are for people to cross the street, and people have the right of way.  They also "expect" you to see them about to cross one, and they "expect" you to slow down.  Day or night, it's all the same.  Even if they have on solid black clothing and there is no moon and no streetlights, they expect you to see them and stop.   Emphasis stop.  Not slow down.

I've come very close on more than five or six times to hitting someone at night on one, just because they were wearing dark clothing and I couldn't see them about to step out, and I just slowed down to keep from launching myself into the air.   Like the speed bumps, often times they are not painted in yellow or any other color to warn you that you're about to hit one.

One lesson that has helped me a lot at night is to drive behind another car.  Even if they are going slow, I just go slower.  And it's easier to see when they break that a tope is coming up.  And "if" they happened to have not seen it coming, when you see their car launch itself into the air, you at least have time to slow down and not do the same.



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