Antigua, Guatemala: Traffic

Pizza cavalry, Antigua, Guatemala. April 2016.

There's a lot of traffic in Antigua.

Tuk-tuks, chicken buses, mini-buses, vans, cars, trucks, horse-and-carriages, bicycles, motorcycles. Add to that flocks of schoolkids in the mornings, over the noon hour, and in the late afternoon, tourists, local folks, and vendors coming in from the countryside, all negotiating the narrow, treacherous sidewalks on foot.

Street congestion in Antigua, Guatemala. April 2016.

A taste of one portion of 7th Avenue in the video below:

And another road here:

Chicken buses and tuk-tuks at the Santa Lucia Church square here:

The word on the street is that the current mayor intends to limit non-resident motor traffic within Antigua. Residents will get a permit; others will have to park their vehicles out of the city center. A February 2016 article on this idea is here.

Paris slashed vehicular traffic in 2015 on special days, opening up the broad ways to pedestrians. Impressive before and after videos in the article here.

How lovely this would be in Antigua.

Antigua, Guatemala: Cobblestone Repair

Cobblestone maintenance Antigua, Guatemala. April 2016.

An historic city doesn't maintain its quaint beauty all by itself. Those cobblestones need regular attention just like any other pavement.

Cobblestone maintenance Antigua, Guatemala. April 2016.

Let's not kid ourselves that such street repair has anything to do with pedestrian or cycling safety, however.  Ho, ho, ho! No. Cobblestones are to walking safety as stilettos are to orthotic footwear. Cobblestones look pretty, they are better for vehicles and people than dust and mud, and they create a pleasing percussion when horses trot on them. More seriously, and in their favor as a matter of practical concerns, they are a permeable surface, meaning that rainwater passes through the cobblestone streets, mitigating storm run-off and street flooding.

Some thoughts on cobblestone streets 

• To Pave or Not to Pave (Nantucket, Massachusetts), about a campaign to save the cobbies back in 1919.
• Cobblestones (wikipedia), history of
• Pavers or Concrete? Making Streets Lively is More Important Than What's Underfoot (Minneapolis)

When I was in Ethiopia for two months in 2010, there was a countrywide jobs creation/beautification project in progress, installing stone pavers on pedestrian walkways. Here's a 2014 article about that very project. While in Harar, I met a German expat involved in this program.

So getting back to Antigua's cobblestones. They're pretty. And sometimes you just have to sacrifice sensibleness for beauty.