Early in the morning the streets are empty, but in the afternoon drivers are forced to go at pedestrian pace. Watch the video of the routeLeaving Los Dedos at stop 1 of the Brava de Punta del Este towards La Barra at 8:40 in the morning meant finding a deserted promenade. The few people who were there were doing sports or were surfers who took advantage of the morning calm to conquer the waves.Your browser does not support iframes.El Observador made the trip and in just six minutes it was possible to travel the nine kilometers that separate this place from the undulating bridge of La Barra. During the trip there were only one car, one motorcycle, one taxi and eight cyclists traveling in the same direction.
From the bridge to Manantiales there are five kilometers, but the number of speed bumps means that you have to drive at a slower speed. On that stretch, nine cars made the same journey, as did three young people who were returning from dancing, walking along the main street of La Barra.
The streets were empty, the shops closed, no one was filling up at the ANCAP station in La Barra and there were still not many tourists on the beaches. The entire journey took 14 minutes.
Crash
The situation in the afternoon was completely different, even though it was not a sunny day that warranted a greater presence of people circulating in that area. The same journey to Manantiales, leaving Los Dedos at 19:28, took 34 minutes, 20 minutes more than it took in the early hours of the morning.
On the La Brava promenade, traffic was more fluid, so the journey to the bridge took 10 minutes – four more than it had taken in the morning – but from there to Manantiales it took 24 minutes, three times as long as it had taken earlier.
On this stretch, it was necessary to walk at a pedestrian pace. At the service station, which was completely empty in the morning, there was a line of 14 cars, and immediately after the bridge to the end of the route, the car had to be driven with the gear shift in first gear and in a few moments in second gear. The bakeries were packed and traffic was blocked in both lanes. There were motorcycles circulating between the two lanes of vehicles and people crossing in the middle of the street.
The chaos was such that in a car for five people there were nine young people inside: the driver, three in the front passenger seat and five in the back.
At the entrance to the La Barra shopping center, the cumbia pop band Rombai was playing their songs, surrounded by teenagers and young people who were listening to the street performance. A few blocks away, another band was playing music in the street, causing crowds. There were no free parking spaces and there were even people who decided to park in garages or on the sidewalks.
The return journey at around 20pm was even worse. It took 54 minutes to cover the same distance. Two thirds of the time was spent between Manantiales and the La Barra Bridge.
The situation worsens irremediably between Friday and Sunday, and particularly at dusk, when people leave the beach.
La Barra and Manantiales have been popular resorts for several years, and are preferred by Argentine tourists, which is why many decide to move from the peninsula to that area.
At such times, this route can cause your feet to cramp from having to press the brakes so hard.
Locals and regulars know shortcuts to avoid Eduardo Víctor Haedo Avenue (Route 10). One of them is to take the street that leads to the ANCAP station, at the entrance to the resort, and cut through internal roads to the Mantra Resort Spa & Casino, to end up at stop 47, almost at the end of the resort, where there is already a double track.
The other possible shortcut for those driving towards José Ignacio is to take the first access on the left before Manantiales, continue along streets almost parallel to the highway, until reaching route 104 and the promenade at the height of Punta Piedras.
Moments of collapse
The Director of Traffic and Transportation for the Maldonado Municipality, Juan Pígola, acknowledged that "there are times of congestion" due to high traffic peaks, which lead to traffic jams, "something that hasn't happened in years." El Observador was able to verify that inspectors were carrying out channeling operations near the La Barra bridge to control traffic.
With the arrival of summer, the population doubles every year and with it the number of vehicles increases exponentially. Maldonado has a fleet of 220.990 vehicles, including motorcycles and cars.
Motorcycles alone, between 4.800 and 5.000 motorcycles are registered in the department per year, so departmental authorities estimate that there is on average one per inhabitant, regardless of cars.
In summer, around 60 thousand tourist cars are added to the number of permanent citizens of the department, according to municipal estimates.
Source: elobservador
