'Danger on the Rambla of Pocitos' Montevideo

Danger on the Rambla of Pocitos

The arrival of good weather (summer) turns the Rambla de Pocitos into one of the favorite places in Montevideo. That is especially so on the weekends.

However, there is a danger lurking. Bicycles on the sidewalks reserved for pedestrians, with many riders apparently preparing for race, weaving in and out of the pedestrians at high speed.

The danger is compounded by the youngsters who zip by on roller skates. And, if that isn't bad enough, you have the skaters who hold the hand of a bicyclist as they zip around and weave in and out.

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Now, don't let that scare you aware from the Rambla, it really isn't that dangerous and you can't beat a nice peaceful walk at almost any hour of the day or night. There is plenty of seating too, grab a spot and enjoy some sun or a conversation with a stranger.

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It's like all MVD is coming in one spot and becomes very very busy. I see that plenty of young people are coming from the northern barrios and the suburbs to enjoy the beaches.

The rambla becomes a pedestrian boulevard as well which include bicycles, runners, skaters, dogs, ''gang'' of young, ''machos'', etc...

I think the biggest danger of the rambla during the week-ends is coming from the street and not from the crowd on the rambla. You have a lot of traffic including all the bikes in the street. Unfortunately, you have a lot of people who want to cross everywhere and they do not use the intersection with traffic lights.

The other danger in the night are the races on the rambla from customized cars and this is absolutely crazy, stupid and very noisy! It's seems that the Montevideo transit (I believe this is under the jurisdiction of the city) is not working after 5 o'clock or maybe they don't work on the week-ends at all! It's time to clean up the races from the rambla!

I don't disagree that those elements are present, as well as people openly drinking beer. However, I've never found that any of them want to "get in my face" and those drinking seem to be doing it socially, not as belligerent drunks.

The "gangs of youths" might in my view be better described as groups of young people minding their own business.

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I agree that most of the people are minding their own businesses.

I agree with you that I did not use the proper word for group. It should be groups of young and not gangs of young. I used the word ''gang'' as in Quebec, we call a group of young as ''gang'' without any meanings ;)...

John,

Most of the rambla is, in priority, for pedestrians. You have only a small portion of the rambla (rambla M. Gandhi) where you can see two different paths: one for bikes and one the pedestrians. The rest of the rambla is free so you have a mix of everything on it (except cars of course). Bicycles are not using roads along the rambla (too dangerous) so they used the sidewalks as well. You need to accommodate them as well but I do not see so many bicycles on the rambla. Most of the people are walking or resting somewhere for a maté or a drink.

Regarding the danger of bikes to pedestrians . . . be aware that parts of La Rambla are marked specifically as bikeways on one side and for pedestrians on the other. I have noticed that pedestrians mindlessly wandering around seem to be just as much of a danger to bikes. Try not to be one of those causing the problems.

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