Hardly a day passes in Costa Rica without a road fatality. Bicyclists are taking up the banner for road safety in the wake of recent tragic accidents.

Yesterday, downtown San José’s streets were flooded with helmeted cyclists who pedaled from La Sabana Park to Curridabat via downtown to demand respect for their safety on the country’s streets.

The turnout almost doubled the organizers’ expected 3,000 participants with over 5,000 riders estimated at the event, said Carlos Jiménez, representative of Chepecletas, a group that organizes recreational cycling events in San José.

The event was spurred by an accident January 29 in which three cyclists were killed and one critically injured in the early morning hours by a drunk driver near the entrance to Walmart in Curridabat, an eastern San José district. The injured cyclist remains hospitalised at the Calderón Guardía, one of the bicyclists’ stops in downtown San José.

The civic group, Aconvivir, a road safety organization, has a national publicity campaign aimed at getting drivers to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters from bicyclists, as required under Costa Rican law.

Event participants wish to see this measure, and other safe practices, become part of Costa Rica’s driving culture. In addition, bicyclists stated desires for more bike paths, whose calls are being taken up by legislators calling for safe and inclusive infrastructure to stop road violence in Costa Rica, as reported in Costa Rica’s daily La Nación.