Well, I have been coming here for 3 years now and a resident since last fall. And this past week I was stopped not once but twice by the police. One for a traffic violation and last night a "control check" to see if I had insurance and a license. Today while driving by the Divi I saw another vehicle stopped and the same the other day near Kaya Korona..interesting..the police are way more visible than I have ever noticed..

Sounds like it, Annie. I recall the trips where we could go for weeks without ever seeing a police car anywhere on the island. "Visible" is good! Thanks for the update. Carole

Seems I remember reading that that Cargill's salt works amounts to 25% of Bonaire's GDP.
I also remember seeing pictures of people sitting on the salt hills.

Wonder if the biggest company on the island has thought about some security guards with vehicles....keep people off the salt and also a little patrolling the southern dive sites while circling the pans. The local managers ought to be able to sell that upstream to corporate, gain a little local thanks, all in the name of product and equipment security.

What happens if you are stopped and do not have your driver's licence with you? When heading to a dive site we don't (& I know allot of divers don't) carry our licences with us since we would have to take it in the water with us. I mean we could carry it in a waterproof pouch but....

Hey Gregg,

Well I will be completely honest about my first traffic violation..and it's totally MY fault.

I own a beater car, I mean it's like worse than my first car..BUT it's fairly reliable and was cheap to buy. In BON one has the option of getting annual or bi annual tax sticker. I opt for bi annual as I always hope to find a new vehicle..well, the bi annual date was Aug. 1..I procrastinated ...and was stopped because my sticker expired. But let me go back.

I woke up and there was no bread or juice in the house. I brushed my teeth and headed to Exito in my lounge pants and t shirt...casual clothes..thought I would get in and out quick..when I got to Exito I dug into my pocket book and NO wallet. Shoot, I had left it in the house. As I drove home to get my wallet I was stopped right on my street.

There were two officers: one said nada and looked rather sheepish..the other did all the talking. At first he was very forceful and assertive..I admitted to my error and apologized..he then said I was in violation for NOT having a new sticker and not having a license and that he needed to take my car..I won't go on but in the end, I was fined for one violation. I had to promise to go get my sticker and then go to the police to show them the sticker..and then pay the fine. This took oh, a good part of the AM and cost me 150,00 Naf, much less than if I got a violation for no license.

Moral to the story? Carry your license somewhere somehow..

One point..all the cars I have seen having been stopped were piece of &^%$ cars..coincidence?? I dunno..

Sounds like financial profiling to me...

Thanks for the info. I wonder if they might be easier on people driving rentals? Anyway good to know. My wife is on her way to Bonaire today, hope I hear from her before she gets pulled over....

If they were financially profiling, they should be yanking over young men driving cars beyond their financial means (from legal income, that is)... Maybe they are. My beater truck's in the shop today, so I have no worries about being pulled over, at least not today :-)

I would also suspect that tourists would be given quite a bit of leeway when it comes to having a license in pocket (or even being pulled over, unless they were speeding).

Jake

Jake...get the mechanic to check the front right tie rod end, king pin and rocker arm bushing. Just remembered that you have a real clunking going on up there when you steer hard left. Just remembered

There usually are more road checks this time of year, (most years from what I've seen), same in Feb, the 2 times of the year when you're supposed to have your new road tax sticker on the license plates. Deadlines are Jan 31 & July 31.

The road taxes can be a sizeable expense for a lower-average income person, (and you have to have up-to-date insurance, another expense) in order to buy the road tax, so... go figure.

We have just got back from Bonaire and Netty, the person from whom we hired the truck, tracked us down at our villa to renew our car tax so we would not get stopped. There had been some delay in getting them from the government, not enough printed!

Wally, I'm amazed you heard suspension noise over the rough-running engine. Jake, glad you're finally getting the truck serviced!

They always have enough stiickers and if there is a shortage, the police are informed and don't do road checks. As for carrying your liscense, just make a few photocopies and leave one in the glove compartment.

Michael,

The problem with that is, in some states it's customary (unless you request otherwise, and not everyone realizes they can) for the Driver's license # to be the same as the Social Security #. This is not a number you want thieves getting hold of.

I highly reccommend to anyone whose drivers license is the same as their SS# to request it be changed. You don't want to make identity theft THAT easy for the bad guys.

My international driver license has a picture of Alexander Hamilton on it.
Dan...Joey told me Jake drives that truck like a madman....I also forgot to tell Jake the shocks are about a year past complete toast.

In ALabama the drivers licenses are waterproof but even so I use a small waterproof waist pack, that is fairly flat, to throw a few things in like money credit cars etc to carry stuff. works well.

Wally that reminds me of a scene from Night at the Roxbury where the guys are trying to get into a popular club, and say well maybe you've heard of my friend, George Washington.

Wally, I can attest to Jake's driving style, and agree the shocks are long since dead. Might have something to do with driving off the sides of the roads, and the craters in some of the streets.

But then it's like Jake's boat driving style... just go faster and you'll only hit the tops of the waves.

And yes, I like kidding Jake about his truck. I think Jake said Linda doesn't allow him to drive her car. Good move

Joey mentioned Jake likes to fly across the raised brick pedestrian crossings too....seems the bounce makes the kids squeal and laugh....and of course the shocks to terminate.

I however absolutely agree with his boat running and car driving methods....equipment should be regularly driven hard, abused and then repaired....how else shall we discern the limits of the vehicle or vessels performance envelope.

Jeez. The abuse my driving skills take here. I will point out that the last accident I had (where I was at fault) was a fender bender in the parking lot at Wang Labs in Lowell, MA (where I worked at the time, back about 19 years ago and there was ice and slush on the ground. Mind you, I don't count denting large coralline boulders in Bonaire parking lots as accidents - that's more of a tactile driving methodology. Just like curbs are a tactile suggestion.

Driving like a madman (I like to think of my driving as closely related to my computer work - binary - i.e. on or off) is not the same as driving unsafely, I would just like to point out. Unsafe driving causes vehicular accidents. My driving just scares my passengers. Totally different.

I will say that my binary driving method is the result of the fact that I really do not enjoy driving, so being able to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible is a plus.

Finally, I did ask about replacing the shocks but was told that for my infrequent use of the vehicle they are fine. In fact, in driving Yana from horseback riding on back roads today and hitting lots of depressions, pot holes and mounds, I still think the shocks work just fine. Landing on all four wheels after several aerial transitions was still pretty smooth, and not jarring.

But, we should get back on topic here, I think.

Jake

Jake,

You and Ed are on the same wave lengths. I wear my seatbelt on Bonaire and hang on for dear life when I get in a car with him! He is from NY (Staten Island) and has that driving technique of not slowing down until you are about 1 ft from the person in front of you (It's a NY thing I think, like a NYC cab driver!) I get white knuckles at the round abouts (he is safe and checks that no one is in them or about to enter them). I think it has to do with where you learned to drive actually. Northerns have a tendency to drive more "agressively" (I'm not saying they are bad drivers, they just need to get where they are going and usually in a hurry). Southerns like myself feel if the wild man driving wants to cut in front of me to pay a toll cause he thinks he's going to be faster, go right ahead, no problem. They have the likelihood of being on the side of the road, either in a ditch or pulled over for a ticket! Anyway, can't wait to see you guys on the 8th...we are bringing our daughter (Ed's) and our grandchildren!

Liz

I don't tailgate, and I don't try to cut drivers off - anymore (I learned to drive in Boston, where the latter was required to survive on the streets when driving). Both of those can be unsafe driving practices. Plus, being on Bonaire, it's tough to even conceive of road rage :-)

See you soon.

Jake

It's really not tailgating, and your right... I guess you need to drive like that in order to survive. That's why I take the train into the city. It's like go as fast as you can then stop really quick. I can't wait to move...no road rage..ahhhhhhhhhhh

LOL

Liz

EXXXCCUUUSSE MEE,,,,Liz you are a southern lady driver and do not understand!!
Southern boys invented NASCAR and if we can't do a little bumping and rubbing...it ain't driving.
Also,,,,it's not tailgating...it's a bump and run....if you are close enough they will drift to the outside and you can power through on the inside line.
And Jake...you need shocks like real real bad

I think it's a "guy thing"....the last minute braking as Joe does it too. We have completely different driving styles, for sure! I have to close my eyes when I'm a passenger in his car (very, very rare event! LOL) so I don't "see" what is happening around us. Whew! Maybe it runs in his family because his sister does the same thing...they both wonder why their brakes give out so often...I can't imagine why!?!

My Mom suffered a leg injury just from riding the brake on th PASSENGER side when my Dad would drive them around! No joke!! The doctor was the one who figured out why she was suffering from pains in the back of her lower leg...it was the tendon being stretched from hitting the brake pedal as a passenger in his car! It was a build up of stretching...not one single incident. LOL. Carole


PS Joe drives much better while we are on Bonaire....maybe it's because there is so much less traffic there and only one lane in each direction for the most part...the opposite of what is in NJ. cb

Jake understands tactile driving...that's New Hampshire for bumping and rubbing

Is this the truck that Bonaireans know and love as 'Leaping Lena'? Sort of a Latino bouncer without needing the hydraulics???

Wally, I agree that one should get to know one's vehicle's "performance envelope", but preferably without shortening one's passengers too badly. I still think I'm a bit shorter after one particularly jarring run back from Karpata in October '01 with Jake at the helm of the boat...

And I think the whole aggressive driving thing is city vs. country, more than north vs. south. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in upstate NY. I used to be terrified of driving anywhere near any city, because the drivers were completely nuts. Then I had to drive into Boston on a regular basis for a summer. That's all it took. Now I'm one of those "completely nuts" drivers -- I've been known to cut off Manhattan taxi drivers, even...

Faith

LMAO !!!!!

I've got a 3 year old daughter sitting in the back of the car shouting at drivers in front of us : "come on , MOOOOOOVE, Driiiiive I said !!!"
( I seriously don't know where she learned that ;-) )
Does that count ????

Driving on the highway is very simple ; just follow these rules :
~~"If there's room for a car to squeeze in between you and the car before you , you are keeping to much distance".
~~"If there is room to squeeze in between two cars in the slow lane , you shouldn't be driving the fast lane anyhow"

returning by plane from a holiday abroad and picking up the car at the airport and driving home , starting in the busiest part of the Netherlands is allways something to look forward to , .... NOT.

sjosss

Cut off NYC taxi drivers!!!Go Girl Go...

Cutting off NYC taxi drivers would give you an opportunity to to learn profanity in multiple languages. -- That is, if you live.

Faith... funny story!

I am a very aggressive driver, and once when Stephanie was about 3, she was in her car seat and someone pulled out in front of me, and I didn't even say a word... but she said "dumba**". Good Lord, I never even cussed in front of her before! lol (I blamed it on her dad... )

Kelly, I love it! My brother learned to watch what he said behind the wheel when he heard his then-toddler son yell out from the back seat, "Die, you gravy-sucking pig!" Figured he'd better tone it down, especially in case he should ever be pulled over -- not good to have one's young son pipe up with that comment if there's a state trooper at your window...

After my time driving in Boston, the NYC cabbies were a piece of cake. Yeah, they do crazy stuff, but at least they signal when they do it, so you know what they're doing!

Faith

Having learned to drive in NYC, you learn the cabbies are far from the biggest problem. It's the New Jersey drivers in Manhattan you need to worry about. They're often folks less familiar with the NY driving style, fail to use turn signals, and make sudden moves.

In Boston, turn signals are NEVER used, while New Yorkers generally do use them. Quite a difference.

Taking driver's ed in Manhattan was an interesting experience. It was common to have the instructor plead with the students to avoid the potholes. Seems he owned the vehicle, and it had to last 3 years. No way that car was going to live that long.

Faith !!!
OMG , I can't stop laughing !!!!
And I thought I had a problem

Another good one : Allways check if the sunroof of the car is closed before you start swearing at someone at the side walk at a trafficlight , trust me , I know !!!