The Most DANGEROUS Thing About DRIVING IN MEXICO!

What's up guys and welcome back to Combi Life. Today I wanted to talk to you about the most dangerous thing about driving in Mexico. Hmm what do you think that might be? A lot of people are quite worried about driving in Mexico, even people that are embarking on huge adventures and so I'm sure some of you have some preconceptions about what it might be like to drive in Mexico and what might be your biggest fears. But this is actually going to surprise you. So the most dangerous thing about driving in Mexico is not the cartel, it's not the banditos, it's not even the cows on the road at night time. Although you should watch out for the black cows because you can hardly see them and that is one of the main reasons why you shouldn't drive at night. But the most dangerous thing about driving in Mexico is actually potholes. I know you wouldn't expect it to be but it really is a dangerous thing. Let me tell you why. The roads in Mexico in some places are so super thin because they were trying to build them really economically and not use too much asphalt or tarmac depending on where you're from to build the roads. There are some roads in Mexico which are in very good condition but most of them are not and a lot of them have been built very economically which means that they are really really thin with no hard shoulder and there's just enough room in one lane to get a car down. In Baja California for example some of the roads are super thin there and it can be particularly dangerous. The reason potholes are dangerous you think like oh it's a pothole maybe i'm gonna break my car but the thing with the potholes is that you can be driving at like 45 to 60 miles an hour on a road and it can seem really good and all of a sudden out of nowhere boom the road turns really bad and you really don't want to hit one of those potholes going anything over like you know 20 miles an hour so you try to slow down really quickly you try to swerve and that is where the danger comes. There are often head-on collisions with other cars because both cars are trying to dodge potholes that they see at the last minute so when driving in Mexico you have to be super vigilant not just for the potholes that are in your lane but you also need to pay attention to what is in front of you what is coming towards you and what is behind you so if you're going to swerve when you're driving a slow vehicle like we do in the combi you have to look you have to see the pothole look in your mirror to make sure no one's trying to overtake you which they usually are and then swerve so it can be quite dangerous also you have to be aware of what's in the other lane coming towards you what the other traffic is facing because you have to also know if they have potholes in front of them and so particularly as traffic comes towards you you have to be extremely vigilant and aware of your surroundings and believe it or not this is the main reason why people advise you not to drive on roads at night time in developing countries like Mexico or anywhere through Latin America for that matter it's because of the road conditions not because you're going to get held up at gunpoint every time you stop your car although that is possible in some places actually in many places the roads are so poorly constructed that weather has taken its toll and parts of the road have actually eroded away so you have to be extremely careful not to drive too close to the center line because you can actually hit an oncoming car and a lot of the big trucks are wider than the lane so they're actually in your lane already and you can't drive too close to the what would be hard shoulder if it existed what would you say passenger side lane because the road can actually crumble away which is obviously not ideal either of course if you want to avoid these crappy roads you can take the toll roads Mexico is embarking on a mission to spread toll roads across the country they are a little bit more expensive but no doubt you get that back in savings on maintenance on your vehicle because the roads are in really really good condition the good side is that you get places a lot faster you do less damage on your car and you use less gasoline the downsides are that they don't go through the little towns so you see more when you're on the old free roads so we always drive on the free roads and rarely go on the toll roads but it is an option if that's your cup of tea okay guys that's it for this video if you've ever driven in a developing country or Mexico please let me know what the most dangerous thing about driving there for you was because i'm always interested leave a message in the comments area below and i'll get down there and check until next time happy travels were you there the whole time