Hispanic Culture: Public Transportation

Posted by LEAF Architect on Sunday, March 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Hispanic Culture: Public Transportation via The LEAF project

Hispanic Culture: Public Transportation

The question of whether or not to bargain is one that many Americans ask themselves when faced with the prospect of having to buy something or employ the services of someone while traveling or living in a Spanish-speaking country. If you thought of bargaining conjures up the classic scene of the seller and buyer frantically haggling over the price of a piece of merchandise, you’ll be surprised to find that such a scene will not be as commonplace as you might think. For example, you should not expect to bargain for the price when riding public transportation or when shopping in department stores, drugstores, or shops where fixed prices exist. True bargaining, as denoted by the Spanish term regatear (to bargain), will be limited, for the most part, to some marketplaces and perhaps to dealing with individual merchants, such as street vendors. All in all, the best thing to do is to shop around and compare prices. Whenever possible, try to find out the price range for a certain item ahead of time. You should always make a point of establishing a price before committing yourself to anything. Avoid being literally “taken for a ride” by a taxi driver, for example, by finding out the fare to your final destination before taking the taxi. You will find that metered taxis are not as common as they are in the U.S., so prices will vary. Ask your teacher about el regateo in his or her country so that you can get a better idea of what it involves.

Taxicabs are unquestionably the easiest way to get around, but they are more expensive than buses and hard to find in some cities. If for some reason you are unable to flag down a taxicab, you might have to go to a taxi stand (sitio, parada de taxis) or call radio taxi in order to get one. If all else fails, many cities have buses, microbuses, and fixed-run taxis, such as the peseros in Mexico City, that will pixk you up and drop you off at any point along their specified route, just as regular buses do. In some cities there will be taxis that operate between airports and central locations, such as hotels, in the downtown area of a city. There may not be a visual way to identify such taxis, for they often look exactly the same as regular taxis. We have referred to them as taxis de “carrera larga” (“‘long run’ taxis”).