IQ Fiskpinne

IQ = IQ
Fiskpinne = a kind of food, supposed to be made of fish
IQ Fiskpinne = refers to the intelligence of a very dead fish. Sort of.
Also the name of a climbing route in Gothenburg, Sweden (if I remember correctly).
Also something that came to mind when I tried the new sidewalk/park along the shore in Panama City, Cinta Costera.

IQ Fiskpinne.

A nice try and good intention. Instead of running on a small sidewalk as it was before, 2 meters from the traffic and the deadly poisonous buses, Diabolo Rojos, the government decided to make a nice pathway for walking, running and bicycles. Well, that is at least a positive side effect. Another, perhaps more important reason was to make more room for the cars. Instead of having four lanes in each direction, it is now 6-8 rows in each direction.

But anyway, there is now a nice strip where you can walk, run or bike almost 3 km in each direction by the sea, with benches, basketball fields, playground for kids etc. In short, a very nice place to do the evening run or just spend time. Great, and a lot of people use it- quite crowded even later in the evening.

But how to get there..? Earlier, it was an adventure to cross Avenida Balboa, to get to the shoreline. There was actually one redlight for one direction at hotel Miramar where it was, at least theoretically, possible to cross. And one more redlight where it was not too dangerous to cross.

But now they have four walking bridges! Across the lanes in one direction... Still, you have to cross the west going traffic lane. Since one of the purpose with Cinta Costera was to get more flow with the car traffic, they decided to take away the redlights.. And since it is now 8 lanes to cross, with cars going much faster. So the only way to get to Cinta Costera is, of course, to take the car. Even if you live at Avenida Balboa, 20 meters from the park, you have to take the car to get there. Or risk your life (yes, crossing really is risking your life, dead serious) running across like a madman.

It is not easy to understand fully why they made it like this. Maybe it was because they actually didnt even think that you can walk to Cinta Costera, that you actually can use your legs for other things than getting to and from the car.
Or, they were in a hurry to finish Cinta Costera, so the old president could open the park before he left office two weeks ago.
I heard that the guy responsible for the installation of the electricity in Cinta Costera quit before the opening, since he didnt want to be associated with Cinta Costera. The short cuts where too many and too big in order to finish in time.
But what do I know.

In any case. Now we have one more nice place to run in Panama City. Three places instead of two. I just hope I will survive the now even more deadly crossing of Avenida Balboa.

IQ Fiskpinne.