Today, El Siglo newspaper published that the Metropolitan Transit Authority is now in charge of directing traffic in Santo Domingo. The decree gave AMET the responsibility of directing traffic, previously shared with the Police. Amet directs traffic in Santo Domingo, Santiago, and San Francisco de Macoris. The head of AMET, Oneximo Gonzalez, says one of AMET’s priorities is driver education. He said his department signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education to begin drivers education classes at schools nationwide. AMET got off to a good start in 1997 when the new department recruited high school graduates for traffic control duty (police agents only have to have grade school education), began paying them upwards of RD$5,000 a month and gave them superior training. Police traffic agents were making less than RD$3,000. As a result, the AMET service gained the respect of citizens. El Siglo says that AMET has signed an agreement with the Supreme Court of Justice that obliges anyone summoned to appear in the Traffic Court at the AMET headquarters to take a two-hour driver re-education class. AMET says they are working on implementing a new system where cars, not drivers, will be fined for traffic law violations. Under this new system, which could go into effect in January 2002, traffic agents will place fine stickers on vehicles. The drivers need to visit a Banco de Reservas branch to pay the fine.
