Horrible Traffic Nightmare to GDL Yesterday

Yesterday we went to the old Costco near Galerias Mall, but much later than normal. We left the Pemex on the Libriamento at 1:40 PM. We were approaching the area before you go up the hill to GDL where it says Bienvenidos a Guadalajara. Four lanes of traffic STOPPED. Creeping at 0 - 5 mph. They had 2 or 3 of the left lanes blocked off. We were in traffic at least 25 minutes.
On the way home we saw traffic backed up going into GDL from the Airport creeping ahead.

Best to go the other way thru Jocotepec.

martygraw wrote:Best to go the other way thru Jocotepec.

Not with the road construction in Joco and definitely not when you go to Costco across from the Galerias Mall. That's around the world. It's 1 hour or more just to the new Costco and much farther to the Costco at Galerias Mall.

They have been doing construction on those three lanes that lead up to Lazaro Cardenas for several weeks now - and delays are at least 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. I live in San Juan Cosala and went to the Costco at Gallerias area the back way on Lopez Mateos and got there really fast yesterday. It's OK to return the regular way to the libramiento - I dropped a friend off in San Antonio on the way home. No delays coming home.

That's why I take the periferico but even then you need to go at the right times.

Updated experience on the next post.

We have been required to make a number of trips into Guadalajara Centro recently to visit the INM offices in the federal building and ran into some of the same traffic congestion problems cited by the original poster because of the roadwork taking place on the Chapala-Guadalajara highway at the hill entering Guadalajara including several rather lengthy backups requiring an extra 30 minutes or more to get downtown.

We are pleased to relate to those needing to get into Guadalajara from the Chapala area and other points south using the Chapala-Guadalajara carretera during the workday that the work has reached a stage, at least at this point, that delays are minimal and, yesterday, (December 8th) we experienced no traffic problems at all all the way into downtown Guadalajara. In the past few weeks this normally easy drive has proven to be difficult traffic-wise. If our experience holds true for the reader, you may now access downtown with minimal or no traffic backup so no need to use the dreaded periferico or drive up via Jocotepec and the Colima-Guadalajara carretera.

Of course, one never knows when driving in Guadalajara or any big city when one might run into a traffic snarl for any number of reasons but, I must say, for a city that size, Guadalajara is one of the easiest cities to drive about in in my experience. Try Paris or New York or, in Mexico, Oaxaca City or Tuxtla Gutierrez and you will come back here pleased that Guadalajara driving is a piece of cake. Now, if they could actually improve the signage that would be nice.

Actually I went to downtown Guadalajara centro historico yesterday and that bottleneck is now over. I left early to plan for the delay and zoomed right by.

BUT... they are fixing the new bridge on the other side of the road coming back so there is some delay although there are only 2 lanes shut down and hopefully it isn't for very long, you really only will encounter this if returning from the centro and not Lazaro Cardenas / Periferico.

Thanks for the update Spencer. It's nice to know what way to go into Guadalajara with all the construction!

Having driven both I can testify that rush hour in Guadalajara is a breeze compared to Vancouver, Canada.

Hey Spencer ~ Nice to see the real you back up there. Lizzy