Driving in San José: Heavy vehicle ban

San José, Costa Rica · Heavy vehicle ban

Official name Reglamento para la Ordenación Horaria de la Circulación de Vehículos Pesados (Decreto Ejecutivo N° 38238-MOPT)

Not in force in San José right nowTuesday, 13 October 2026 at 03:05 · America/Costa Rica

  • Not in force Goods vehicles over the C2+ weight (6 t) entering San José on routes 1, 2-252, 3, 5 and 27, and on route 32 between the toll and the La República junction
  • Not in force Goods vehicles over the C2+ weight (6 t) entering San José on route 32, Braulio Carrillo, between the Río Frío junction and the toll
  • Not in force Goods vehicles over the C2+ weight (6 t) leaving San José on route 2-252 towards Taras de Cartago, or on route 5 towards Santo Domingo de Heredia — the two afternoon segments MOPT has not suspended

Starts Tuesday, 13 October 2026 at 05:00 local time.

Article 2 of Decreto 38238-MOPT prohibits these vehicles from entering San José "con ocasión de la celebración de festividades y fechas especiales", on the dates and routes "indicadas en el siguiente cuadro" — and that table is a picture. It is a picture in La Gaceta N° 80 of 28 April 2014, where the decree was first published, and it renders as nothing in the consolidated text, so no reading of either source produces the dates. We will not carry across the table from the decree this one repealed, and we will not guess from the Costa Rican holiday calendar: a festival ban is not the same thing as a public holiday. So on a festival weekend this record cannot tell you whether the road is open.

Below the C2+ weight none of this applies, at any hour. If you are driving anything a car licence covers, the verdict above is not about you.

Which of these three rules is yours depends on the segment and the direction of travel, and we cannot tell which you are on: the decree describes every endpoint by a landmark and publishes no geometry.

The afternoon band is the reverse direction only, and it is currently suspended on routes 1, 3, 27 and 32 by MOPT resolución 2024-000238. The two segments encoded above are what is left. The ministry reserved the right to revoke that suspension at any time, so a date far in the future is less certain than a date this week.

Article 2 of the decree bans these vehicles from entering San José on festival and special dates as well, and we hold no list of those dates — see the note below. The weekday timetable above does not know about them.

Exemption is by vehicle and cargo, not by hour: emergency, utility, school-transport and bus traffic, perishable goods, and — under resolución 2024-000272 — electricity, water, CCSS, fuel and fresh-cement vehicles are outside the ban even inside the windows.

Operating times only, read from the source below. It does not check your vehicle.

What applies

Costa Rica keeps heavy lorries off the six national routes into San José at rush hour. A goods vehicle heavier than the maximum allowed for a type C2+ (6 tonnes) may not use the named stretches of routes 1, 2-252, 3, 5, 27 and 32 between 06:00 and 08:00 heading into the capital, Monday to Friday — 05:00 to 07:00 on the Braulio Carrillo above the toll.

There is a matching evening ban leaving San José between 16:30 and 18:30, but since 13 February 2024 the ministry has suspended it on routes 1, 3, 27 and 32, so today it bites only on the Florencio del Castillo towards Cartago and on route 5 towards Santo Domingo de Heredia. Nothing here is a charge and nothing here touches a car: below the C2+ weight the scheme does not exist for you, at any hour.

If you are driving a lorry, note that this is a rule about specific segments of specific roads, not about a zone you can see the edge of.

Source: Procuraduría General de la República, read 2026-09-12
Full citation

Procuraduría General de la República — SINALEVI, Decreto Ejecutivo 38238-MOPT, articles 1 and 5 (consolidated text, version 7 of 7), read together with MOPT resolución 2024-000238, which reproduces the article 1 table in full and suspends the afternoon ban on routes 1, 3, 27 and 32

Daily charge

There is no charge and nothing to buy. Article 1 says a vehicle over the C2+ weight "no debe circular" in the listed hours and segments; it never prices the trip, and the decree offers no permit, day pass or toll that would buy the hour back. The only ways out are what the vehicle is or what it carries, listed in article 5 and in MOPT resolución 2024-000272 — not what its operator has paid.

The tolls named in the table (Ciudad Colón on route 27, the Braulio Carrillo toll on route 32) are ordinary road tolls used as landmarks to describe where a segment begins, not a price for this restriction.

When it operates

Monday to Friday, in two rush-hour bands, and only on the named segments.

Morning, heading into San José: 06:00-08:00 on route 1 (Bernardo Soto from the Radial Coyol-Siquiares underpass to the bridge over the Radial Alajuela, then General Cañas from that bridge to the north-east corner of Parque Metropolitano La Sabana), on route 2-252 Florencio del Castillo from the Taras de Cartago junction to the end of the motorway at Hacienda Vieja in Curridabat, on route 3 Radial de Heredia from avenida 8 with calle 7 to the Pozuelo junction in La Uruca, on route 5 from Santo Domingo de Heredia to San Juan de Tibás, on route 27 Autopista Próspero Fernández from the Ciudad Colón toll to the Gimnasio Nacional corner, and on route 32 Braulio Carrillo from the toll to the La República junction; and an hour earlier, 05:00-07:00, on route 32 between the Río Frío junction and the toll.

Afternoon, leaving San José, the table sets 16:30-18:30 on the reverse of all six — but MOPT resolución 2024-000238 of 13 February 2024 suspended that band "únicamente en las rutas 1, 3, 27 y 32", and nothing since has revoked the suspension, so the evening ban currently applies only on route 2-252 towards Taras de Cartago and on route 5 towards Santo Domingo de Heredia.

The suspension is expressly revocable at any time. Saturdays and Sundays are outside article 1 entirely; what article 2 does to certain festival weekends we cannot tell you, and say so below.

Source: Procuraduría General de la República, read 2026-09-12
Full citation

Procuraduría General de la República — SINALEVI, MOPT resolución 2024-000238 of 13 February 2024, resultando 2º (which quotes the article 1 table of Decreto 38238-MOPT verbatim, both bands) and its "Por tanto" 1º

Area covered

Not an area: seven named stretches of six national routes on the approaches to San José, each with its own direction.

Route 1 (Bernardo Soto and General Cañas, between the Radial Coyol-Siquiares underpass and La Sabana), route 2-252 (Florencio del Castillo, between Taras de Cartago and Hacienda Vieja in Curridabat), route 3 (Radial de Heredia, between avenida 8 with calle 7 and the Pozuelo junction in La Uruca), route 5 (Santo Domingo de Heredia to San Juan de Tibás), route 27 (Autopista Próspero Fernández, between the Ciudad Colón toll and the Gimnasio Nacional), and route 32 (Braulio Carrillo, in two segments split at the toll: Río Frío to the toll, and the toll to the La República junction).

Direction decides as much as place: the morning table is "Sentido: Entrando a San José" and the afternoon table is "Sentido: Saliendo de San José", so the same asphalt is restricted in one direction and free in the other.

The publisher describes every endpoint by a landmark — a toll booth, a church corner, a bridge, a former car dealership — rather than by a kilometre marker or a coordinate, and we have not converted any of them into geometry.

Source: Procuraduría General de la República, read 2026-09-12
Full citation

Procuraduría General de la República — SINALEVI, MOPT resolución 2024-000238 of 13 February 2024, resultando 2º, reproducing the two tables of article 1 of Decreto 38238-MOPT ("HORARIO CON RESTRICCIÓN DE PASO EN LA MAÑANA" and "... EN LA TARDE")

Why there is no map here
There is no zone to outline. The scheme restricts seven stretches of six national routes, in one direction each, so the honest shape is a set of directed line segments rather than a polygon — and drawing a polygon around them would say the opposite of what the rule says, because a lorry standing next to route 27 on an ordinary street is not restricted at all. The segments themselves are described by landmarks, not coordinates: "desde el peaje de Ciudad Colón, hasta la esquina del Gimnasio Nacional", "hasta la esquina noreste del Parque Metropolitano de la Sabana (Agencia Nissan, antigua Datsun)". Turning those into geometry is our interpretation of where a church corner or a former dealership is, and it would decide whether a driver is committing an offence.

The authority's own map: Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), Dirección General de…

Petrol standard

There is no emission standard to meet. Article 1 sorts vehicles by one thing only — whether they exceed the maximum weight allowed for a type C2+ under Decreto 31363-MOPT, which is 6 tonnes — and never mentions exhaust, engine or fuel. A new lorry and a thirty-year-old one are treated identically, and no emission class buys the rush hour back.

Diesel standard

Not applicable, for the same reason as the petrol standard: this is a weight and timetable rule, not an air-quality one. The only fuel the decree mentions is cargo — resolución 2024-000272 exempts vehicles carrying fuel and fresh cement — which is about what is on the lorry, not what is in its tank.

Penalty if you do not comply

The decree does not state an amount, and it declines to name the article that would supply one. Article 3 says only that the traffic authorities will apply "las sanciones que disponga dicha Ley" — Ley 9078 — "cuando los conductores de los vehículos de carga ... incurran en cualquiera de los supuestos a que se refiere la mencionada Ley".

That is a pointer without a target, and we will not choose the line for the publisher.

For contrast, the other Costa Rican scheme we hold can be priced precisely because its decree does the naming: article 9 of Decreto 37370-MOPT uses the exact wording of the fine, "al conductor que infrinja las disposiciones relativas a la restricción vehicular", which is article 147 ñ) of Ley 9078 and stands at ¢26 005,53 from 1 January 2026 under Circular 220-2025 of the Consejo Superior.

On its face that line covers a restricción vehicular of any kind, so a driver should assume a fine of about that size exists here too — but this decree never says so, and neither do we.

How to comply
  • Work out whether the scheme reaches you at all. It catches goods vehicles heavier than the maximum allowed for a type C2+ under Decreto 31363-MOPT — 6 tonnes. A car, a pickup or a van under that weight is never in this scheme, at any hour, on any of these roads.
  • If it does reach you, the question is which segment you are on and which way you are going, not which city you are in. The morning ban is for traffic entering San José; the afternoon one is for traffic leaving it.
  • Morning, Monday to Friday: keep off routes 1, 2-252, 3, 5, 27 and the Braulio Carrillo below the toll between 06:00 and 08:00 heading in. On the Braulio Carrillo above the toll — between the Río Frío junction and the toll — the band starts an hour earlier, 05:00 to 07:00.
  • Afternoon, Monday to Friday: the published band is 16:30 to 18:30 leaving San José, but it is currently suspended on routes 1, 3, 27 and 32. What remains in force is route 2-252 towards Taras de Cartago and route 5 towards Santo Domingo de Heredia.
  • Treat that suspension as reversible. MOPT granted it on 13 February 2024 at the transport associations' request and wrote into the resolution that it may revoke it at any moment "en caso de que se considere que su impacto en la vialidad es negativo". Check before relying on it for a schedule months ahead.
  • Check the date as well as the day. Article 2 of the decree adds an outright ban on entering San José on festival and special dates, on the routes of article 1 — and the table listing those dates is published as a picture, in the gazette itself, so we cannot tell you which dates they are. This is the one part of the rule we hold no text for.
  • The exemptions are about what the vehicle is or what it carries, not about a permit. Article 5 exempts police, traffic-control and fire vehicles, ambulances, buses, authorised school transport, MOPT Public Works Division vehicles, and vehicles used exclusively and publicly for emergencies or public-utility maintenance; perishable goods are exempt too, and the operator has to be able to demonstrate that to the officer.
  • Resolución 2024-000272 of 22 February 2024 adds more: vehicles of public institutions and public companies supplying electricity and water, vehicles owned by the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, and vehicles carrying fuel or fresh cement.
  • Do not read this record as a map. Every segment endpoint in the decree is a landmark — the Ciudad Colón toll, the north-east corner of La Sabana, the church corner in San Juan de Tibás — and we hold no geometry that would tell you which side of one you are on.
Source: Procuraduría General de la República, read 2026-09-12
Full citation

Procuraduría General de la República — SINALEVI: Decreto Ejecutivo 38238-MOPT articles 1, 2, 3 and 5 (consolidated text, version 7 of 7, article 5 as reformed by Decreto 43735 of 30 September 2022), MOPT resolución 2024-000238 of 13 February 2024 and MOPT resolución 2024-000272 of 22 February 2024

Sources

Next scheduled re-check: 2026-12-12.

Before you set off

Also in San José

A city can run more than one scheme, and they do not always answer the same question.