We have driven in Cancun for over 25 years; first as touristas for 2-3 weeks a year and now as expats living there, so I cannot speak to driving experiences anywhere but the peninsula and south. In the hotel zone, there are many, many traffic lights, and pedestrian crosswalks. It can be a real nightmare to drive the "Zone" during certain times of the day and on certain days. For the most part, drivers obey the traffic lights. It is mostly the native (Mexican) drivers that yield to pedestrians using the crosswalks. The tourists fly by even if someone has stepped into the crosswalk! And buses pulling in and out of bus stops have the right of way, as they do in the States. I don't think I have ever seen a tourista yield to a bus yet. And we saw a terrible accident where a tourist driving an SUV ran right into the middle of a bus that was pulling out. It was tragic and we saw the tourists being taken into police custody.
Cancun has grown so massive that traffic can be a nightmare simply because of volume. The main hotel road (Kulkekan) is always busy and the traffic lights are completely "uncoordinated" (if you are an American you'll probably understand this.) And if you are taking Kulkekan downtown anytime after 3:00 pm be ready to sit, sit, sit and wait and creep along. Just WAY to many cars for the road. From Pok ta Pok to downtown can take over an hour after 3:00, while it takes just a few minutes during normal traffic times. As far as driving in el centro, it is just a matter of YOU being a good and courteous driver and not expecting the same from anyone else. It isn't so much that they are bad drivers, they just watch out for themselves and not so much for others. So if you are a good defensive driver, and know the correct horn signals, you should be fine. If you get pulled over by the police, it will "cost" you at least $200.00 pesos to avoid having your license and/or license plate taken to the police station, if you catch my drift.
So, in the city, just drive with AWARENESS and you should be fine.
Now, if you are going to drive south towards Playa, you need to be really careful of non Mexican drivers (yes, Americans and Europeans). It seems like they think that since they are in Mexico, driving is a free-for-all and you can make up your own speed limit... just nuts!
So, in the Yucatan peninsula if you just drive defensively, like you have to in the states, you should be fine. The 3 accidents we have seen in the past 2 years were all tourist related.
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