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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2007 
Green Plan to Cut Mexico City Smog
 Diego Cevallos - IPS
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| | In Mexico City, whose population of 20 million makes it the world’s second-largest metropolitan area, traffic moves at under 10 km an hour on average at rush hour, which further aggravates the already severe air pollution. |
Mexico City - The Mexico City government announced new environmental measures Thursday aimed at further restricting traffic, the main culprit for the city’s notorious smog. The plan is also to streamline the city’s chaotic traffic, in the face of warnings from experts of a total collapse of the system by 2010.
The measures include a near total renovation of the bus and taxi fleets, an extension of the Monday to Friday license-plate-based driving restrictions to Saturdays, mandatory school bussing, the creation of pedestrian-only zones in the city, and a reorganisation of the schedules of cargo vehicle traffic.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said there will undoubtedly be opponents to the plan, but the resolutions, to go into effect gradually from now to 2009, will be obligatory, and no one will "have any pretext to argue that their interests are affected."
Other initiatives included in the so-called "Green Plan" focus on expanding public transport systems, creating new parks and green areas in the city, and threatening to cut off water services for those who fail to pay their water bills.
"If these measures are not fully implemented, the chaos in the city could reach crisis level and we will all be sorry," Oscar Terrazas, professor of urban planning at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), told IPS.
Close to four million vehicles circulate in the capital, and the number increases by more than 300,000 a year, while only 30,000 are retired annually. Without urgent measures, in two or three years, the main roads will be so jammed that it will be faster to walk than to drive, said Terrazas.
"What lies ahead is true chaos," said the expert.
In Mexico City, whose population of 20 million makes it the world’s second-largest metropolitan area, traffic moves at under 10 km an hour on average at rush hour, which further aggravates the already severe air pollution.
Studies show that it takes local residents between one and 1.5 hours to make a trip within the city, whereas 25 years ago you would be outside the city after driving for an hour.
Under the Green Plan, every vehicle, even green-friendly ones, will have to remain parked at least 10 Saturdays a year. The measure is an extension of the driving ban that applies to all cars over 10 years old (which make up more than 50 percent of the total) at least one day a week, from Monday to Friday.
In addition, for the first time, cargo vehicles will have to pass emission control inspections, and their circulation will be restricted to certain hours.
"Each measure will have to be evaluated, to see if it should be adjusted or continued as is, but I think this is heading in the right direction in terms of cutting pollution, curbing traffic chaos, and expanding public transport, and without this effort the city would be on its way to collapse," said Terrazas.
Vehicle emissions make up 85 percent of the city’s smog-forming emissions in greater Mexico City, where 44.4 million litres of gasoline and other fuels are consumed daily.
Of that 85 percent, 25 percent come from industry, 11 percent from households, nine percent from electricity generation and 55 percent from public and private transport.
In the capital, where the authorities began to adopt anti-pollution measures in the 1980s, an estimated 35,000 people die prematurely every year because of air pollution, according to city government statistics.
The number of vehicles in greater Mexico City has grown fivefold over the last 27 years, and the resultant pressure has led to a 17,000-km expansion of the network of roads.
Officials acknowledge that the explosive increase was due to delays or failures in developing more green-friendly and efficient alternative transportation plans.
Air quality in Mexico City is only acceptable for one-fifth of the year.
In Mexico City, where more than two million people are estimated to suffer from neurosis, 55 percent of the population gets around by bus, 16 percent by car, and the rest by subway, taxi, bicycle or on foot.
The ultimate aim of the Green Plan is to put the Mexican capital on the road to becoming fully sustainable in 15 years, said Mayor Ebrard, who belongs to the leftwing Democratic Revolution Party.
The programme also includes an expansion of the city’s green areas, measures to preserve the city, improvements in the distribution and administration of piped water, and new garbage disposal regulations, which will oblige city residents to separate organic from inorganic waste.
A monitoring council, comprised of government officials and independent experts from different areas, was set up to assess the impact of the programme and make adjustments if necessary.
"We should all support the new measures, because if they are not implemented, the city’s future will be dim," said Terrazas.
But trucking associations and some municipal lawmakers from the conservative National Action Party, which is currently in power at the national level, challenged the viability and projected impact of some of the measures, and warned that they would take legal action or resort to direct action tactics to oppose the plan. |
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