To combat bad air, Mexico's capital to restart odd-even

The Times of India , Sunday, April 10, 2016
Correspondent : Jayashree Nandi
New Delhi: As Delhi is considering making the odd-even scheme a regular feature, Mexico City is using it to fight an "environmental emergency" this week onwards.

The Mexican capital had introduced in 1989 the 'Hoy No Circula' scheme to restrict 20% of its vehicles based on the last numberplate digit. But over the years, due to various exemptions, the scheme managed to restrict only 3% of vehicles. Last week, when PM 10 rose over 100 micrograms per cubic metres, the city decided to reimpose the restriction on 20% of vehicles.

Dario Hidalgo, the Bogota-based director of Integrated Transport at the World Resources Institute, shared his thoughts with TOI: "Mexico City has been struggling with high ozone and PM levels, which is why for the first time in four years, they have decided to increase the restrictions. It did gain congestion benefits and some reduction in air pollution due to the scheme earlier, but these were lost over the years because of a number of reasons-urban sprawl, people travelling longer distances, more flyovers that pushed vehicle numbers, and about 5% of the population buying a second car. A lot of exemptions were also allowed that diluted it," he said.

Hidalgo added that various vehicle restrictions and public transport augmentation measures did manage to bring down PM 10 levels from 150 micrograms to 50 micrograms per cubic metres.

Mexico City had earlier exempted vehicles with catalytic converters and new vehicles; now, all vehicles have been brought under the scheme.

But here's a lesson for Delhi: Mexico City had many people buying a second car to cheat the scheme that may have pushed up the air pollution levels.

Bogota, the Colombian capital, restricts 40% of its vehicles only during peak hours-from 6am to 9am and 4pm to 7pm based on numberplates. This scheme was introduced in 1998 to address congestion and not air pollution. Over the years, Bogota also built 125km of BRT and 400km of bike ways among others. A similar scheme was also introduced in Santiago, Chile in the early 90s.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/To-combat-bad-air-Mexicos-capital-to-restart-odd-even/articleshow/51760472.cms
 


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