Mexico City Temporarily Bans All Cars One Day a Week to Tackle Air Pollution i24news
go to original March 31, 2016

A view of Mexico City blanketed by smog on March 15, 2016 (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)

Authorities in Mexico City have temporarily ordered all cars to stay off the city's roads one day a week in response to this notoriously smoggy capital’s worst air-quality crisis in over a decade.

Until now vehicles have been exempt from the Mexican capital’s “no circulation” rules if owners obtain a holographic sticker from a smog-check center certifying them as lower-emission.

But the Environmental Commission of the Megalopolis, a cross-government agency comprising the capital and surrounding suburbs that together are home to more than 20 million people, said via Twitter that all cars must now comply, even if they have the exemption sticker.

Vehicles will also be forced to remain idle one Saturday a month.

Just two weeks ago a surge in pollution prompted authorities to issue the first air quality alert in 14 years.

President Enrique Pena Nieto convened a meeting of an anti-pollution commission after the city's government declared an "environmental contingency" on Monday due to high levels of ozone.

Read the rest at i24news

Related: Scientists Question If Mexico City's Drastic Plan to Fight Pollution Will Make a Difference (VICE News)

Related: Advocates: Mexico Suffers 20,000 Early Deaths Due to Dirty Air (AutoBlog)

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