Hazy Mexico City Takes on Cars, but Commuters Tell It to Look in the Mirror Elisabeth Malkin - The New York Times
go to original June 15, 2016

Mexico City is taking drastic measures to tackle its first environmental emergency in 14 years. Private cars must now remain off the roads for one day a week and one Saturday each month. Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim reports. (Al Jazeera English)

Although the region was able to reduce levels of major pollutants well into the 2000s, ozone and particulates remained stubbornly high over the past decade and even increased.

In April, the regional environment commission forced the issue by sharply lowering the level at which it declares an emergency.

Suddenly, talk of pollution is everywhere. Radio reports give hourly updates as ozone levels climb each afternoon, noting how close the city is to another emergency. Newspapers plaster their front pages with photographs of vast urban landscapes shrouded in a gray-yellow murk. On Twitter, drivers post photographs of vehicles coughing filthy fumes. A longtime laissez-faire approach to outdoor activities has given way to anxious checks of the city’s pollution map.

There were rumors that the government was importing dirty gasoline from China, which officials quickly denied.

The smoggy reality has led the authorities to clamp down. Emergency measures are in force until the end of the month, when the summer rains come.

Every day, roughly 20 percent of the region’s cars are grounded. Ozone and particulates have climbed so high that the environment commission has declared eight pollution emergencies since March, imposing special rules that include taking 40 percent of the cars off the road.

But drivers waiting at an emissions inspections station recently said that they were taking all the heat.

Read the rest at The New York Times

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