Mexico City launches eco-friendly and cash friendly project

Mexico City, the largest and richest city in Mexico, is also one of the worst for traffic jams. A recent study by IMB, the IMB Commuter Pain Study, found Mexico City and Beijing to be the two worst cities in the entire world for traffic jams, ours are among the longest and most frequent with the city getting a score of 99 out of 100 on the commuter pain index, this compared to Stockholm, which scored 15.

The horrendous traffic situation (and the resultant pollution and social stress associated with it) is, in large part and perhaps ironically, a result of the city’s development. Mexico City, if it were its own country, would have the 30^th largest GDP in the world, $315 billion is circulated in the local economy every year, which means that the GDP per capita for the city is more than $25,000, or similar to developed nations such as Estonia or South Korea.

This means that most of the 9 million or so residents of the city have at least one car and use it every day, which leads to major traffic congestion despite a metro system that is one of the cheapest in the world and spans more than 200 kilometers and is constantly being expanded, or the introduction of a rapid-transit system of streetcars in the city centre.

Expensive infrastructure developments such as this cannot keep pace with the city’s expanding economy, but a new initiative that is far less expensive has now been introduced, bike-sharing. It is already a fad in many parts of the world, particularly Europe. The basic concept is that a private company or government entity opens and maintains stalls throughout the city with a number of bicycles available at each stall, the public then take a bike and ride to the stall nearest to their final destination and leave it there.

In some cities the service is free, while others charge a nominal fee in-line with the comparatively low cost of running such a system. There are many types of bike-sharing in different cities, Mexico City’s model will be that of the membership type, whereby the public will need to pay a yearly fee of 300 pesos ($24) to register with the corporation set up to manage the system.

Once this membership has been obtained, registered users will be able to use one of the bikes for 30 minutes each day for free, which works out to around $0.06 if one trip is made every day. If users need to bike for more than 30 minutes it will cost 30 pesos for the next half hour and 35 pesos for every half hour after that.

The system, called Ecobici by local government, was launched recently and according to Mexico City news reports, it features 85 stalls and 1,114 bicycles in total, but there are extensive extension plans in the works with the Ecobici project expected to account for over 5% of all Mexico City transport use by 2012.

The project has not been rolled out without controversy. A local private company, Clear Channel Outdoor was awarded the contract to run the system and much of the funding, to the amount of 75 million pesos ($6 million) was provided by local government. There is much skepticism among the public over whether the project will prove to have any longevity, however.

The current Mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, has played a primary role in developing the system and has frequently stressed that it is the cheapest form of transport in the city, but some residents are doubtful that the project will last under the administrations of future city leadership and with corruption and crime as high as it is in Mexico City, some feel the system will become dysfunctional after a few years.

Ecobici appears to be a project with much potential though, its step in the right direction for reducing the city’s carbon footprint and will relieve traffic congestion if motorists use Ecobici bicycles for short trips instead of their cars and if the system is properly integrated with public transport, as the city government says it will, then commuters may turn to Ecobibi as well, making room for a greener future for Mexico City.