Mexican officials must ride to work

Officials in Mexico City who are receiving orders to temporarily leave their luxury cars and cycle to work at least once a month.

The regulation in the Mexican capital has just officially entered into force to reduce chronic traffic congestion and serious environmental pollution in one of the world's busiest cities. Every day, about 4 million cars travel in this city of over 18 million people.

Public employees who cannot ride for health reasons or who are too far away from their workplaces will be allowed to use public transport, but must not ride their own vehicles. The government also has a tax incentive policy to encourage companies with many employees to work on bicycles.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was the one who proposed the bike program once a year last year. He was also the first to ride a bike from the southern city of the city to the work center.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard (center) and officials ride bicycles to work in Mexico City. (Photo: Reuters)

Currently only 0.7% of travel activities in Mexico capital are made by bicycles and Mayor Ebrard has the ambition to increase this ratio to 2% within 3 years and 5% within the next 6 years. At the same time, he also announced that he would improve public transportation systems such as organizing more special bus routes to serve the public servants.

Government