The effects of the ban: Now with more pictures!

"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
06/07/2018 at 19:35 • Filed to: None

Mexico City banned some cars today due to excess pollution, and this is the result:
Live traffic today 5:00PM

Tipical thursday afternoon 5PM:

As can be seen, most of the reduction in traffic occurred in the areas where rapid rail/bus public transportation is readily available, the drivers of some of this congestion could’ve represented some seven and all fifteen years old cars that failed the emissions test

The ban could be extended tomorrow, it depends of the almighty CAMMe and the winds or rains down in Mexico City.

Update:
CAMMe released a statement declaring that they would deactivate the environmental ordinance at 10PM today due to weather patterns changing and allowing for better pollutant dispersion. Tough shit if you have a car with emissions tag “2", you’re not allowed out tomorrow anyway.

Update.
Hoy No Circula and the emission control measures have been constantly challenged in court as a classists measure. Lets see how it stands
A map of Mexico City by poverty:

It is a bit outdated, but bare in mind that most of the east is still quite poor.

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DISCUSSION (44)

benjrblant > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:17

That’s a huge difference. I wonder if people ended up finding an alternate way to get to work or if many worked from home/called in sick, etc.

Chariotoflove > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:17

Considering the legendary toxic blanket that passes for atmosphere over Mexico City, this is good news.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:20

just wait for it to be an indefinite ban

Spanfeller is a twat > benjrblant
06/07/2018 at 18:21

“most of the reduction in traffic occurred in the areas where rapid rail/bus public transportation is readily available”

However, access to the suburbs and other metropolitan areas (through the ringroad in the top left corner) was severely reduced, and there isn’t a rapid transit line along it, so one must ask themselves how this impacts poorer people, specially considering the cars removed were mostly old, enviromentally damaging vehicles.

Spanfeller is a twat > Chariotoflove
06/07/2018 at 18:23

Well, they did not hit the necesary 150 points to activate the ordinance tomorrow, so it’s comming back.

It’s still quite a weird program, you see, my stinger with a twin turbo v6 gets the “00" standard... whereas a 15 year old Honda Civic can only get the “1", which is ridiculous because that civic isn’t probably as pollutant as my car! it’s age discrimination!

But it’s not as bad as before, it used to be a lot worse! much more classist!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:25

I didn’t know there were so many tree huggers in Mexico.

Spanfeller is a twat > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
06/07/2018 at 18:25

Since I’m a priviledged asshole with a car that scored “00" despite being a twin turbo v6 mid size sedan... it doesn’t effect me!

The law is promising, but also kind of flawed in that regard. richer folk circumnavigated the issue without a problem, while some poorer folk (specially in the northern metropolitan area) were screwed, and they (unlike us) don’t have a metro system for when their bmws can’t go out.

Chariotoflove > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:27

Mexican government classist and unevenly applied? The hell you say!

Spanfeller is a twat > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/07/2018 at 18:27

Oh man, not so much tree huggers as much as executives that don’t want cancer patients coming to their clinics because of smog.

In fact, the environmental effects of a Metrobus (BRT line) allow for an additional 1 million dollars of economic activity per line per day due to less people getting sick and reduced congestion.

Spanfeller is a twat > Chariotoflove
06/07/2018 at 18:28

Hey, we learnt from the best!

Chariotoflove > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:35

Spain?

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:36

If you want to severely reduce pollution, you need public transport lines that go out into more rural areas, even if it’s just a single dedicated line to transfer people to a terminal on X side of town.

Spanfeller is a twat > Chariotoflove
06/07/2018 at 18:37

Oh yes. They were so classists they gave a colony several times larger than themselves a vice roy.

they also somehow managed to link race to economics and racism to classism for generations and boy is that bitting our ass nowadays!

Chariotoflove > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:40

Yeah, but Santa Ana et al sure showed them.

Spanfeller is a twat > winterlegacy, here 'till the end
06/07/2018 at 18:45

Yes, we need to focus on a metropolitan transit network, which is a bit hard considering who is in power in Mexico State and who will be in power in Mexico City, they can’t even look eachother in the face!

We also need to focus on giving better public transportation inside the city as the most reduction happened near metro lines.. which begs the question, how shitty is public transport that it takes a government ordinance for you to take it? How much better is your car that you literally give yourself and your neighbors asthma everytime you use it?

It revolves around safety, as 44% of petty crime occurs around public transport. it also could be part of the issue that the whole northwest area of the city proper (The expensive part) lacks an efficient rapid transit network, although a high speed train between Observatorio (near Condesa) and Santa Fe (El Yaqui) is being built.

Spanfeller is a twat > Chariotoflove
06/07/2018 at 18:47

Santa Anna is like Mexico’s old timey trump

“GUYS, YOU WON’T BELIEVE THE AMAZING DEAL I CUT WITH THE TEXANS!”

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 18:50

Is this one of those things that disproportionately punishes the economically disadvantaged?

Spanfeller is a twat > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
06/07/2018 at 18:52

Oh yes, shamefully the law is quite skewed as new cars are basically excempt from these regulations. So sure, lets get your polluting 1.2 Chevy off the street as I drive my 3/4 ton suburban that got the “00" tags for being MY18!

I’m taking more screenshots of the problem.

Chariotoflove > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 19:34

Haha! Okay, we’ll go with that.

Textured Soy Protein > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 19:42

Even your “typical” example has WAY less red lines than a similar snapshot of Washington DC.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 19:49

LA: “Hold my Organic, Free Range, Gluten, Free Vegan, Chard Smoothie”

Kinja'd!!!

4:45 PM today

Spanfeller is a twat > Textured Soy Protein
06/07/2018 at 19:53

Well, to be fair it wasn’t taken at rush hour (8:30-10:30AM, and 6:00-8:30PM) and google does trace traffic more accurately in the US (as you can tell, much of the map foregoes many roads) and also, the population of Washington DC fits three times inside Iztapalapa...

Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Vancouver have some of the worst traffic in North America because of the urban sprawl across them!

Spanfeller is a twat > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
06/07/2018 at 19:56

I mean, it’s not a competition... LA is also making important investments in public transport that could help alleviate that!

LA and Mexico City have a similar urbanized area size at around 500sqkm... and twice the people live here! I hope that makes you think about urban sprawl!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 20:27

So preserving the planet is actually good business?

Spanfeller is a twat > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
06/07/2018 at 20:40

Yes, go ask the states where all the green energy money is going to!

Textured Soy Protein > Spanfeller is a twat
06/07/2018 at 20:55

The population of DC itself is relatively small but including the suburbs is about 6 million people. Yes I know, still much smaller than Mexico City. Basically all the rankings of worst traffic in US cities put LA, DC or Atlanta at the top depending on how they measure.

Future Heap Owner > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 03:39

This is a somewhat insensitive thing to say, but I enjoyed the scale on that map. It made me think: I’ve only ever seen legends with hard numbers, but often times neither the numbers nor the visuals give you much a sense of context.

Enjoy your clean-burning twin turbo

Spanfeller is a twat > Future Heap Owner
06/08/2018 at 06:07

“Clean burning”

Honestly, the law is not that great for people that need their cars more than I do.

Its like the water laws, they subside small AND big consumers. People in Lomas de Chapultepec use upwards of 800L of water per resident per day! It’s madness!

Spanfeller is a twat > Textured Soy Protein
06/08/2018 at 07:46

Mexico’s metropolitan area has 21 million, and the area affected by the ordinance has 33 million people....

But yeah, DC traffic is thought to be horrible. I wonder what makes that true... is there no effective public transport in the DC and Metro area?

Textured Soy Protein > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 09:37

There’s various reasons. The city itself is much smaller than the surrounding suburbs but about 1 million people commute into the city each day. Public transportation including the subway is pretty good for commuting from different parts of the suburbs into the city, but not good for going from one part of the suburbs to a different part. That requires driving. And in that case, if you’re one of the many people like me who commutes between Maryland and Virginia, there’s only a limited number of places to cross over the river that separates them. There are actually metro stations close to both my house and office but as you can see here, to get from one to the other on the train I’d have to ride all the way in to the city, transfer from a red line to a silver line train, then ride all the way back out again.

Kinja'd!!!

So with all the people trying to go to all different parts of the area, and only a chunk of them having the train as a viable option, and only a limited number of places to cross the river, there’s just way more people on the roads than there is capacity for.

Spanfeller is a twat > Textured Soy Protein
06/08/2018 at 09:48

It seems like y’all need a ring road or a light rail for the burbs’

Textured Soy Protein > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 09:56

There is a ring road. It’s what I drive to and from work on and gets all clogged up thanks to being the main river crossing.

Spanfeller is a twat > Textured Soy Protein
06/08/2018 at 09:59

Yeah... I only saw two bridges... those seem to be chokepoints.

Maybe a light rail connecting the metro’s far ends

Textured Soy Protein > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 10:19

There are 4 bridges connecting Virginia to downtown DC, but they’re all close together and don’t help those not going in our out of the city itself. 495 is the ring highway and it only crosses the river at two points.

There is a toll road, Maryland route 200 (in the top part of the map) that was built a few years back connecting interstates 270 and 95, which are the main north/south highways in Maryland. It alleviates some of the traffic heading east/west through Maryland. But a lot of people don’t mess with it because of the tolls.

There’s also a light rail line they’ve been trying forever to build in Maryland that runs roughly parallel to the main ring road, 495, a little closer in to the city. Which, again, once it’s built, will help those traveling east/west through Maryland.

Kinja'd!!!

The problem is, a TON of jobs are in Virginia, southwest of the city, and a lot of people would rather live in Maryland than Virginia. Neither the toll road nor the light rail helps reduce that traffic, since they’re both completely in Maryland.

Living and working in Virginia doesn’t guarantee an easy commute anyway because most of the non-highway main roads in Virginia are worse traffic than their equivalents in Maryland. Maryland traffic is bad but Virginia traffic is a little extra bad. It can easily take me 45 minutes to go the 6 miles from my office to the bridge. Well, only in the evening. At least for me, the morning rush hour is usually tolerable.

Future Heap Owner > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 11:01

Yeah I believe that, especially if you need it more and can’t afford to buy a newer one. Universal private car ownership is not a great default choice to plan a city around.

This is something that comes up a lot when I idly talk about political solutions to traffic and/or climate change policies with coworkers: a lot of suggestions are super regressive and would hit poorer people, who tend that need their car the most and also use it a lot, the hardest.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 11:19

Agreed. I really hope the metro expansion helps. It needs to be convenient to take public transportation or else it will fail.

Spanfeller is a twat > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
06/08/2018 at 11:25

One of the things that make public transport cheaper and more convenient is hybrid building designation laws (as in mixed residential/ comercial) and denser populations (more verticalization)

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 12:04

We need the old red car lines back. Or at least something with this many lines that isn’t a bus.

Kinja'd!!!

LA’s population density is still somewhat effected by where stations used to be.

Spanfeller is a twat > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
06/08/2018 at 12:17

Given the physical size of LA, perhaps a mixed system with some underground, high speed metros, light rail, and BRT lines could work quite well

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 12:31

All of that sounds amazing. I’m just happy they are actually taking a train line to LAX. I used to take the train from work, transfer lines, then wait for a bus to take me to LAX. I no longer work by a station but I could uber to one if that last bit was more seamless.

Spanfeller is a twat > Future Heap Owner
06/08/2018 at 12:45

I could talk all day about measures to reduce congestion without putting an undue burden on poorer people. Most of it circles around GNSS and making a single DMV for all the vehicles in the Mexican Valley.

One is impossible because it would make high milers more expensive and that’s just a no from some of the more stubborn communities.
The other would involve the DMVs of five states fusing in together into a single one and controlling everything from emissions testing to registration, road tax and potentially insurance.

Kinja'd!!!

Spanfeller is a twat > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
06/08/2018 at 12:48

I think a big indicator of whether people will use public transport or not is the speed and safety of it.

Like, 44% of petty crime in Mexico City occurs in public transportation. Think about that and then look at the map of all the throughways that were cleared once people were forced to take the existing transport lines. If public transport was safer, loads more people would use it!

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Spanfeller is a twat
06/08/2018 at 13:00

That is a very good point. The train goes through some rough neighborhoods and it is always a little concerning being surrounded by people with teardrops tattooed on their face.

Spanfeller is a twat > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
06/08/2018 at 13:05

In Mexico City, women are given their own metro wagon... you know... to avoid sexual harrasment.

It’s a disgrace.