Pedaling placidly, black-suited businessmen and women in dresses and high heels wheel shiny red bikes between growling green buses, serenaded by shrill police whistles and coughing diesel trucks, the morning sunlight filtering through yellow smog, AP reported. Happy Earth Day, Mexico City. With its scofflaw drivers, gridlocked traffic and cobblestoned downtown, Mexico City isn't the most bicycle-friendly place. But residents are being asked to take the risk for Madre Tierra as part of a larger campaign that leaders hope will clean up this 700-year-old metropolis. «It's now that we need to act, and we are urging other urban leaders around the world to do the same _ to improve quality of life for their citizens and the health of our planet,» Mexico City's environmental secretary, Martha Delgado, said Wednesday during a phone interview while visiting Washington to share Mexico City's successes with government leaders and counterparts. This spring the city launched Ecobici, installing 1,100 bikes at 85 stations throughout the center of the city. In its first three months, 4,000 people have paid $24 for user cards they swipe at a rack to release a bicycle for a half-hour. City officials hope to register 24,000 people in the first year. With 50,000 trips taken to date through Mexico City's harrowing streets, city officials are delighted with the results: zero accidents, zero thefts. Introduced in Europe in the 1960s, bike sharing has evolved from a few, informal programs when do-gooders put free bikes out on city streets to high tech systems now used in dozens of cities from Shanghai, China, to Santiago, Chile. One of the largest is in Paris, where three reported fatalities early on and more than 7,500 thefts led to some serious concerns. But Paris pressed on, opening more bike stations and educating drivers; now studies show the 115,000 bike trips a day have significantly eased traffic. Ecobici is part of Mexico City's 15-year Plan Verde, a $1 billion-per-year program supported by Mexico's federal government, the World Bank and the United Nations. The plan includes a new, energy efficient bus system, once-a-week no-drive days for all cars, and subway system improvements. Every Sunday, 16 miles of downtown streets are closed to car traffic, allowing cyclists and pedestrians to safely cruise their city. Parks are staying open later and rooftop gardens being installed. «This is exactly what we need big cities in emerging economies to be doing,» said Mauricio Cardenes, director of Latin America issues at the Brookings Institution. Here's how the Ecobici system work: Users can check out a bike for 30 minutes at a time. They return it to any of the bike stations, and 10 minutes have to pass before they check out another one. If a bike is kept out longer than a half hour, small fees start to accrue. The bikes have adjustable seats, and they come with lights that go on automatically when ridden and have small racks to hold purses or groceries. -- SPA
