Mexico City limits cars as air pollution worsens

MEXICO CITY Millions of smog-sick residents of Mexico City maybe breathing a little easier, at least for a couple of months.

In an unusually aggressive attempt to clean up the world's mostpolluted air, authorities have told car owners in the sprawlingmetropolitan area of 18 million people that they must leave theirvehicles at home one day a week.

Violators of the government's new "Day Without a Car" program,scheduled to last through February, face a $100 fine and their carswill be impounded for a day.

In a related move, the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, orPemex, is making available a blend of low-lead gasoline that is farcleaner than the leaded fuel common here. Pemex has agreed to pickup the estimated $16 million cost for the next three months.

"These programs may come just in time to avoid a catastrophe inMexico City," says environmental scientist Luis Manuel Guerra. "Butto make a difference, they must be permanent. A three-month-a-yearanti-pollution program isn't enough in a city where the air isdeadly."

Motorists have been issued color-coded stickers that tell themon which weekday they cannot drive. Frequent radio announcements andbright signs around the capital publicize the program.

To encourage compliance, officials have beefed up bus fleets toimprove mass transit, and Mayor Manuel Camacho has promised to resumethe subway expansion halted amid financial constraints two years ago.

The new measures come after milder, mostly voluntary stepsfailed to have much impact on the thick, gray haze that blankets thecity, often leaving Mexicans wheezing, red-eyed and unable to seemore than five blocks on the city's busiest streets.

During the past two years, pollution in the city has been sosevere that birds have dropped dead from the sky, and children havebeen given extra school holidays to get them away from the worstzones.

But local newspapers have warned that corrupt police are alreadyundermining the "Day Without a Car" program, accepting $25 bribes tolet motorists off the hook. A radio station reported brisk sales of$30 bogus decals.

"When I see the politicians taking the subway to work, I'llbelieve they're serious about fighting pollution," said Ruben Solina,a local businessman, as he waited for a bus.

Yet some ecologists are encouraged.

"The government has always been very timid when it comes tofighting pollution," Guerra says. "We're hoping this marks the end ofsymbolic ecology and the start of action."