Ecobici, a greener transport in Mexico City(1)

Juan Longueira, 56, uses the bicycles of the Ecobici system three times a day, to commute to and from work and to exercise along the Paseo de la Reforma, a central Mexico City avenue.

“I think it’s a good service,” said Longeira, who works for the Ministry of Public Education and in September signed up for the Ecobici Individual Transport System, which the city government launched in 2010. “I use it in the morning and in the afternoon to go to and from the office, and at noon to get exercise.”

There are 32,500 users of the system, who have used the bicycles some 4.7 million times so far. In September 2012, the left-wing city government expanded the system to Polanco, a neighborhood on the west side of the city. Ecobici now has 168 stations and 2,380 bicycles in the central and western parts of the capital.

But the program still faces many challenges, to reach lower-income parts of the city and increase the promotion of the bicycle as a healthy, environmentally friendly means of transport.

Ecobici “has helped change the way people see bicycles; that has been very important,” said Areli Carreón, the president of the non-government Bicitekas.  “We have to see if it expands to lower-income areas.”

 Members register with Ecobici and pay an annual fee equivalent to 30 dollars. That gives users the unlimited right to use the bicycles for 45 minutes at a time as many times as they like year-round. If the user does not return the bike within 45 minutes, they pay between 70 cents and two dollars.

One reason Ecobici has grown is the government subsidy it receives, of around seven million dollars.

Ecobici was launched in February 2010, after a year of planning together with the Institute for Transporation and Development Policy (ITDP), a U.S.-based international non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable and equitable transportation and has been working with the Mexico City government on other transportation initiatives as well.

The Mexican branch of the U.S. company Clear Channel Outdoor has the concession to offer the service, with its Smartbike line of bicycles.

Please read Ecobici, Part 2