Mexico City has ordered every car off the road for one day a week to fight the city's notorious air pollution — now the worst it's been in 11 years.
The order is an extension of the capital's "no circulation" rule, which states that cars can only drive on days specified by their license plates.
Before now, you could get around the "no circulation" rule if your vehicle had been inspected and certified as low emission. Now those low emission vehicles need to idle one day a week, too.
The program starts Thursday, the Guardian reports, and it will run until June 30, when the rainy season should clear away the smog that settles atop the volcano-circled megacity.
Critics say that the no circulation rule — first introduced in 1989 — doesn't work, since people just buy second cars or bribe an inspector to get the low emission certification. One study found that it's lead to an increase in carbon dioxide.
Estimates state that cars are responsible for 49% of greenhouse gas emissions in the city.
Home to 17 million people and 3 million cars, Mexico City is one of the most congested urban centers in the world.
Unless something radical happens, the situation is going to get worse — as the Mexican capital will be the world's tenth-most populous city by 2050.
Cities around the world are trying to figure out what to do about automobile pollution. Paris introduced a car ban for when smog spikes, and Oslo has decided to ban cars from its city center,
