Decades ago Mexico City's air pollution was so poor, birds would fall out of the sky -- dead. Locals said living there was like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, according to one report. In response, Mexico City took several steps to try to improve air quality including restricting driving one or two days during the weekdays. The program has had negligible results.
In 2008, the city added driving restrictions on Saturdays in hopes of moving the needle but according to new research by Lucas W. Davis, an associate professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, extending the program one more day also isn't working.
[...] To determine the impact of Saturday restrictions, Davis analyzed hourly air pollution data from 29 monitoring stations around Mexico City from 2005 to 2012. He studied emission levels for carbon monoxide; nitric oxide; nitrogen dioxide; nitrogen oxide; ozone; large particulates; small particulates; and sulfur dioxide. None of these pollutants decreased as a result of Saturday driving restrictions.
[...] "People have found other ways to get around the driving restrictions," says Davis. "Some purchase multiple cars, others take taxis or Uber."
[...] "Test every car, test every year. If you have a car that's polluting the air, you can't drive it. Period," says Davis.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @05:54AM
Around the time of the soccer world cup in Mexico in 1986, there was talk of setting up giant fans to blow the pollution away. What ever became of that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @06:11AM
Mexico got caught up in a giant argument over whether the idea sucks or blows so they just gave up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @11:42AM
Soccer fans? I see what you did there...
(Score: 2) by mrpg on Sunday February 05 2017, @04:01PM
That sounds weird, turns out it is true:
Mexico Hopes To Blow Away Air Pollution
February 21, 1992
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-02-21/news/9201090826_1_polluted-air-thermal-inversions-ozone-levels [sun-sentinel.com]
Scan of a newspaper:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19920220&id=C11WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QPADAAAAIBAJ&pg=4938,6088460 [google.com]
And look at this from more than "one year ago" (the article has no date):
Giant Fans Will Soon Suck CO2 out of the Atmosphere and Turn It into Fuel
http://bigthink.com/design-for-good/giant-fans-will-soon-suck-out-co2-from-the-atmosphere-and-turn-it-into-fuel [bigthink.com]