new " pico y placa" in medellin this month to combat traffic and smog

[mudd]

city came out with the  new "pico y placa" this month, restricting a lot of cars and motos.
mine went from 2 times a week to  4. even Saturdays now . have a feeling this will be the new norm as traffic and smog gets worse.

[utopiacowboy]

It looks like it's only during rush hour though.

[Calipro]

It looks like it's only during rush hour though.

I never drive during those hours if I can help it even if it isn't pico y placa day for me.


They really screw with the people that have cars 1996 or older.

[mudd]

It looks like it's only during rush hour though.

hell, when is it not rush hour  medlelin now  lol ? you really have to stop and think,  where do you need to go, at what time, and how bad is the traffic going to be.

[Wildstubby]

mudd said:

hell, when is it not rush hour  medlelin now  lol ? you really have to stop and think,  where do you need to go, at what time, and how bad is the traffic going to be.

When I am in Medellin, I try to only go where I can with my feet. Lest I hop the Metro and get on the bus to Sabaneta or Itagüí. Catching a taxi to Rionegro is a different story. That was one of the questions I asked on the other forum: Is it only for private vehicles or all? Are taxis and buses exempt? All yellow tags or yellow and white tags?

[mudd]

i think the last column is for commercial, but not sure

[robert angel]

Is that one of those cities that sort of 'sits in the bottom of a bowl', surrounded by mountains and hills?

We sometime go to lovely Ashville N. Carolina, but it sits in a bowl, surrounded  by mountains and smog and industrial air pollution that blows in and settles,  sometimes makes whats otherwise a picturesque 'paradise' not so nice at times.

Aren't Medillin, Colombia and Mexico City like that too?

[utopiacowboy]

Is that one of those cities that sort of 'sits in the bottom of a bowl', surrounded by mountains and hills?

We sometime go to lovely Ashville N. Carolina, but it sits in a bowl, surrounded  by mountains and smog and industrial air pollution that blows in and settles,  sometimes makes whats otherwise a picturesque 'paradise' not so nice at times.

Aren't Medillin, Colombia and Mexico City like that too?

Exactly. We lived in Missoula, Montana and Salt Lake City, both of which are in bowls surrounded by mountains. The inversions were especially bad in the winter. Of course in Montana, you were not allowed to burn wood during an inversion and you could get a citation if they saw smoke coming out your chimney.


In SLC on the other hand, everyone burned wood like maniacs during inversions. We used to go up to Alta and Snowbird through Little Cottonwood Canyon and at a certain altitude you would leave the smog below and rise into a bright blue sunny day.

[Wildstubby]

When I first went to Medellin, I was immediately struck by the similarity between it and Naples, Italy, part of which sits in the caldera of an extinct volcano! (Medellin was much cleaner). Anyway, coming down from Rionegro, you could indeed see the temperature inversion and I recognized immediately what the issue was. More to the point, many of Colombia's cities seem to sit in a valley or at a lower altitude than its surrounding geography. Much of Bogota's problem stem from the mountains that protect  it from the winds. These without doubt, clear any smog that hangs over the city. People talk of Los Angeles, CA being loaded with smog due to everyone living there. But the truth is the Native American tribes ages ago often referred to that area as 'one being covered with smoke!'

[mudd]

When I first went to Medellin, I was immediately struck by the similarity between it and Naples, Italy, part of which sits in the caldera of an extinct volcano! (Medellin was much cleaner). Anyway, coming down from Rionegro, you could indeed see the temperature inversion and I recognized immediately what the issue was. More to the point, many of Colombia's cities seem to sit in a valley or at a lower altitude than its surrounding geography. Much of Bogota's problem stem from the mountains that protect  it from the winds. These without doubt, clear any smog that hangs over the city. People talk of Los Angeles, CA being loaded with smog due to everyone living there. But the truth is the Native American tribes ages ago often referred to that area as 'one being covered with smoke!'

  i remember in the 70'sand early 80's in san diego. more so where i  lived in el cajon. its a small valley, you could just see the brown smog sitting there. lot  of cases of asthma.  didnt clear up until removal of lead, cleaner burning gas, smog checks,  cleaner burning cars and motos. ect. now, you cant see any smog, and their are more cars now.

[Hector_Lavoe]

People talk of Los Angeles, CA being loaded with smog due to everyone living there. But the truth is the Native American tribes ages ago often referred to that area as 'one being covered with smoke!'

Minor correction. In 1542, the Spanish sailor Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo led a voyage north up the Pacific Coast from present day Mexico. 

That trip produced the first written observations of the Los Angeles area. They also bestowed on it one of the region's first European names: "Baya de los Fumos", or Bay of the Smoke.

As you pointed out, the "smoke" was from the native Tongva villages where fires were lit.

https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/why-did-a-1542-spanish-voyage-refer-to-san-pedro-bay-as-the-bay-of-the-smoke