I rode my bike to work for the first time today!
As part of the expansion of the popular Eco-Bici program, there are now bike stations in Colonia Roma as well as Polanco and Colonia Doctores. This one is about 100 feet from my studio door.
When I first heard about the eco-bicis I thought you'd have to be nuts to ride one. Being a pedestrian in this city is challenging enough.
But one day Nick came home with a card for me and I reluctantly began with short rides in my home neighborhood, La Condesa, where you can actually find a few streets without traffic. Now I'm sold on the idea. I use the bikes several times a week, often in connection with the metro or metrobus. Gliding down Reforma on Sunday mornings (traffic free) gives you the feeling that you own the city. All in all, it's a liberating, expanding and fun addition to life here in Mexico City.
This is a program for city residents only--tourists are out of luck. But there is another free bike program here which requires leaving a passport or other major form of ID and a 200 peso deposit. I do not recommend using a bike here if you don't know the city well--except on Sundays, when you should head to Reforma. On the last Sunday of each month a much longer (30+ km) route is closed to traffic and you can bike around the whole city. Click HERE to see a map of bike stations.
3 comments:
I am dying to try this. I wish I had a "Nick" to go pick up a pass for me!!! You're lucky!!
Thanks for all the good information. I'm headed to Mexico City in a few weeks and was really hoping to give EcoBici a shot for getting around - news of it not being for tourists is really sad. Do you have information on the other free bike program that I might be able to use?
Thanks :)
The last paragraph of that blog post tells about other bikes which you can use for free--here's
a link to the map of where to find them.
http://ciudadmexico.com.mx/mapas/cicloestaciones.htm
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