Can I Kick It?

I recently wrote a silly little list of things I love about Mexico City, and this morning I spent a very happy hour enjoying one of my other favourite things about this place. In a stunning piece of public policy - implemented by I'm not sure whom, I guess the City of Mexico - one of the main corridors of Mexico City, the Paseo de la Reforma is closed to vehicles on a Sunday morning leaving the major street available for, primarily, bikes. 

Mexico City is not generally what I would call a particularly bike-friendly city. The roading infrastructure is, on the whole, not great. Streets are scattered with potholes and cracks, and the traffic is manic; you buy your driver's license, and the only road rule seems to be that there are no rules. Oh yea, and that indicators are for fools. But on Sundays, the Reforma is a cyclist's dream, 8 lanes of wide open space, from the lovely Bosque de Chapultepec right through to the Zocalo. This morning I put A Tribe Called Quest on my iPod and spent a very happy hour riding a ~17km circuit. My love of the Reforma monuments is well-documented, and this is simply one of the happiest, and prettiest ways to grab a little exercise on a Sunday morning. 

Mexico, like a number of developed economies and economies in transition, faces an obesity epidemic. In fact, it has the second highest rate of obesity in the OECD, behind only the US, and according to the OECD, a shocking 69% of Mexicans over 15 years old is overweight or obese. Realistically, Mexico faces many other, more troublesome challenges, and has significantly bigger fish to fry. But, in addition to the safe, enjoyable cycling (and the environmental benefits), what I love about the weekly bike access to the Reforma is the health benefits it encourages. Volunteers (I assume) manage the cross streets, and hold STOP/GO signs adorned with public health messages like "STOP (eating excessive saturated fats)" and "GO (to exercise 3 times a week)". And, whether or not these messages are effective, it's for sure that people really do use and appreciate the opportunity to exercise on the Reforma on a Sunday. Riding alongside me this morning were endless cyclists from lycra-clad pros right down to tiny toddlers, roller-bladers, skate boarders, runners, and of course my endless four-legged friends. (Anyone who knows me will know I can't walk past a furry friend without a little pat and a "hola perro", so you can imagine my unadulterated glee at biking alongside endless puppies on a Sunday morning.) Aerobics classes are held on the side of the street, and various vendors set up booths to encourage various other activity - free bike rental, or, as was the case this morning, signing people up for the Mexico City marathon in a couple of weeks. 

In a city of 20+million people, space is not always easy to find. But what I love about Mexico is that people really love and use the public space made available to them. Chapultepec park on a weekend is jammed full of Mexican families enjoying a day out and claiming their little patch of green in the City; likewise, the closing of the Reforma on a Sunday is clearly something people really make the most of. I'm no expert in public spaces (that would be my brother) but there's something that really excites me about seeing a population really use the, often limited, public spaces they have available, and I think it's great that the City is doing what it can to encourage that.