Ecobreves – CHILE: Taxi Drivers Go Green

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Mar 18 2001 (IPS) - Taxi drivers are to participate in a program to restrict daily vehicle traffic in the Chilean capital, a system that has been in place since the 1980s for privately owned cars to reduce the city's high level of air pollution. The National Confederation of Independent Rental Car Workers of Chile, which includes 51 of the 53 taxi unions in Santiago, signed an accord Mar 12 with the Ministry of Transportation to add those vehicles lacking a catalytic converter (equipped to use unleaded gasoline) to the pollution-fighting initiative.

From Monday to Friday, 8,000 rental cars will no longer circulate, a number equivalent to 20 percent of the fleet, according to the agreement, which is in effect Mar 26 to Aug 31.