Pico y Placa

As we prepare ourselves for the possibility of finally possessing the car that we purchased, we have to plan accordingly for what driving in Quito will be like. I think I’ve already gone into detail about the dangers of driving here (think NYC cab driver but on methamphetamines and also magnified by about 5). Another thing we have to begin considering is WHEN we can drive.

Quito is a city of 2.7 million people. It’s also a very narrow city spatially. That leads to some serious traffic issues. To alleviate that, Quito has adopted a policy that according to the internet, was created in Bogota, Colombia called Pico y Placa.

Pico y Placa was a plan to try to alleviate some of the environmental hazards caused by too many cars and also traffic. It’s a pretty simple system that carries only minor inconveniences. The gist of it is, everyone has one day of the week that they are not permitted to drive during rush hour. You cannot drive from 7:30am-9:30am and also from 4:00pm-7:30pm.

They determine which days you cannot drive during rush hour by license plate, which is also coincidentally an easy an effective way to monitor and punish people for violating it. If your plate ends in 1 or 2, your day is Monday. 3 or 4, your day is Tuesday. 5 or 6, you have Wednesday. 7 or 8 is Thursday. 9 and 0 are the poor unfortunate souls who have Friday. Good luck leaving town if you are a 9 or 0 person.

Our new car that we purchased (but haven’t possessed yet) ends in 5, so we have a good Pico y Placa day.

That’s pretty much it for this post. Nothing snarky or funny, just an interesting bit of cultural difference.