Update: ‘Pico y Placa’ Vehicle Restrictions to hit Medellin Metro Area in September
Area Metropolitana de Valle de Aburrá (AMVA) – the metro Medellin government coordinating agency – announced August 26 that “pico y placa” driving restrictions — initially targeted for October 4 — instead will return for all 10 cities in the Medellin metro area starting in September.
“By consensus, the mayors of the metro area decided to apply the ‘pico-y-placa’ measure once every 15 days for all vehicles, including two- and four-stroke motorcycles,” according to AMVA. “The measure will reduce vehicular traffic between 7% and 10%.”
Under the revised scheme, driving restrictions officially start September 6 — during a two-week “education” phase — for vehicles with license plates ending in 0. On September 18, as-yet-unspecified fines will start to be imposed on violators.
“The mobility restriction will be between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday,” according to AMVA.
License-plate rotations will be “one digit every 15 days,” presumably meaning that plates ending in 1 would be banned on September 7, ending in 2 on September 8, and so-on. However, AMVA failed to specify explictly the exact day/plate-number rotation sequences.
“Pico y placa” bans also will hit two- and four-stroke motorcycles starting October 4, according to AMVA.
“Each municipality [that is, the 10 cities in the AMVA area] must issue a decree to apply the measures in its territory,” but AMVA didn’t explain exactly what this means. Presumably, Medellin could have rules or fines differing from Envigado or Bello, for example.
