With some 20+ million people living in Mexico City, I expected traffic to be horrible. Truly horrible.

Truth is, it’s not half as bad, most of the time. Just avoid the rush hours, and you’re fine.

My first impression, arriving on a Sunday, ahead of the national holiday, was: there is no traffic at all.

Even the following Monday was ok, as most people did not go to work but made the bridge with the Independence Day on Tuesday. Wednesday though, it was all back to normal.

I’m in a quiet street in Zona Rosa. Hardly any through traffic. Nearby Paseo de la Reforma though sees endless cars, all day. I sleep in the morning, so I don’t know about the morning rush hour.

But between 5pm and 7pm, I really don’t want to go out or walk much. Cars, endless… honking, curving, honking, driving. Did I mention: honking?

The city has been built for cars. There are some major arteries that cut through the neighborhoods, and crossing them can take an eternity, with several major streets to cross at weird angles.

There might be no indication that you can cross it at all. Pedestrian crossings or traffic lights for pedestrians are rare, you have to follow the lights for cars on the street.

However, you’re never sure if you can really cross it or if, from some angle, cars will shoot out and get in your way. Always, ALWAYS, have a look on who is coming your way!

To be fair: it seems to be getting better. Some major crossings do have signs for pedestrians, counting down the seconds you have to cross.

Bike lanes have appeared, and the city has invested in a rental bike scheme the likes of Paris or Brussels, called Ecobici. The grid is pretty impressive: you’ll run into a station everywhere.

I haven’t tried it out. I’ll see if I’ll dare. It’s too crazy. Maybe on a Sunday when some lanes are closed to traffic and open for bikers.

I don’t want to drive a car, either. I discovered that roundabouts can not only be used in the usual, one way, anti-clock-wise turn, but both ways.

It’s hard to describe, but it makes sense: you don’t have to go three-quarters of the roundabout when you want to exit to the left. Just use the short-cut and drive over to the left right away.

You’re supposed to to it that way in some roundabouts. Not in all, though. I just wonder how they clear the roundabout in time for the other cars to drive in again.

They have innumerable police in the streets, helping traffic to run smoothly. They are gesticulating wildly or blowing their whistles non-stop to speed up cars and get them over the crossing, or stop them and let pedestrians pass. Sometimes in synch with traffic lights, sometimes totally off.

As for air pollution, it is better than I thought. I was expecting huge smoke clouds hovering over me all day.

However the daily rain clears up the air pretty much in the evening.

An advantage of being here still in summer. In winter, without the rain, the city might look like on this picture.

Directly on the streets, the pollution is palpable, though. Blue, grey, black clouds coming out of the exhaust pipes of some older busses or relatively modern vans.

Leaving the poor policemen and women in a cloud of poison. No one wears a mask though.

Public transport is somewhat developed, with the metro grid and busses. I’ll come back to that in a future post.

Parking is another issue. In my street, there’s always a free spot now and then during the day. It’s paid parking between 8 and 20, and looks really easy, if you know how to handle it. We didn’t.

When we came back from Teotihuacán, and dropped off the luggage at the apartment, we parked in front of it. The parking machine wanted a numero de placa, which I thought was the number painted on each parking box.

Well, it wasn’t. It meant the license plate. So when a meter maid passed by, we got a ticket, for 540 Pesos. And not only that,  a wheel clamp, too, to make sure we paid it.

Short moment of panic, but we quickly figured out we could pay the fee at sone of the surrounding shops like 7 Eleven, and then call them to unlock the car.

It worked out fine, and some 25 minutes later we could drive the car back to Avis. Crisis averted.