I biked Mexico City’s car-free Sunday — here’s what it’s like

In a word, wow!

Tens of miles of streets closed off, tens of thousands of riders. Just about everyone is chill; few are on light road bikes trying to go fast, and almost everyone obeys red lights.

It’s called Muévete en Bici. And most times also the Paseo Dominical.

We rented bikes through Mexico City’s bike-share system, known as Ecobici. These are tank-like three-speeders, similar to Citibike in New York City or Capital Bikeshare in DC. They get pretty beat up from lots of use so each will have a mechanical quirks; a hand brake could use some tightening, or it doesn’t feel like there’s enough resistance in the hardest gear, for example. But they do the job.

You’re supposed to ride these bikes for no more than 45 minutes at a time; that’s the share part. And we’d done just that over the previous 68 hours or so of our three-day pass.

But this time we decided to hold on to the bikes until we were done and just pay the added charges, rather than go searching for a docking station and maybe face competition for a bike. Here’s the report from the app:

Even at a sinking exchange rate, 189 pesos ($10.80) is way, way cheaper than a day pass for 30-minute rides on Citibike in New York City.

So where did we go?

We picked up our bikes in Condesa, the neighborhood where we were staying. Truth be told, we’d thought open streets wasn’t wasn’t happening that Sunday — something about it being the fourth Sunday of the month.

But then we saw cyclists streaming by on Avenida Mazatlan and figured something was on. Maybe just a different organizer? Turns out it’s called Cicloton and has a slightly different route.

No matter. We headed south, following the crowds and grabbing bottles of water and electrolytes that were being handed out for free. Nice to see mechanics available! And gear for sale if you wanted, say, a jersey.

Half the lanes on some major roads were closed to cars and open to bikes, runners, roller bladers, dog walkers, kids still getting the hang of biking … everyone. Sometimes that meant we took 2 lanes in each direction.

We even got to bike through a tunnel!

Finally, about 5 km from the end, we found a map. We also were told that the final kilometers would be hillier … and that in the other direction, yes, Avenida Paseo de la Reforma was open for bikes. That’s a road we wanted to bike on without cars!

So we turned around and headed toward the center of Mexico City.

That’s where the crowds were! But even then, it seemed calm, not crazy, and very few people trying to go too fast.

Here’s a video from the organizers.