The first thing that struck us while arriving in Quito the first day, was the enormous amount of air pollution, coming from all type of cars : of course the trucks, buses and oldmobiles, … but also a lot of the newly looking cars. It is not a 2nd hand time delay phenomenon. This makes me think back at the time one time experience in 1974 when I drove by bike home from school and almost choked behind a starting truck. And it seems a recognized problem in Ecuador, but seemingly very difficult to tackle.
Amazing, as cars are sold here at (guess) 50+% higher prices than in Europe/US. And still car manufacturers sell and make highly polluting vehicles. I fear that new cars can still be sold in Ecuador with emission norms that are unthinkable in Europe.
If the technology exists and has been paid off, and the car manufacturer makes huge profit margins, why not sell healthy cars at a minimally higher cost. There must be better strategies than funding a pollution lobby. And this is also a shared responsibility of the engineers who work for these companies. Here I am 🙂
I really loved those streets in the Andes. The houses, the playing children and the street were in a natural balance. Cars had to drive slowly between mud and holes. The asphalted road later on, changed everything : speed created danger, the black road changed the healthy environment of the village in a drive-in, or better a drive-“through”.
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