As New York City government employees rabidly defend the carte blanche parking privileges that enable their daily driving habit, the mayor of Mexico City has decreed that officials there bike or take transit to work once a month.

According to the BBC, less than one percent of trips in Mexico City are taken by bike, a figure Mayor Marcelo Ebrard wants to raise with improved public transportation, an urban cycling program, and tax incentives for employers who encourage car-free commutes.

And the mayor isn’t just talking the talk: Ebrard was "the first to get on his bicycle from his home south of the city to his office in the central Zocalo."

The goal is to cut pollution and decrease related illness in the capital of more than 18 million.

Photo: CyberGus via Flickr