Pollution levels in Bolivia plummet on nationwide car-free day

Country wants to reclaim physical activity in age when young people are focused on computers, says government spokeswoman

Air pollution levels have plunged in cities across Bolivia as the country marked a nationwide car-free day in which all non-emergency vehicles were banned from city streets.

As Bolivia's middle-class population has increased over the past 10 years so has the number of cars clogging city streets. The car-free event started 18 years ago in Cochabamba, one of Latin America's five most polluted cities, and has gradually taken root across the country. By 2011, it had become so popular that Bolivia's legislature declared a yearly "Day of the Pedestrian and Cyclist in Defence of Mother Earth".