The La Paz traffic zebras, locally known as Educadores Urbanos Cebras ("Zebra Urban Educators"), are a group of "urban educators" dressed in one-piece zebra costumes. The "zebras", at-risk youth employed by the city government, work to calm traffic and educate citizens in road safety.
Founded in La Paz, Bolivia, the program has since expanded in scope and been implemented in several other Bolivian cities.
The La Paz traffic zebra program was founded in 2001, in response to growing traffic concerns caused by rural flight in Bolivia and the resulting increase in commuter traffic. [1] Antanas Mockus, who founded a similar mime-based program in the 1990s as mayor of Bogotá, consulted with Pablo Groux on designing the traffic zebras. [2] The zebras, or cebritas (a choice inspired by "zebra crossings", or "pasos de cebra"), were conceived of as a humorous way to educate citizens about road safety, on the theory that drivers might respond better to their mockery than to normal law enforcement. [1]
The program initially employed just 24 "zebras", with two people in each zebra suit. [3] These early zebras policed the streets, directing traffic with whistles and flags. [2] As the program developed and grew, the suits were redesigned to single-person outfits which could navigate traffic more easily, and the zebras' techniques shifted more towards humor and encouragement. [3] [2]
The traffic zebra program works with local youth organizations to employ at-risk teens and young adults. The young people, who are employed part-time by the La Paz city government, are given two months of training, paid the local minimum wage, and provided with health insurance. In addition, the program offers them access to classes, mentorship, and training in job skills for future employment. [3] [1] A "Zebra for a Day" ("Cebra Por Un Día") program also allows locals and tourists to try working as a traffic zebra. [4]
Zebras encourage safe driving behavior at pedestrian crossings and traffic lights, often through antics like lying across the hood of a car stopped in a crosswalk, in addition to more standard methods like distributing leaflets and directing traffic. [2] [4] Their mission has expanded to include citizen education on topics besides road safety, such as recycling, water conservation, noise pollution, and bullying. [3] Zebras make appearances at schools, hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters, television shows, and street festivals. [5] [2] In 2006, the program added "donkeys" as a negative counterpart to the friendly zebras; the donkeys were later discontinued. [6] [7]
As of 2017, the program had employed over 3000 local youth, at a rate of more than 250 each year. [1] Sister programs in Tarija, Sucre, and El Alto bring the total number of zebras working at any given time to more than 400. [2] [5]
The traffic zebras were declared a cultural asset by the city of La Paz in 2014, and by UNESCO in 2015. [8] [9] In 2016, they received the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation in the "safe and accessible cities" category. [9] [10]
A children's book based on the La Paz traffic zebras, Mateo Y La Cebra Que Buscaba Un Paso de Peatones ("Mateo and the Zebra who was Looking for a Crosswalk"), was published in 2018. [11] The zebras themselves have performed a similar play, "Mateo y su cebra" ("Mateo and his Zebra"), at local events. [12] A national television show, "The Z", depicts the life of a young man who works as a traffic zebra. [1] [9]
In 2017, John Oliver featured the traffic zebras on his show Last Week Tonight, discussing their impact on the traffic in La Paz and inviting viewers to add videos of dancing zebras to unpleasant news stories. [13] La Paz mayor Luis Revilla invited Oliver to visit the city and participate in the "Zebra for a Day" program, an invitation Oliver declined on-air in favor of dancing with a costumed zebra. [14] In 2020, in collaboration with the United States Postal Service, Oliver released a sheet of stamps which included the zebras among other popular characters presented in the show. [15]
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, officially it has 36 official languages, is a landlocked country located in central South America. It is a country with the largest geographic extension of Amazonian plains and lowlands, mountains and Chaco with a tropical climate, valleys with a warm climate, as well as being part of the Andes of South America and its high plateau areas with cold climates, hills and snow-capped mountains, with a wide biome in each city and region. It is part of the largest swamp in the world between Bolivia and Brazil. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west. The seat of government is La Paz, which contains the executive, legislative, and electoral branches of government, while the constitutional capital is Sucre, the seat of the judiciary. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales, a mostly flat region in the east of the country with a diverse non-Andean culture.
La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz, is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bolivia. Its metropolitan area, which is formed by La Paz, El Alto, Achocalla, Viacha, and Mecapaca makes up the second most populous urban area in Bolivia, with a population of 2.2 million, after Santa Cruz de la Sierra with a population of 2.3 million. It is also the capital of the La Paz Department.
Sucre is the de jure capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of 2,790 m (9,150 ft). This relatively high altitude gives the city a subtropical highland climate with cool temperatures year-round. Over the centuries, the city has received various names, including La Plata, Charcas, and Chuquisaca.
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National Route 7 is a road in Argentina. It crosses the country from east to west, from the capital to the border with Chile, thus linking the Atlantic coast with the Andes, crossing the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, San Luis and Mendoza. It has a total length of 1,224 km (761 mi), of which 367 km (228 mi) (30%) are freeways.
Road signs in South Korea are regulated by the Korean Road Traffic Authority.
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The nations of Bolivia and Mexico established diplomatic relations in 1831. Both nations are members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Latin American Integration Association, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
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