Mexico City’s metro system has installed rather nifty machines that dispense tokens to travellers who perform 10 squats. Just a little bit of light exercise and the token dispensed gives you a free ride on the metro.

Dubbed ‘health stations’ the machines also tell travellers how many calories they have managed to burn off during their exercise and are being hailed as an excellent tool for focussing attention on Mexico’s growing obesity problems. Official figures currently indicate that 70 percent of adults and 30 percent of kids are overweight… which, incredibly, is a higher figure than even the USA.
Concerns are so high that the city’s health officials describe the problem as, “the number one public health problem.”

Back to the machines, which have now been installed right across the city… and as an added incentive, the first 80,000 users will receive a free pedometer so they can keep tags on just how much energy they are using on a daily basis.

Admittedly, tickets on the metro are only about 50 centimes a pop… but the minimum wage being just six euros a day, you can see why people are quite excited by the scheme.