Mexico City - bike card

I use the bike share system, Ecobici, here in Mexico City for most of my transportation needs and, for the most part, it works pretty well despite the poor condition of most of the bikes, inadequate infrastructure and the zany traffic. 

 Until this year, there was a protected bike lane for a good portion of Paseo de la Reforma, the route downtown, but, with the construction of a new Metrobus lane, much of the protected bike lane isn't currently protected giving free rein to motorists to stop where the lane should be, making for a harrowing ride. 

It's the type of system that uses docking stations as opposed to the newer type of dockless systems that are springing up all over the world where you need a smart phone to access the bikes but they can be left anywhere.  

 But here's the deal with Ecobici: as a foreigner, you can apparently get short term use of the share bikes, one day for 94 pesos, three days for 188 pesos, 7 days for 312 (nice round numbers).  I say "apparently" because I've never had any success. There is also an annual pass for 416 pesos.  If one is in Mexico for a few weeks the annual pass is clearly the way to go.  BUT, you have to go to an Ecobici office or kiosk and you have to have a Mexican credit card to pay for it and if you're not a Mexican citizen or resident, you can't get a credit card. (Yes, Catch 22). For short term use, you can supposedly use any credit card. To acquire an annual card is a major bureaucratic process with long forms and even a test on the rules. (Don't get me started on "traffic rules" here.) Alfonso also has an annual pass so he has helped me get one, using his credit card, and it goes on his Ecobici account. When I got here I still had a few days left on my pass but on January 5 it expired.  No problem, we'll just go down to the Ecobici office close by and renew.  When we got to the office it was abandoned due to earthquake damage.  Alfonso called Ecobici and was instructed to go to one of their kiosks located on Reforma.  I had my drivers license and a copy of my passport but that wasn't good enough.  The good news was that the process was so slow that by the time I hustled home to get my passport, they still weren't done renewing Alfonso's pass.  The process took about 45min per person and when we were done, the card didn't work.  Apparently Ecobici had changed the system so Alfonso had to go on line and mess around with his Ecobici account some more before the pass worked.  What a relief when he finally succeeded.