Skip to main content

Mobility for Mexico

Urban mobility is high on the infrastructure agenda in Mexico. While highways continue to be a priority, capital Mexico City and other large cities across the country are looking to implement mass transport systems such as bus rapid transit (BRT) lines.
May 3, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Urban mobility is high on the infrastructure agenda in Mexico. While highways continue to be a priority, capital Mexico City and other large cities across the country are looking to implement mass transport systems such as bus rapid transit (BRT) lines. At the heart of Mexico City's transport policy is a contradiction that is typical of the country as a whole. The government is spending big on line 12 of the metro system and has introduced the first Metrobús BRT line in the country, but continues to concession the construction and operation of large tollroads, including the controversial Supervía Sur-Poniente highway.

Business News Americas spoke with Salvador Herrera, executive director of the 4182 Centre for Sustainable Transport (CTS), a non-profit organisation supporting sustainable transport, about the elements of a sustainable transport system, the structural limitations affecting policy implementation and Mexico City's addiction to the car. Herrera said, "The most important topic for 2012 will be the creation of an integrated public policy that benefits both mobility and urban development."

Mexico’s big cities face mobility challenges, including the construction of more highways and improved public transport. Herrera said, “The centre's focus is on an integrated transport system. For the last few decades the country has focused on infrastructure dedicated to the car. We want to challenge this paradigm so that infrastructure is directed at different forms of mobility. This includes prioritising modes of transport that contaminate less, and move more people in a safe and efficient manner.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Black is green: the bitumen sector rises to the mobility challenge
    April 14, 2020
    Asphalt may be black most of the time, but the bitumen sector is green and getting greener, says Siobhan McKelvey, head of Eurobitume.
  • Learning from Russia's controversial road project
    February 9, 2012
    The International Road Federation (IRF), founded in 1948, is the only world forum advocating better and safer roads through better road design and construction bearing in mind the user. It is a unique institution that brings together members active in road infrastructure from both the private and public sectors. The IRF promotes roads that are safe, economically viable and ecologically friendly. The IRF believes that a sound road infrastructure brings prosperity, fights poverty, furthers education and gi
  • IRF traffic management training on investing smartly, deploying effectively
    December 19, 2014
    IRF delivers advanced traffic management training in Riyadh For the second in a series of ITS courses specially tailored for the needs of fast-transitioning economies, the IRF assembled a multi-national cast of renowned instructors who delivered five modules focusing on major mobility applications. Held from October 19th–22nd, 2014, the course was attended by over 170 transportation and engineering professionals from a wide array of public agencies, including the municipalities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, t
  • ERIC 2016: What shape the ‘Smart Road’?
    February 7, 2017
    Optimism about the future of highways worldwide abounded at the inaugural European Road Infrastructure Conference (ERIC) in Leeds, UK Around 500 delegates passed through the varied sessions during the three-day event at the Royal Armouries Museum in the northern English city of Leeds. They came away with many visions of what a motorway and road could look like. But what speakers at the event - co-organised by the Brussels-based European Union Road Federation (ERF) and the UK’s Road Safety Markings Ass