In recent years, the transportation industry has focused on technological innovation to solve problems like congestion on highways and longer arrival times between subway trains. From smartphone apps and scooters to mixed-traffic streetcars and one-of-a-kind stations, both public and private transportation providers in the U.S. have gone all-out to avoid being perceived as obsolete.
But amidst all the emphasis on appearance and flashiness, the top priority should always be mobility.
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A recent trip to Mexico City (to watch Tijuana’s Xolos lose to Club America in a Liga MX match) demonstrated the importance of basic transportation functionality. During my stay, I took trains, buses, and EcoBici (the city’s dock-based bikeshare system) to get everywhere I went.
On most routes, I didn’t see a number of things I’ve become accustomed to in the U.S., such as air-conditioned trains, working Passenger Information Displays (PIDs), or regular stop announcements.
This was not the fanciest or most luxurious transit system I’ve ridden. There were no rooftop parks, no USB ports on the buses, no platform lights that flash to indicate the arrival of a train. No, the experience was not like browsing the hot food bar at Whole Foods.
Well, maybe it was a little more like a visit to the Amazon-owned grocery store chain than transit in the U.S. Instead of risking arrest by eating or drinking on board, hungry or thirsty passengers could legally purchase snacks or beverages from countless vendors in the metro stations.
Vendors in a Mexico City Metro station. Photo by Jenna Fortunati.
But to me, mobility is what matters. And that’s exactly what Mexico City has prioritized, doing everything it can to provide its nearly 9 million residents user-friendly transportation services that get them where they need to go, even in the face of tough geological and infrastructural challenges.
As a result, the city’s transit system is not an overlooked social service, but rather exactly what it should be – a provider of mobility, freedom, and flexibility. I took many rides on the Metro (subway) and Metrobús (Bus Rapid Transit), as well as a round-trip ride on the Xochimilco Light Rail to get to Estadio Azteca, the cavernous soccer stadium where the game was held. These trips barely scratched the surface – modes I didn’t get a chance to ride during my stay included an urban trolleybus system and a vast pesero (microtransit) network, both of which I’d love to check out on a future trip.
Mexico City’s bus rapid transit system. Photo by Jenna Fortunati.
On every route I took, buses or trains arrived at what seemed a near-constant flow, at all hours of system operation. And throughout the days and evenings, lots of people rode, making the transit system a crowded, but essential component of daily living.
The extremely frequent service mitigated any need to pull up live arrival times on my phone before heading to a station or stop, and people found rudimentary solutions that helped offset other technological limitations. For example, open windows in the subway railcars – some of which had open gangways – helped guide a breeze through moving trains and ensure the temperature remained tolerable, even for cold-weather lovers like me.
Mexico City is a place where, if the powers that be suddenly decided that trains and buses should only run every 24 minutes on the weekends instead of every two to three, or that those of us who choose not to own cars should turn to car-based ride-hailing for our non-weekday rush hour transportation needs, life would be completely upended, and not for the better.
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Transit systems south of the border are not immune from the same temptation to be trendy that the U.S. transportation industry has had such difficulty resisting.
For example, Ecatepec, a low-income Mexico City suburb of over 1.5 million people, now has a bright, new 3-mile aerial gondola. But the municipality’s microtransit bus system is plagued by traffic congestion and safety issues, and some neighborhoods lack even basic services such as electricity and water.
Thus, multimodal connections to the gondola are limited. Commuters to Mexico City, who make up a substantial share of the gondola’s 20,000 daily riders, still must make at least two transfers after exiting the gondola to reach the urban core via transit.
Also, Tijuana’s recently-opened bus rapid transit line has had trouble attracting riders, demonstrating that looks alone don’t translate to success. The problems stem not just from political challenges, but also because – in contrast to Mexico City’s system – frequencies are limited and stations on the hostile Via Rapida are difficult to access on foot. The microtransit system the BRT was supposed to replace, though chaotic, provides more frequent and direct service to many neighborhoods.
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Transportation providers certainly should embrace innovation of all kinds as a way to enhance their services. But functional mobility – not new algorithms or architectural experimentation – is what gets people where they need to go.
A quote from Jarrett Walker sums up the perspective transportation planners must maintain through the golden age of tech:
“Freedom is not a technology.”