An Approach for Designing a New Type of Transportation for Mexico City

Abstract

The metropolitan area of Mexico City is rapidly growing into the largest urbanized area of the world. This drastic growth in population began in the year of 1859, when “Mexico City’s role as a center of industrialization and transportation attracted migrants from rural areas leading to its being the primary population center of Mexico” (Pick and Butler, 1997:30). Between 1950 and 1990, the largest increase in urbanization took place in Mexico City where “the gain in urban population was from 368,000 to a population of 8.3 million persons” (Pick and Butler, 1997:32). In the world, there is not a large city whose residents do not complain about transportation problems. In Mexico City, the root of all traffic dilemmas relates to the fact that “transportation policy has been subject to sharp breaks in continuity associated with presidential cycles; has overly favored the better-off economic groups who use private transport; and has wavered in its commitment towards what is considered the most appropriate form of public transport” (Ward, 1990:92). As the culmination of my study and work here at Auburn University, I plan to create a set of guidelines which will aid in solving the numerous transportation problems in the largest, most crowded and problematic city on the globe – Mexico City. The current and severe problems that the inhabitants of this ancient city face are massive quantities of air pollution, the overcrowding of streets, and the continual rising costs of both public and private transportation. Due to the fact that the solutions to these and other conditions that create these problems are in the hands of city officials and lawmakers, it is my opinion that the needed solutions lie in establishing new criteria for designing Mexico City’s future automobiles. My thesis guidelines will communicate and instruct how to design vehicles which will approach and solve these problems and place the power back into the hands of the consumer.