Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "2010: Mexico City embraces the future."
Categories
Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F
More recent entries
Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2008 > July > 07 > Entry
2010: Mexico City embraces the future
For the next two years, getting around Mexico City will be even more of a nightmare than usual. The city is plagued with massive construction projects that are snarling what is already gridlock traffic. But by 2010, just in time for Mexico’s bicentennial celebrations, Mexico City will have undergone a transportation facelift that should make the city far more livable.
City officials have done little in the last decades to ease Mexico City’s horrendous traffic. But Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has embarked on a number of projects, that, despite their short term pain, should ease things considerably.
The major street overhaul is taking place on the city’s Circuito Interior, a major thoroughfare that encircles the city. Despite being a major, divided highway, Circuito has several stoplights that halt morning and afternoon commutes in their tracks (why the road wasn’t built with overpasses is anyone’s guess - it’s like having stoplights on I-35 as it snakes through Austin). Ebrard is seeking to remedy the situation by building five overpasses that should make Circuito a free flowing entity and help commuters make their way across the city.
Ebrard is also making serious advances to the city’s public transportation. He is building the city’s 12th subway line, which has been dubbed both the “golden line” and the “bicentennial line.” With wifi, bathrooms and and a museum, the line will be the most luxurious and modern in the system and serve residents in the south of the city.
And Ebrard is continuing the Metrobus system started by his predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Ebrard wants 10 Metrobus lines in the next decade and several should be ready in time for the Bicentennial. The Metrobus travels along major avenues in a dedicated lane, meaning the buses don’t get stuck in traffic. They also replace the army of “peseros,” mini-buses that make unannounced stops, drive like they’re being chased by the police and generally clog, rather than ease, traffic.
And tourists will love the new downtown trolley scheduled to be ready by 2010. The sleek-looking trolleys will pass through the Centro Historico and popular sites like the Palacio Nacional and Bellas Artes, helping ease congestion and giving the colonial neighborhood a modern twist.
And Eje Central, a main boulevard that ends in the Centro, is getting an environmental facelift, complete with dedicated lanes for electric buses, bike lanes and tree plantings.
In all, the improvements are badly needed. But getting to 2010 will try our patience.
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.