The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Insecurity and long distances: the challenges of cycling after confinement in Mexico City

2020-05-28T21:23:53.264Z


The Mexican capital will create 130 kilometers of new bike lanes.The health contingency for the covid-19 has changed a good part of the habits that were in Mexico. The Plan towards a new normality, presented in the past days by the authorities of the capital, proposes that the trips that are made in the city be better planned, being the bicycle a main means for individual trips. Arturo Aguirre used the bicycle to transport himself to work, until he had an acci...


The health contingency for the covid-19 has changed a good part of the habits that were in Mexico. The Plan towards a new normality, presented in the past days by the authorities of the capital, proposes that the trips that are made in the city be better planned, being the bicycle a main means for individual trips.

Arturo Aguirre used the bicycle to transport himself to work, until he had an accident with a vehicle at the beginning of the year. "I really like riding the bike, but it's a little scary because the cars don't respect cyclists," says the 34-year-old designer. According to data from the Mexico City Safety Secretariat, traffic accidents decreased 53% between March and April, but speeding caused 49 deaths from these events, among which nine cyclists died.

"When traffic drops, as has happened in the contingency, it is also observed that the cars go faster," says Areli Carreón, founder of the Bicitekas organization. And although the bicycle is a method of transport that avoids contagion due to crowding, the conditions for driving safely have yet to be improved. "One of the main fears of people who have not yet used a bicycle as a means of transportation is to suffer an accident with a car, being run over by a vehicle," he says.

Creating roads with exclusive bicycle lanes is one of the proposals to improve safety. "This year we had budgeted around 70 kilometers, however as part of the emergency we are evaluating the implementation of two emerging bike lanes and we will add another 60 kilometers," Andrés Lajous, Mexico City's secretary for mobility , tells Verne .

Starting in June, the official details, two temporary bike lanes will be enabled on Avenida Insurgentes and on Eje 4 sur to cover routes from north to south and east to west. "We chose these two avenues because there is already a metrobus that runs on the central lane and therefore we can put a right lane that can be occupied with little conflict by bicycles," he says.

The two temporal cycle paths are shown in red. Photo: Government of Mexico City

The long distances that have to be traveled to reach workplaces is also one of the obstacles that the bicycle faces. According to the Origin-Destination Survey prepared by INEGI, on average, the inhabitants of Mexico City travel 30 kilometers to reach their work centers. "It is not that everyone uses a bicycle finishing the confinement, but that those who travel less than 15 kilometers do use it," says Verne Bernardo Baranda, director for Latin America of the Institute for Transport and Development Policies (ITDP for short) in English).

Before the contingency, Aguirre traveled about fifteen kilometers on his bicycle, which he considered to be an acceptable distance. "When I worked in Santa Fe (a district with corporate buildings to the west), I wouldn't have even gone on a bike crazy," he says.

The west of the city, where a good part of the business and office centers are concentrated, is difficult to access due to the slopes and the large number of vehicles on these roads. "The distances seem to be very large, but most of the city is flat," says Baranda. "For the west, more efficient mobility schemes must be planned that also include public transport systems," he says.

Before the pandemic, around 320,000 bicycle trips were made and it is expected that this number may increase as soon as one returns to work and study centers. "It has become a necessity to think about how we move and that is why we have to provide spaces so that there is security in the transfers," concludes Lajous.

@SSC_CDMX staff to go out cycling infrastructure so that cyclists and leave home, can do so without complications

Journeys today were 👇
✅Insurgentes and Churubusco
✅Torre Manacar
national ✅Ferrocarriles
✅Barranca of the Dead to Sofia pic.twitter .com / e3fAFtv7ON

- CDMX Cycling Mobility (@DCDIC_CDMX) May 27, 2020

Follow Verne México on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and don't miss your daily ration of Internet wonders.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-05-28

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-12T14:32:23.430Z

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.