Towards sustainable mobility in Mexico City

Abstract

This research seeks to understand the way a new modal shift in mobility has become popular among population in Mexico City. The modal mobility system that is studied is the use and popularization of the bicycle, which represent a more sustainable mode of transportation and a new option to give solution to the big mobility problems Mexico City faces nowadays. The research tries to find out what are the main elements that have influenced the population in recent years to use the bicycle and what are the struggles people face while doing this. The research was carried out after a process of field work in Mexico City. The methodology was in part an ethnographic work with active participation, as well as several interviews with bicycle users and with members of Non-Governmental Organizations that work in the defense of cyclist and pedestrians rights in the city. Last, but not least, the theoretical framework that was used were on one hand, the new Mobility approach, a new aspect that gives element to understand why and how people commutes the way they do; and on the other the Social Practice Theory, which helps a to understand how a social practice is carried out and reproduced. Together both theoretical aspects helped to understand better this new and popular element in Mexico City. In this research investigation the reader will understand how and why the role of the bicycle has split and is changing in the city as well as what are the factors that contribute towards more or less bicycling in the city.