Transportation and Mobility in the Chalco Region

Abstract

This study explores the conditions and logic of passenger transportation in the Chalco district and compares it to general transportation characteristics in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. The main goal is to explain why the people who live in Chalco accept so extremely difficult conditions in everyday transportation, and why, in spite of these conditions, they continue settling in this zone.

A first explanation combines two factors: on the one hand, the time and cost excess of travel are part of the sacrifices made by the new and young Chalco settlers for the sake of having their own houses and, on the other, the relatively low cost of the plots. However, not all Chalco inhabitants have the same difficulties; some enjoy very good public transportation and even certain advantages, due to location. In any case, the deficient transportation and dangerous road systems in Chalco, specially in its south and west areas, are evidence that urban transport policy in Mexico is unfair and faulty for most of the population.

This seems to prove that what determines house location is more the actual availability of the plots (costs, facilities, organization) than a long-term minimization of money and time investments, as has been said more frequently.