Abstract
Some small- and medium-sized Global South cities have unsustainable transport systems and no information to plan interventions in addition to having limited resources for data collection. This study proposes a method to understand Public Transport (PT) ridership in cities of these characteristics, based on previous studies and by analysing available indicators related to Manheim’s macro-variables, to identify their influence on the PT ridership. The method was applied in the city of Mexicali, Mexico. The results help to understand the causes of the low PT ridership and have implications for achieving sustainable urban mobility in the city. Findings reveal that mobility planning in Mexicali has been occurring without properly considering activity system related variables, so it is necessary to integrate urban and transport administration. Moreover, to increase PT demand in Mexicali, mobility strategies to discourage the use of private cars are necessary. The proposed method can be applied in other cities of the Global South with characteristics similar to the case study to understand the causes of PT ridership, so these can be considered by the agencies responsible for the planning of the city’s transportation system to promote a sustainable urban mobility.
Highlights
Adequate transportation planning is generally not carried out [1], leading to congestion problems and high costs and travel times; sustainable urban mobility is a significant challenge in rapidly urbanizing medium- and low-income cities [2]
The method is based on taking advantage of the existing information from previous studies, and in the selection of available indicators related to Manheim’s macro-variables to identify which of these has a greater influence on Public Transport (PT) usage
The method was applied in Mexicali using the available indicators: PT ridership; PT network density, bus stop coverage and average time headway between buses for the macro-variable transport system (T); difference in travel time between private vehicles and PT, and service perception of PT for the flow structure (F) macro-variable; and type of work and population density for the activity system
Summary
Adequate transportation planning is generally not carried out [1], leading to congestion problems and high costs and travel times; sustainable urban mobility is a significant challenge in rapidly urbanizing medium- and low-income cities [2]. In Mexico, the latter is a common scenario, since immigration flows in the last years have induced an intense urbanization process in small- and medium-size cities [6], and the use of automobiles has been encouraged by eliminating taxes and mandatory insurance [7]. This led to a 6.32% annual motorization rate growth and the use of the car to triple from 1990 to 2010 [8]. This has serious environmental consequences since 68% of the city’s air pollution is caused by transport [11], and Mexicali has the highest rates of air pollution in the Mexico and the North America region, and is the sixth city in terms of worst air quality in the entire continent [12]
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