Sustainable Transport Award for Mexico’s Capital

By ⋅ January 18, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment
Mexico City has won the Sustainable Transport Award for improving the city's "livability" through transportation programs. (Photo: iStock)

Mexico City has won the Sustainable Transport Award for improving the city's "livability" through transportation programs. (Photo: iStock)

For the Geo Quiz, we are looking for a dense metropolis where traffic can be so slow it hurts. It is a national capital and people there mostly speak Spanish, but you can also hear other indigenous languages such as Mayan and Quechua.

Nearly nine million people live there and they have got to get around. That means lots of cars, lots of traffic and lots of air pollution.

So the city has begun a major makeover, starting a bike sharing system, dedicated bus lanes and parking meters. And the efforts haven’t gone unnoticed as the city has just won the Sustainable Transport Award.

Mexico City is the answer to the Geo Quiz.

The honor was handed out by the New York-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. The institute says the city has vastly improved the “livability, mobility and quality of life” of residents through transportation programs that focus more on people than on cars.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Franc Contreas, a journalist who lives and works in Mexico City, to get more details.


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Discussion

4 comments for “Sustainable Transport Award for Mexico’s Capital”

  • http://www.facebook.com/hdelgadomedrano Héber M. Delgado-Medrano

    Really excited to see that finally some positive news regarding this incredibly beautiful and modern city is leaking out into the rest of the world! It should be noted, however, that we don’t speak Quechua in Mexico (that’s a language from the Andes). Perhaps you meant to say Náhuatl, which is the language of the Aztecs and the most widely-spoken Native American language in Mexico.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Roger-Dodger/100003671193915 Roger Dodger

      After listening to this piece, I wonder if both the writer and narrator at PRI believe that Mexico City is somewhere near Cuzco. Not only did PRI make the mistake about Quechua, PRI also refers to Mexico City as a “South American” city! I stopped the broadcast right there and got online to gripe, so I have yet to hear the Quechua gaff. I’m glad I’m forewarned, as that might make have made my head explode. 

      I can understand minor errors or omissions in reporting, but these types of errors indicate very poor journalism. It’s not the data that’s the problem, it’s the attitude. To me, it seems at least some writers at PRI are lazy and making things up. Either that, or they are grossly lacking any self-awareness of their own ignorance, satisfied with fiat declarations of “facts” that are anything but that. Regardless of the flaw, that no senior editor caught these mistakes is especially disappointing for a media outlet running a “geo quiz” and publishing a section titled “The World”. 

      PRI, you should aspire to do much better. So hire some people who will. Thank you.

  • citizen477

    This is great news and an example for other cities to follow. Are you listening, Miami?!? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Roger-Dodger/100003671193915 Roger Dodger

    What an outrageous blunder! PRI has reached a truly ignorant and biased nadir by referring to Mexico City as a “South American” city. The narrator literally says that, and the podcast’s title declares it as a “South American” city.
    How biased can PRI get, thinking that only the United States and Canada lie in North America? The facts are that Mexico is not even part of so-called “Central America”! It is ONLY part of North America. Furthemore, “Central America” is actually *part* of North America. Even Panama is part of North America! So how can PRI say Mexico City is a “South American” city? I’ll tell you how. Bias. 

    United States citizens coopted the term “Americans” for themselves (or at least they think they did). Almost all United States citizens are so self-centered they don’t even realize how they disregard the vast majority of Americans when they exclusively refer to U.S. citizens as “Americans”. I know people from other countries who are also Americans and they refer to themselves as such because they live on one of the two American continents. They live in South America, “Central America”, and North America outside of the U.S. and they are still Americans. Maybe if U.S. citizens were not so self-centered, they would begin to realize that a huge part of North America actually lies *south* of the United States. I’m very disappointed.