How a New International Airport Could 'Transform the Future' of Mexico Maria del Carmen Landa - Americas Quarterly | |
go to original April 26, 2016 |
Norman Foster: New International Airport for Mexico City RIBA, Nov 2015 (urbanomex)
Mexico City is stuck. Already overcrowded and sinking, the Mexican capital was named earlier this year as the most traffic-congested city in the world. This dubious distinction isn’t surprising, considering that the number of registered cars in the metro area almost doubled from 2005 to 2013. Smog has gotten so bad that authorities implemented a temporary policy banning privately-owned cars from the streets one day a week.
But a solution to the city’s eternal traffic jam – at least a partial one – may be on the horizon.
If Mexico City’s new international airport opens as planned in 2020, the old airport, which currently lies just three miles from the city’s bustling downtown, will be shuttered. An area over twice the size of New York’s Central Park would suddenly be open for development.
Such opportunities don’t come often for the world’s megacities, where prime real estate is scarce and there is little space for big urban projects.
“This change has the potential to transform the future of the whole country, both in the urban and the democratic spheres,” said Salomón Chertorivski, Mexico City's Secretary of Economic Development. The development of the space previously occupied by the airport will create “the biggest urban change in Mexico City in the 21st century,” Chertorivski told AQ.
Many of the proposals for what to do with the space would indeed help ease traffic in the city. A government-supported urban densification plan encompassing a park, housing, commercial spaces and expanded public transport, for example, could improve the city’s connectivity and minimize congestion by decreasing commuting distances, making cycling and walking more viable, and reducing dependence on cars.
Read the rest at Americas Quarterly
Related: Monorail Will Connect Metro with Mexico City’s New Airport (The News)
Related: Latest Report on Travel and Tourism in Mexico to 2020 Published by Leading Research Firm (WhaTech)
Related: Analysis Shows Savings for Consumers in New Routes to Mexico, Central America, Caribbean (Financial News)
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