What was public transport like in Mexico 100 years ago

Mobility has been a necessity in people's lives, however, there were not always the means of transport that are available today. It is almost impossible to imagine everyday life in cities without trucks, buses, the metro or the Metrobus, because many of these are the allies of several people to reach different parts of the territory, they are also elementary to go to work or school.

In Mexico, public transport has gone through several stages, the magazine Arqueología Mexicana of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) details that the first one dates from the pre-Hispanic period, when various indigenous groups moved in canoes because its large avenues were formed by bodies of water.

The construction of this resource surprised the Spaniards a lot, this is known from the chronicles of the European Bernal Díaz de Castillo, where he wrote “on the one hand there were large cities on land, and in the lagoon many others, and we saw it all full of canoes and on the road many bridges from far to far”.

Later, carts and carriages arrived, which were made possible by the arrival of animals such as horses, mules and donkeys. It should be noted that not everyone could access these services, since it was a very expensive resource that could only be enjoyed by the upper classes.

It took two centuries for the first car to arrive in the country, which arrived in 1895 during the rule of Porfirio Díaz. According to the historian Jesús Rodríguez, this fact led to the development of public transport, which was already underway with the advances of the railway.

The same source details that soon Díaz would gain the trust of an English-born company that would be responsible for bringing the “tram, street lighting and electricity supply; the company operated as the sole provider of transport service in the city for almost 17 years.”

On the other hand, transport did not change until 1917, when the first passenger trucks with “an internal combustion engine” began to circulate in the cities. Part of the gradual development of these large vehicles was due to the fact that the upper classes began to change their residence to places further away from the central area, which is why solutions were started to be sought for the aristocracy of that time.

Rodríguez shares that another factor that motivated the presence of means of transport for citizens was the rapid population growth at the beginning of the 20th century, since “the population registered a 50% growth, of the 500,000 inhabitants it had reached 750,000, distributed over an area of 40.5 square kilometers”.

This is how the tram went from 1 to 14 lines, however, shortly after the trucks began to flood the streets and, as is the case today, they were full of people, many times some passengers were almost leaving. In addition, they were not exempt from car crashes or mishaps, since for a long period it became very common for transports to collide.

On the other hand, President Álvaro Obregon was responsible for prioritizing roads and provided support to drivers to increase truck transport in the capital. “The truckers' guild soon joined the regime's social support base and, based on the idea of mutual utility, created links with the ruling group.”

From that moment on the rise of transport as they are known today began and over time services for citizens and jobs for drivers increased. With Lazaro Cardenas and Avila Camacho, unions and groups began to be created to regulate salaries and better organize routes.

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