A loan from the World Bank will allow Mexico to plan public passenger transportation and promote it as an alternative to the traffic jams of individual cars that are a problem in at least 40 cities in this country with a population of more than 500,000. “We have to raise public and local government awareness that transport is not an obstacle to the development of our cities,” urban transport export Gisela Márquez told Tierramérica.

In March, the World Bank granted Mexico a 350-million-dollar loan to update its public transport service – essential to decongest streets and highways.

In the metropolitan zone of the Mexican capital, with some 20 million inhabitants, there are 4.5 million automobiles and 22 million trips made each day, according to the 2007 Origin-Destination Survey, of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.