Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez responded angrily after private companies pulled out of plans to build the polemic Via Express, a proposed 23-kilometer elevated toll-road that would slice guadalajara in half, towering above the railway track alongside Avenida Inglaterra.
“I’m at my wits’ end,” Gonzalez raged this week. “There’s always someone saying no to what the state government proposes but not proposing anything themselves.”
Much time and effort has gone down the drain, the governor said.
Civic organizations in the city seethed at the governor’s comments.
“His response is laughable,” wrote Etienne von Bertrab of Ciudad para Todos, who is currently in London, England. “In very few occasions has there been such a solid and crystal clear alternative regarding a specific intervention in the city.”
Almost every Saturday since July 2010, members of various civil society groups and local residents of Avenida Inglaterra have met up to clean up the area, plant trees and create an alternative example of what the area could look like with a little bit of effort. State congressman and local resident Raul Vargas can regularly be seen chopping away at overgrown grass.
“The proposals have been on the table and publicly discussed,” stated Felipe Reyes, also a key activist in Ciudad para Todos. “It’s difficult to believe the governor isn’t aware of them. His (criticism) is a way for him to cancel the Via Express without highlighting the weaknesses of its arguments.”
Rather than an elevated toll-road, neighbors, Ciudad para Todos and other groups would like to create a lineal park with trees, plenty of spaces for citizens to use and a long bike path.
“The central theme is a priority in the city’s Non Motorized Mobility Plan,” added Reyes.
Ironically, Jalisco Transport Secretary Diego Monraz called the plan an “historical document” when it was released in May 2010. He said it would serve as a guide to future transport plans in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. Very little of the plan has been executed since it was published. The plan contains ideas to increase public transport and bike use in Guadalajara and reduce car speed limits to just 20 km/h on some streets so different forms of transport can coexist.
The lineal park on Avenida Inglaterra is seen as a first step, said von Bertrab: “Skeptics will say that non-motorized mobility and a lineal park will not ‘solve the (congestion) problem.’ And we say it is a step in the right direction, sending the message of a much-needed policy change toward promoting public transport and making the city more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians, while restricting car use.”
Planners said the Via Express, which Gonzalez said he wouldn’t “cling on to,” would have helped decongest major city arteries such as Lazaro Cardenas and the Periferico. The government suggested a fee of 1.50 pesos per kilometer for using the road, and its total cost was estimated at 6.5 billion pesos.
The uproar makes it clear that there are two diametrically opposed visions of a future transport model for Guadalajara. On one hand, there is the argument than only more roads can reduce congestion, while the other viewpoint favors turning away from motorized transport over the long term to help reduce pollution and increase the amount of public space available.
Stressed von Bertrab: “We have been putting forward alternative routes to deal with the various problems related to urban mobility, pollution, inequality, sustainability, health, etcetera for over a decade. It is just not what they want to hear! So they ignore them.”
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