Transportation
Mexico’s Pedestrian Activists Are Waging a Battle for Safer Streets
It took some creative advocacy from mimes and masked wrestlers to encourage Mexico lawmakers to vote on a groundbreaking national traffic safety law.
Ten years ago, Jonadab Martinez was working in the face of constant tragedy. He was a legal manager at a local bus company in Guadalajara, dealing with the toll of death and injuries left by private minibuses on the notoriously under-regulated streets of Mexico’s second-largest city.
The lack of pedestrian protections in Mexico had been on Martinez’s mind since childhood. Pushing his grandmother around Mexico City in her wheelchair taught him the most important rule of Mexican streets: Cars always have the right of way, no matter what.