Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingofthehill
While I agree with the rest of your observations, how does having the world's 5th highest-ridden and America's 2nd-largest Metro system constitute having a "car culture" ...? Sure, there are lots of taxis, colectivos, buses, et al, but judging from my visits, I'd tend to think actual automobile ownership isn't all that high.
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Honestly, it's really only (from what my friends tell me) the poor and lower middle class that use the Metro. From what I could see, MC seems to be a very sprawly, its layout, while dense, is very reminiscent of Bangkok - anybody who is middle class and especially those with money definitely will not be riding the metro/bus and like Americans, Mexicans tend to have a thing for cars. I'm not saying that Mexico City is completely autocentric, but it certainly didn't feel 100% walkable in any way. It appeared quite polycentric and detached from different areas. Like there would be pockets of great walkable neighborhoods and then stretches of long, infinite roads that would link them. I was surprised to see that many areas, like the Posh area Polanco in the photos, didn't have many pedestrians on the street.
RobertWalpole - I was lucky in the sense I was with Mexican friends who had their own cars so I was sort of being chauffeured everywhere and we took taxis everywhere. I mean, I really, really stick out in Mexico being a tall blond and I got attention everywhere I went, so I don't know that I'd have felt very safe walking around on my own.
However, MC felt MUCH more human than what we read about and see sensationalized in the media. In the "nice" areas (Bosques, Santa Fe, Lomas, Polanco, La Condesa) I really didn't feel vulnerable at all and I had a hard time seeing where exactly this random street crime happens. Though I have a lot of Mexican friends of affluent backgrounds (I have to say this because a person who is from money in Mexico will live an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT existence/lifestyle than someone else from a different social class) who say that the risk of getting kidnapping is a FACT of life. If you're middle class and above, you run that risk everyday of your life. Each one of my Mexican friends has a family relative/friend who has been kidnapped before...:/ But I think as long as you use caution and don't walk around in random areas at night you'll be fine.
To put something in perspective, by day Alan and I walked around in the "good" areas feeling just fine, but in the Historic Center etc. that felt slightly shady. Anyways, we got hungry late at night and wanted to head down to the 7-11, and being it was 11pm, as we walked out of the hotel immediately we were approached by hotel officials who insisted we not go out by ourselves....7-11 was no more than 1.5 blocks away. They literally got a security guard with a gun to walk us to the 7-11 (a 45 second walk!) because they didn't feel it was a good idea. This was in an area that to me seemed perfectly fine, so...I don't know...it's complicated!
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Oh, and so is El Ciudad de Mexico!
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