Paper short abstract:

Guadalajara and Mexico City have been shaped by power practices with visible markers of inequalities. Recently, cycling activists have achieved changes in mobility infrastructures by navigating chronotopes defined by bureaucratic and neoliberal principles, while focusing on their own aspirations.

Paper long abstract:

Construction projects have been historically used by Mexican governments to promote their interest in improving living standards for local populations. In Guadalajara and Mexico City, most new public works are related to mobility, albeit usually focused on benefiting automobile commuters. In recent years, however, dozens of activist groups in both cities have successfully lobbied for improved mobility infrastructures with an emphasis on inclusivity. In a short time-span, there has been a marked increase in the number of cycle-ways and cyclists in both urban areas. Some activists are professionals in urbanism, environmental law, or political science, who seek to drastically change not only urban landscapes, but also both cities' political fabrics or how urban dwellers relate to their sense of collective self. Their activist politics use the bicycle as a symbol of a wider movement that promotes urban equality through issues such as public space and public transport. This paper explores the rapid changes both cities have experienced through an ethnographic account of activists' practices. Time, speed, and cycles are here of the essence, as activists highlight the value of slow movement, and yet use multi-modal competitions to prove that in congested cities the bicycle is the fastest form of transport. International institutional actors, like NGOs or the World Bank, have strongly backed the transformation of these and other cities for them to conform to a 'green future' model. Activists therefore navigate different chronotopes, like the bureaucratic or the neoliberal-entrepreneurial, but frame their work through an aspirational one of their own.