Pesero - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A pesero is a form of public transport, most commonly seen in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

. Its name derives from the fact that the first incarnations of this form of transport charged a flat fee of one peso per ride (hence the name "pesero" which could be interpreted as "peso collector").

First seen in the 1970's as the so-called taxi colectivo (share taxi

Share taxi

A share taxi is a mode of transport that falls between taxis and conventional buses. These informal vehicles for hire are found throughout the world. They are smaller than buses, and usually take passengers on a fixed or semi-fixed route without timetables, usually leaving when all seats are filled...

or collective cab), peseros were originally big cars with fixed routes which would pick passengers at any point through their route, and drop them off also at any point. Passenger capacities were limited to those of a large car (usually up to 6 people plus a driver).

Being cheaper than a proper taxi, and able to cover routes that weren't feasible for larger buses or other forms of public transport, by the 1980s pesero owners started using Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

Microbus vehicles (known in Mexico as combis from its Kombinationskraftwagen variant) for increased capacity of up to 12 passengers. Due to the inability of the government-run public transport to serve the public's needs in a high-growth environment, high demand made them a very good business. Pesero owners kept up with demand by adding more units and routes, particularly in newly developing parts of the city such as Nezahualcóyotl

Nezahualcoyotl

Nezahualcoyotl was a philosopher, warrior, architect, poet and ruler of the city-state of Texcoco in pre-Columbian Mexico...

, and they did so without any centralized planning. By the mid-to-late 1980s most peseros were converted to gasoline powered, half-length passenger buses (known as microbús or simply el micro in Mexico, although they are not similar to the VW Microbus vehicles mentioned before). There were capable of carrying around 22 sitting people, or up to 50 counting sitting and standing people.

To this day, a fleet of approximately 28,000 peseros (as of 2007) carry an important part of Mexico City's public transport passengers, surpassing by far the capacity of the Mexico City Metro

Mexico City Metro

The Mexico City Metro , officially called Sistema de Transporte Colectivo, is a metro system that serves the metropolitan area of Mexico City...

, STE trolleybuses, buses and taxis; peseros, (including VW Microbus, micros proper and full-length diesel buses) carry up to 60% of the city's passengers. However, despite the success of the decentralized system in carrying large numbers of passengers for low cost, the government is seeking ways to regulate microbus operation, ostensibly to address problems such as a lack of operator training and documented unit maintenance. Proposed changes include reducing the number of units or replacing them with full-size diesel powered buses which carry more passengers per unit, and can utilize transfers and/or a unified farecard system, such as the system that has been implemented in León, Guanajuato

León, Guanajuato

The city of León, formally León de los Aldama is the sixth most populous city in Mexico and the first in the state of Guanajuato. It is also the seat of the municipality of León...

(See: Optibus

Optibus

Optibus is a bus rapid transit system operating in León, Guanajuato, Mexico. Locally it is known also as "La Oruga" , due to its use of articulated buses. Most of the Optibus route uses city streets, but with dedicated bus lanes and high-level platform stations. The system was inaugurated on...

). Other proposed alternatives include expanding the Metro and STE trolleybus

Trolleybus

A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...

network and different forms of transportation, such as the Metrobús

Metrobus

Metrobus may refer to:* MCW Metrobus, a bus model manufactured by MCW in the 1970s and 1980s* Metrobus a bus operator in south-east England* M-é-t-r-o-b-u-s, the bus and metro operator Tramway de Rouen in Rouen, France...

, which has completely replaced pesero travel along Avenida de los Insurgentes

Avenida de los Insurgentes

Avenida de los Insurgentes , sometimes known simply as Insurgentes, is the longest avenue in Mexico City and said to be the longest in the world with a length of on a north-south axis across the city...

avenue, and the Tren Suburbano, which will serve areas north of the city. Unlike most other North American and European cities of similar size, it is not possible to buy a pass or farecard in Mexico City that is valid on all types of transport within the city, rather, each form of transport one boards requires an additional (albeit low, the Metro fare is only MXN 3 pesos) fare. Pesero drivers do not receive a fixed salary; rather, they are required to meet a daily quota prescribed by the owner of the vehicle. The driver is then allowed to keep the rest of fares of the day. This fosters fierce competition among drivers, as every passenger is seen as valuable merchandise towards meeting the quota, and thus increasing the driver's personal profit. As a result, it's not a rare sight to behold two or three battered down peseros racing furiously against one another with complete disregard for the passengers they carry or for other vehicles. Accidents, often deadly, ensue and are fairly common. However, given the lack of any real alternative, they remain in high demand throughout the city.

Currently peseros travel fixed routes, being able to pick up or drop off passengers anywhere through the route (a major source of traffic problems and annoyance due to the sudden and unexpected stops). The fees are according to distance traveled: from MXN $2.50 for a trip of up to 5 km, MXN $3.00 for a 5-to-12 km trip, and MXN $4.00 for a trip of 12 km or more (Prices went up .50 MXN as of august 1st 2008 and are now $3.00, $3.50 and $4.50 MXN respectively.) Routes usually begin in metro stations and end in outlying neighborhoods of the city or sometimes even in municipalities in Mexico State. Typically, less than five pesero routes begin in a small metro station that serves only one line, but this number rapidly increases depending on the number of metro lines going through a station. The terminal station of a metro line usually functions as a transport hub and may be served by tens of different pesero routes. In addition, every major avenue in the city is served by at least one pesero route.

Due to the lack of organization of the pesero network, there is no comprehensive index of routes available to the general public. Nevertheless, routes each have a route number in order to distinguish them from each other in license plates. Individual peseros also have a sign affixed to the windshield indicating major points covered by the route such as metro stations (denoted by the Metro logo), hospitals, schools, avenues, etc.

See also