Context:

Empirical evidence shows that vehicle ownership has increased exponentially in the last fifteen years in the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, amounting more than two million vehicles. Moreover, a high percentage of these vehicles is very old and lack air-pollution control systems such as catalytic converters. The goal of this paper is to meditate about motorized transport in the second largest city in Mexico.

Method:

A descriptive analytical method was used to review data and information from governmental and non-governmental sources. Air contaminants are related to car ownership increment, county multi-modal transport distribution, registered vehicles, and the amount of vehicles that have been verified and certified by the government air quality program. From a systems theory point of view, current scenarios are analyzed and inferences are made. As a result, there are balancing and unbalancing forces that affect the homeostasis of this metropolitan area.

Results:

Air-quality regulations have failed to echo among their citizens that neglect to tune up and verify emissions from their vehicles. Therefore, government officials and the society itself must reconsider their efforts and renew air quality policies based on low emissions, safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation to avoid air quality contingencies. In addition, data clearly suggests that land and urbanistic planning has not followed a systemic approach.

Conclusions:

Guadalajara metropolitan area clearly shows a lack of a systemic methodology in planning its urbanistic and land development. Hence, a perverse synergy of hostile conditions have emerged within its territory and internal combustion vehicles are the most important destabilizing force in the homeostasis of the city increasing entropy. The presence of this entropy is forcing the inhabitants in Guadalajara to migrate to a multi-modal sustainable transportation system, and start a systematic car substitution program that ensures zero or very low vehicle emissions.