At the start of the new 2025-2026 school year, the Ministry of Economy, together with the Ministry of Mobility and businesses, are working on several strategies to improve mobility in the Monterrey metropolitan area and reduce commute times. These strategies include promoting the use of private transportation, carpooling (sharing rides to similar destinations), and the gradual adoption of staggered schedules.
The Secretary of Economy, Betsabé Rocha, and the Secretary of Mobility and Urban Planning, Hernán Villarreal, emphasized that this is a collaborative effort with Coparmex, Canaco Monterrey, Caintra, and Index Nuevo León, as well as the state’s clusters that voluntarily join.
The head of the Economy stated that the issue of staggered schedules is being coordinated to implement efficient public policies. At the same time, a survey was conducted among 60 companies representing more than 40,000 employees located in municipalities such as Apodaca, García, Escobedo, Guadalupe, Monterrey, Pesquería, San Nicolás de los Garza, San Pedro Garza García, and Santa Catarina.
“Based on this, we have good practices such as avoiding rush hour, reducing commute times, and implementing staggered schedules by zone. We are already working on this with the Chambers of Commerce. Today, September 1st, we can say that we are already starting and that it is a process that will be gradual, phased, and, above all, that many more companies can join,” the official stated.
She added that this is not a restrictive project, but rather seeks to encourage many companies to join these measures so that all sectors—business, government, and industry—can collaborate for better mobility.
To date, 128 private institutions have joined the effort to develop a strategy to promote the use of school transportation and carpooling, representing 360 schools and more than 73,000 students in the Monterrey Poniente, Monterrey Norte, Monterrey Sur, Monterrey Valle, and Monterrey Oriente areas.
“We appreciate the efforts and goodwill of the business chambers and companies to begin adopting good practices to improve mobility in the metropolitan area,” commented Betsabé Rocha Nieto.
For his part, the Secretary of Mobility, Hernán Villarreal Rodríguez, emphasized that with the opening of express and counter-flow lanes, there have been no setbacks so far in the return to school.
The official explained that the vision of carpooling is to create communities of parents and children in participating schools so that transportation can be safely monitored and students can be tracked.
To date, working meetings have been held between 360 private schools with 73,944 students, which, due to their large number of students, are the ones that cause mobility problems around their campuses, in addition to 65 businesses that already use free Carpool apps.
“This allows for increased carpooling with safety measures and traceability. The advantage of these apps is that they allow parents, for example, to know where their child is at all times and then also identify these vehicles as carpool vehicles,” he noted.
“If we can increase carpooling, we will substantially reduce traffic problems, and this, combined with carpooling incentives, will help us work with municipalities to define more reversible and high-occupancy lanes to reduce traffic problems,” Villarreal added.
Given this situation, state authorities and business associations are seeking to implement strategies that contribute to reducing travel times and alleviating public transportation congestion, through actions such as staggered schedules and promoting carpooling.
What was not mentioned is that many workers without private transportation must arrive at the plants between 6 and 7 a.m. and, in some cases, wait more than an hour for public transportation in neighborhoods or on highways in metropolitan areas. A similar situation occurs between 5 and 6 p.m., when bus stops become overcrowded with people seeking to return home.
Companies with good practices
Since 2023, companies such as KIA in Pesquería and Whirlpool in Apodaca have implemented staggered schedules, adjusting transportation routes, anticipating road closures, and creating support committees to improve operations.
Representatives of KIA and Whirlpool, Roberto Cortez and Enrique Sánchez, announced that they are now joining the comprehensive mobility measures implemented by the state government to reduce road traffic in the metropolitan area.
Source: eleconomista
