By Carola Rico
San Miguel city officials and turibus (hop-in hop-off sightseeing vehicle) operators have been unable to reach an agreement to allow these vehicles to circulate freely through the historic center, in spite of the turibuses having all their permits in order. The government says these vehicles are disrupting traffic in San Miguel, while the operators say analyses and studies back their claim that the turibuses are not the root of the problem.
Last Saturday, April 9, around 11a.m., transit police stopped two turibuses at the corner of San Antonio Abad and Insurgentes. Despite an April 6 court ruling allowing them to continue operating as they have for the past 20 years, the turibuses were held up. Hours later, the turibuses were towed to the city impound lot for obstructing a public thoroughfare, although it was the traffic police who had blocked the vehicles from moving.
Later, at a town council meeting, it was agreed to relocate the turibus loading and unloading points from Juarez Street in downtown to Cardo Avenue. Marco Antonio Avalos Lozano, who owns one of the turibus companies, Tugasa, spoke exclusively to Atención about the situation, the service they provide, and the limitations the local government has recently imposed.
Avalos Lozano said that in November of last year, a month after Mauricio Trejo took office as Mayor, turibus operators were asked to agree to certain conditions to deal with the city’s traffic problems. The operators agreed and accepted the conditions. Avalos Lozano explained that the traffic code establishes who has the right-of-way on the city street —first pedestrians, second cyclists and third public transportation services. Fourth in this hierarchy are delivery vehicles and last priority is for private service providers.
In the first meeting with the municipal government, Avalos Lozano brought up the state of Guanajuato’s recently published mobility plan, which instructs municipalities to align their programs to the State’s. Avalos Lozano underscored that his comment was intended to be helpful because, as a longtime businessman «I have been providing different types of passenger transportation services for years, and I can contribute to this issue and to San Miguel de Allende’s mobility plan.»
However, the San Miguel government responded that they already had a new mobility plan for the city. Six months later, the turibus operators are still waiting to see the document. All they have received are written opinions and comments on mobility that are sometimes signed by the transit commissioner Jorge Salas, sometimes by Secretary of Public Safety Gabriel Yáñez, sometimes by the heritage director, and sometimes by all of them. According to Avalos Lozano, these are a series of documents that have no legal basis and are not backed by any engineering study. He added that in the last document they received, they were notified of the operating plan for Easter week and the week after. The justification for this plan was Article 9, which states that state and municipal authorities set the priorities for the use of public thoroughfares and distribute budget resources based on a hierarchy that place pedestrians first —in particular school children or persons with reduced mobility. But this plan does not mention the modes of transportation, such as public passenger vehicles.
As to whether tourist transportation services are the cause of San Miguel’s traffic problems, the turibus operators respond with data from INEGI (Mexico’s Institute of Statistics and Geography). According to the latest figures from 2020, some 32,000 private vehicles are registered in the city, with between 8,000 and 10,000 additional cars entering San Miguel during vacation periods. In addition, there are 215,220 urban and suburban transportation vehicles circulating in San Miguel, plus an average of 280 vehicles providing taxi services. There are just nine turibuses.
Avalos Lozano stressed that it is not possible these 9 turibuses trucks are the problem in San Miguel de Allende as the authorities claim, «I do not understand where they get their figures from, if by volume we are the smallest number circulating. In low season there are three vehicles that pass through the same point every 40 minutes –three vehicles. And in high season we have 9 vehicles at a frequency of 20 minutes.»
He claimed that in contrast, there are 230 vehicles providing urban and suburban services that on average stop for 30 or 40 seconds and make continual stops within the city. The turibuses stop for passengers only in designated places. He added that the 280 taxis stop wherever they want, however they want and do whatever they want. Avalos Lozano says that cabs and private cars are causing the traffic problems. He calculates there are approximately 40,000 private vehicles in San Miguel, with 50 percent on the streets at any one time —an average of 20,000 cars that stop and block traffic when letting off passengers or parking. This is what is causing traffic, says Avalos Lozano, and this is what the municipal authorities should control.
Another issue, according to Avalos Lozano, is the occupancy rate of private cars versus service providers, whether cabs, tourist vehicles or urban and suburban buses. For example, a standard vehicle is about 6 meters long by 2.20 meters wide, which results in 1.8 square meters of space. To accommodate the 20,000 vehicles on the streets, therefore, the public space they require is greater than that needed by public service vehicles. He indicated that all these factors have to be analyzed and studied by experts. None of the documents received from the city so far include any technical justification or analysis of the traffic problem, which could help solve the city’s mobility problem.
The suppliers of tourist transportation services in San Miguel filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court of Silao, claiming they were denied the right to provide service in San Miguel despite having the proper permits and concessions. On April 6, the judge suspended the city’s order on the basis that it could cause irreparable damage, taking into consideration the probability that the permits and concessions would be renewed. The operators were notified on April 7 that the ruling would allow them to continue working in San Miguel. On April 8 the turibuses tried to work but were detained for parking in lanes intended for the circulation of vehicles, (the infraction says for parking in the public thoroughfare) but what really happened according to Avalos Lozano is that the patrol cars blocked them so that they could not move.
On April 11, they met with the legal director of the city government who told them that he would look into the matter. The turibus operators argue is that the latest detainment was a flagrant violation of the judge’s ruling, for which the State will issue a reprimand to the local authorities.
Avalos Lozano emphasized that they have to keep working because they have a commitment with the State of Guanajuato to continue operating. And in the event that they are detained again, they will inform the judge so that a fine and an investigation may follow for whoever is responsible in City Hall.
Avalos Lozano says the concessions they have from the State government must be respected and there is no reason for those to be rescinded. He added that the turibus operators are very open to dialogue and to reaching a consensus. They are not refusing to relocate to Cardo Street but want an analysis and technical study to determine how easily tourists will be able to reach this new location.
Over the past few days the turibuses are being followed by patrol cars that observe their movements, and an officer has been stationed outside the parking lot where the vehicles are kept when not in service.
