Highways, the urgent demand of the Puerto Vallarta-Bahía de Banderas region
With close to 500,000 inhabitants (according to latest INEGI census) and close to 4 million tourists and visitors every year, Puerto Vallarta and Bahía de Banderas are one of the most important urban and tourist places in the country, distributed in an approximate space of 60 kilometers along the coast of Banderas Bay.
Tourism and tourism investments have grown considerably in the last few years, and demands and problems produced by demographic dynamics and conurbation have grown with them.
It’s possible that the area will exceed the figure of 700,000 inhabitants in 2025, according to reports done by the University of Guadalajara, and even though it’s already a metropolitan area that allows budget allocations from the Federal Government through the Metropolitan Fund for more than 40 million pesos annually, the reality is that its communication routes do not correspond to those of a destination of its category.
I want to focus on this issue today, it’s clear the problem is the only and main connection between the two municipalities, in which the traffic is increasing, with huge lines of cars creating chaos at all hours, which gets even worse when car accidents occur turning the bridge over the Ameca River into a traffic jam.
As if is not a desperate situation already, we need to take into consideration the new Vidanta theme park that comes with more problems, whose first stage is expected to be ready this year and that in subsequent stages will include a space dedicated to Cirque du Soleil. According to company, the park expects to receive more than 2 million annual visits.
Companies that invest both in Puerto Vallarta and in Bahía de Banderas, after all they bring jobs, economic benefits and other benefits, so this not about insulting them but it makes me think about if we are prepared for the challenges ahead… It’s clear to me that we’re not.
Therefore, I join the voices that point to the urgent and unavoidable need to manage new infrastructure projects. Or at least to follow up on already managed projects, which for some reason have not been resolved.
Such is the case of the famous Federation Bridge, with which both municipalities would join in the northeast area. Several administrations continue to ignore the issue. Although this alone won’t solve the entire problem, it will greatly help ease vehicular traffic on Federal Highway 200.
It is time for the metropolitan area to transform into a vision of the future that responds to the security, infrastructure and mobility needs of the inhabitants of one of the most important beach tourist destinations in Mexico.
What do you think about this? I‘ll be reading your comments.
