Maps That Drive Sustainable Mobility: The Cycling Revolution in Querétaro
A commitment to open cycling infrastructure data
Imagine having the opportunity to directly contribute to the documentation and updating of cycling infrastructure in your city, using your local knowledge to influence public policy decisions based on community-driven data. This is made possible through tools like Mapillary and OpenStreetMap (OSM).
In Mexico, for several years now, mobility collectives have been working to integrate data on cycling lanes in different cities, consolidating an open, free, and participatory mapping base. The Documentation and Open Mapping of Cycling Infrastructure for Community Engagement (DOMCICE) initiative promotes citizen audits that encourage transparency and multisectoral collaboration to improve urban mobility. See our 2023 blog post to learn more.
Querétaro and its fight for sustainable mobility
Querétaro is a city of 650,000 located in central Mexico, roughly 130 miles northwest of Mexico City.
Querétaro stands out for the active participation of mobility collectives, citizens, and academics committed to promoting active mobility. However, it faces significant challenges in the field of sustainable mobility, such as the disconnection of infrastructure between peripheral areas of the city, the lack of elements that guarantee road safety, and the absence of publicly updated information. Additionally, within official maps, there are cycling paths that lack maintenance, failing to improve the safety and experience of cyclists.
With a clear intention to strengthen and interconnect its cycling network, this initiative seeks to identify the network through community knowledge, providing open, collaboratively generated, and accessible geographic information to support informed decisions. By centralizing and documenting the current state of local cycling paths, this exercise also aims to improve the quality of cartographic data available to the public.
In this context, the need to rethink urban development is urgent. This effort is a significant step toward more inclusive, sustainable, and evidence-based mobility.
The goals of citizens and organized civil society
The following goals were identified:
- To identify the cycling network exhaustively and up-to-date through direct community knowledge, collecting first-hand information to reflect the reality of the territory.
- To integrate the data collected on the cycling network in Querétaro into an open, free, and participatory cartographic base. Anyone can access Mapillary imagery, promoting transparency and collaboration in the design and improvement of urban mobility.
- To strengthen the use of open data as a key resource for decision-making and influencing public policies aimed at sustainable mobility.
"We carried out this exercise because we aim to improve the quality of cartographic data available to the public. We also want to document and consolidate in one place the state of the cycling paths we ride daily, to influence public policies for sustainable mobility"
— Luis Sierra, co-founder of Netas Ciudadanas
By combining local knowledge and verifying official information, a more robust, complete, and updated database is built. This approach, besides being low-cost, encourages community participation and strengthens local capacities to periodically update information. Involving the cycling community not only ensures the accuracy and relevance of the data but also generates a sense of ownership and commitment to sustainable mobility. This facilitates access to open and accessible geographic information, essential for making informed decisions and promoting inclusive and sustainable urban mobility aligned with the real needs of the territory.
From the municipal government, KML files and PDF maps were shared, allowing the visualization of the cycling network’s extent, although they lacked the necessary documentation to reflect its reality and current state. Additionally, in 2023, there was a cycling path map hosted in the Strategic Territorial Information Center (IMPLAN, for its acronym in Spanish), which offered a general overview. However, this resource did not function as an open platform, limiting the possibility of downloading the data and using it for detailed analysis and studies by civil society and academia.
Left side: As of September 20 on CyclOSM, a map specialized in cycling infrastructure built on OpenStreetMap data. Right side: Exercise carried out in Mapillary, illustrating the need to update and document the cycling network in OSM in Querétaro.
Methodology
The project adopts the participatory mapping methodology developed by the Ciudata/Republika working group, which has conducted similar evaluations on pedestrian mobility and public spaces. These initiatives have already been carried out in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, León, and Hermosillo, achieving notable results in events such as the World Bicycle Forum in Mexico City in 2023. Learn more about previous efforts here.
In Querétaro, the project was led by the citizen collectives Pedaleanda and Netas Ciudadanas, supported by national and international organizations such as the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), in addition to support from the municipal Mobility Department. From the governmental sphere, two officials were trained in using Mapillary, who also actively participated in field documentation. The main objective of the project was to record more than 200 kilometers of cycling paths between August and September 2024.
The project was developed in two main phases:
1. Training and field mapping with Mapillary
Mapillary is used for collecting georeferenced images of cycling infrastructure collaboratively, accessibly, and accurately, promoting citizen participation. This process begins with the formation of a multisectoral working group that includes local authorities, civil society organizations, and academics, who collaborate to identify existing data, allocate resources, and establish key agreements.
Volunteers are selected and trained to use devices such as smartphones, GoPro cameras, or 360° cameras and operate the Mapillary app. Over two weeks, more than 41 volunteers participated in training sessions on using Mapillary, which enables street-level image capturing and the generation of collaborative, publicly accessible maps, all for free. This effort resulted in the documentation of more than 200 kilometers of cycling paths in Querétaro, highlighting existing infrastructure and its current conditions.
A view of a bike lane documented by user VKorchnoi, one of the project participants. The split image displays the route mapped in Mapillary on the left and the street view on the right, showcasing the actual cycling infrastructure.
Detailed and georeferenced images, captured with smartphones and GoPro cameras, allowed the identification of the infrastructure’s current state, including obstacles and improvement opportunities.
“Mapillary stands out for its ability to quickly and easily provide updated information driven by citizen participation. As an open data map, its updates depend directly on people, which poses a key challenge: How active can the process be? In critical decisions, the difference between updated data and a years-long delay, as seen in other maps, can be decisive.”
— Miguel Rios Nuñez, Director of Mobility Planning at the Mobility Secretariat of the Municipality of Querétaro
2. Community workshops for updating OpenStreetMap
A scene from the training session, where volunteers were trained on OpenStreetMap and Mapillary
On World Car-Free Day, September 21, a training session for volunteers was held at the Hackerspace in Querétaro’s Museum of the City on using OpenStreetMap, the world’s largest collaborative and accessible mapping platform.
During the training, about 15 people from diverse disciplines participated, interested in learning about mapping and open data. The workshop included:
- The Importance of Contributing to the Map: Highlighting why it is essential to add data from our knowledge to the global map to enrich the available information.
- Introduction to OpenStreetMap: Delving into theoretical and practical aspects of using OSM.
- Mobile Mapping Apps: Using Mapillary and OrganicMaps as tools for remote and field mapping, expanding participants’ capabilities.
DOMCICE documented and centralized the current state of cycling paths in OSM. Mapillary integrates seamlessly with OSM editors, allowing for updates of significantly higher detail by incorporating precise and visually enriched information on cycling infrastructure.
The initiative identified key safety features, such as the presence and condition of bollards used as separators on cycling paths, essential for protecting cyclists from vehicular traffic. The resulting database supports authorities in evaluating the current state of cycling paths and prioritizing those requiring maintenance.
By combining local knowledge with data collected directly by the cycling community, this initiative not only facilitates sustainable planning but also informed decision-making to strengthen urban mobility.
“It is vital to equip citizens with open and collaborative technological tools to strengthen community networks and influence budgets and public policies.”
— María Covarrubias, Bicycle Mayor and Founder of Pedaleanda
Mapping results in Querétaro
A photo captured in Querétaro's Historic Center with a bike rack in view
The cycling community of Querétaro demonstrated invaluable knowledge of the cycling network, helping to overcome challenges such as outdated official maps, unifying municipal and state infrastructure into a single database, and highlighting the lack of infrastructure in peripheral areas and key interconnection points.
A crucial component of this initiative was the integration of Mapillary, which enabled the collection of street-level imagery to document cycling infrastructure accurately and transparently. By leveraging this open mapping tool, the project provided a real-time, visual representation of the cycling network, complementing the structured data available in OpenStreetMap. This integration not only facilitated the updating of cycling maps but also strengthened advocacy efforts by offering evidence-based insights into infrastructure gaps and opportunities for improvement.
This documentation effort not only contributes to strengthening cycling infrastructure but also exemplifies how a participatory approach can optimize resources, empower citizens, and foster sustainable urban development. The generated data feed into key indicator sets, such as those used in tools like Cyclemap and cyclist stress evaluation methodologies, providing a comprehensive view of the cycling paths’ state and their impact on urban mobility.
This model, besides being replicable in other cities, marks significant progress toward implementing more inclusive, sustainable, and evidence-based public policies.
/Mar Marín, CoFounder of Netas Ciudadanas