Citizen participation is a key component in the integral functioning of a city, and considering the perception and integration of the community in the functions of urban mobility is part of their identity. The Economic Commission for Latin America (Spanish acronym CEPAL) is an institution that marks the importance of processes of social construction in such citizen participation. Globally, cities have strived to find solutions to problems of urban mobility.

This article aims to show that community participation in urban projects in the city is key in the process of improving the urban environment.

The implementation of the public transportation service Cablebus Line 2 spurred local residents to appropriate the public space and make it their own by means of a Comprehensive Urban Improvement Plan, centered on the implementation of safe walkways, improvements to public lighting, intervention in posts, and designs for multicolored mosaics covering walls, façades, and rooftops of homes.

The use of color in the urban environment is visually attractive, changing the perception of the place for residents and visitors who use the public transportation system.

The work presented is divided into four parts. First, we describe the location and historical-urban context of Iztapalapa, Mexico City; second, we examine the subject of programs implemented in the context of urban mobility with Cablebus Line 2; third, we discuss the importance of citizen participation in projects of urban mobility; and we conclude with comments on Iztapalapa's communal identity.

The identity of its landscapes and the enhanced mobility the system offers has made residents feel identified with it, giving them an identity and increased visibility across the urban landscape, with urban art emerging at the same time as one of the primary forces shaping the local identity, with a concept so special that it defines a cultural identity that stands out in Mexico City, as an important feature to idealize and enhance the urban profile of Iztapalapa precinct.

The voices of the residents who populate the metropolis should be heard, to know their ideas and help meet immediate needs that concern a majority of the city's inhabitants; such contributions can help to improve the urban landscape and build a sense of belonging in residents' physical space, as it is constructed with their ideas, complementing their customs and day-to-day practices and reinforcing their sense of a shared identity.

For the most part, residents of the higher altitude areas of Mexico City and the metropolitan area have lived in close-knit neighborhoods or townships and adopted and adapted different customs and an identity that characterizes them, forming strong ties to their place of origin.

The primary aim of this article is to acknowledge the importance of citizen participation programs in encouraging city dwellers to recreate an urban space in which they feel identified in the context of the implementation of the Cablebus as a mode of urban mobility. In the case study presented, residents have formed a participative community that impacts their urban context through creative expression in murals covering walls, rooftops, and façades, which are visible in their broader setting from the Cablebus' gondolas.

With the growth of cities, population density, modernization, and new technologies, society began to demand transportation with greater efficiency, and that it be accessible and affordable for all; the creation of new routes and roads to facilitate connection between central public transport systems and expand the new peripheries that man himself has constructed over time.

In the year 2005, Mexico City implemented one of the public transport systems (Metrobús) which had a great impact, mainly because it is efficient and environmentally friendly, with the intention of offering traffic solutions, modifying organizational schemes, and helping users adapt to the city's urban renewal, for example, double-decker buses to transport greater numbers of passengers, fixed stops, exclusive lanes, and reconfiguration of pedestrian traffic signals (Movilidad, 2021).

In the year 2019, a new project was proposed for the east side of Mexico City with the aim of improving the quality of life of inhabitants and urban mobility in the Iztapalapa precinct; in 2021 it was implemented due to the physical characteristics of the environment for which it was planned to meet the needs of the population.

The arrival of the Cablebus marked the start of the development of new alternatives with the ideology of a farreaching transformation to integrate the city for future generations; Iztapalapa Precinct has created various citizen participation programs to enhance its urban image and affirm the identity of its inhabitants to promote culture.

Below, we describe the programs that have been implemented in Iztapalapa Precinct as part of the incorporation of community participation of inhabitants at the urban level. (See Table 3)

In the year 2016, Iztapalapa launched its first citizen participation program, called Programa Arcoíris, to improve and change the urban landscape; façades of homes were painted in various colors creating the vision of an urban mural visible from miles away, transforming the neighborhood's appearance and dignifying the space with a model that could be replicated in other precincts of the city.

One of this program's core objectives was to enhance and revindicate the urban image and citizen participation in the precinct, especially among children and youth; citizen participation took the form of residents' assemblies with local government authorities, and residents chose their preferred color to paint their homes.

The program was implemented by three core groups, mainly by the mayor of Iztapalapa, with help and support from residents and neighbors with the support of Fundación Corazón Urbano AC, and was implemented primarily in 200 homes in 27 neighborhoods throughout Iztapalapa Precinct.

In the year 2018 Iztapalapa Mural was created with the aim of honoring and recovering spaces frequented by local residents that figure prominently in their everyday lives, with the primary objective of involving residents in the preservation and dignification of their living space, honoring and recovering spaces frequented by local residents using art through a communal intervention; this would not have been possible without the support of the Executive Directorate of Culture of the Iztapalapa Government, 145 artists with the support of residents’ assemblies in 300 neighborhoods, and Colectivo Tomate, whose members worked closely with residents to propose themes for the murals, imbuing them with meaning behind a story.

Another of the proposed projects is the implementation of Sendero Seguro: Free and Safe Women's Walkways, which had as its primary objective to guarantee the safety of all pedestrians, especially women and girls. Thanks to urban artists, more than 188 murals were painted expressing social and cultural messages, along with the restoration of streets and public spaces, for example, the installation of surveillance cameras and light fixtures in public spaces, and walkways integrated into the landscape with pedestrian signaling.

With the support and participation of important government bodies like the Office of Women and the Mexico City Department of Works and Services and above all the participation of Iztapalapa Precinct.

The demand for new, modern, and functional public transport systems creates incentives for the creation of citizen participation programs that encourage the inclusion and perception of members of the community to ennoble and define their true essence in the crucible of the urban space, forming a conceptualization that expresses a way of life based on their beliefs, ideology, and culture.

Iztapalapa residents seek to honor the cultural identity that characterizes them, represented by a memory, a lifestyle, a culture, a belief, an entire life painted in a single image. The route of Cablebus Line 2 across Mexico City has given urban artists the opportunity to exercise their talent and portray the life of an entire community.

It is vitally important to acknowledge the structure of citizen participation programs in which city dwellers are allowed to contribute in ways that directly shape a project's impact and fulfillment of its objective; the space is cohesive and will be imbued with cultural identity as the community adapts to processes and media.

This article is part of a Master’s Degree research project in development undertaken by Maria Denise Ayala Gonzalez, the first author, entitled "Citizen Participation Program in Iztapalapa Precinct, with the implementation of Cablebus Line 2,” under the auspices of the Instituto Politecnico Nacional ESIA, Tecamachalco Unit, with a grant from the CONACYT Scholarship System.

The authors want to express their gratitude to SIP 20230221, a research project sponsored by the Instituto Politecnico Nacional School of Advanced Engineering and Architecture.

The abstract of this paper was presented at the Urban Planning & Architectural Design for Sustainable Development (UPADSD) Conference – 8th Edition which was held on the 24th-26th of October 2023.