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Mexico City has another natural peculiarity that makes it unable to support its millions. At 7,350 ft., it is one of the highest cities in the world, and yet it lies in a 50-mile-wide basin surrounded by mountains rising 3,000 ft. higher, notably the snow-covered volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. ("The two monsters," D.H. Lawrence wrote of them, "watching gigantically and terribly over their lofty, bloody cradle of men ... murmuring like two watchful lions.") The thin air not only contains 30% less oxygen than at sea level but makes auto engines produce...
...behind the growing needs. Consider, for example, the question of how to get increasing millions of people to their jobs. Seventeen years ago, the government girded Mexico City with the six-lane Periferico, which is now one long series of traffic jams (on a reasonably typical afternoon, a one-mile stretch contained twelve broken-down cars...
Since more highways attract more cars, the newer urban theories insist on mass transit. Mexico City's 69-mile French-built subway system, started in 1969 and still expanding, is a marvel: clean, fast, comfortable and almost free (a ride costs less than 10). But it carries 4 million riders a day, and at rush hours the crush is so intense that the authorities gallantly (or chauvinistically) reserve certain cars for women only...
Efforts at improvement regularly turn sour. Calcutta began in 1972 to build a subway that was supposed to open its first 2.5 miles this year and eventually carry 2 million people over ten miles of track. So far, costs have soared from $140 million to $700 million. Though many streets have been dug up and mountains of dirt piled in the Maidan Park, only half a mile of track was scheduled to become operational this summer. Then a June storm flooded the whole system and postponed its opening to the public. "When the thing is completed, it will not solve...
Stadium racing has another monetary advantage that promoters such as DiPrete hope to exploit television coverage. It's much easier to televise a stadium race than one on a three-mile track in the boondocks. Currently only one motocross event, the national outdoor championship in Carlsbad. California, is nationally televised. Promotoers say that for the sport to attract a wider audience, it must get more television exposure...