MAPPING INFORMAL TRANSIT REQUIRES INVESTMENT—AND LONG-TERM COMMITMENT: THE CASE OF MEXICO CITY
TEAM MEMBERS AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT WORKED ON MAPPING MEXICO CITY:
YOHNNY RAICH, Former Head of Growth, WhereIsMyTransport, oversaw international expansion for WIMT and led effort on mapping popular transit systems in Latin America.
HUMBERTO FUENTES PANANÁ GARCÍA, Founder, Invernaideas Consultoría, Urban Planner based in Mexico City and the creator of the “Mapatón” citizen mapping initiative. He later served as the local operations lead for WIMT during its Mexico City mapping project.
INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB)
ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
GOOGLE
YOHNNY RAICH, Former Head of Growth, WhereIsMyTransport, oversaw international expansion for WIMT and led effort on mapping popular transit systems in Latin America.
HUMBERTO FUENTES PANANÁ GARCÍA, Founder, Invernaideas Consultoría, Urban Planner based in Mexico City and the creator of the “Mapatón” citizen mapping initiative. He later served as the local operations lead for WIMT during its Mexico City mapping project.
INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB)
ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
In cities across the Global South, informal transit often forms the backbone of urban mobility, but it is also poorly understood. Mapping these complex and constantly evolving systems has typically been left to volunteers, students, or small civic groups working with limited funding and open-source tools. These grassroots efforts are often as fragile as they are valuable. Informal transit networks shift frequently—routes adapt to new demand, congestion, or competition—which means they need to be remapped regularly. Most local groups simply don’t have the resources to keep up.
In Mexico City, the colectivo network—spanning more than 2,500 routes—is one of the largest and most complex informal transit systems in Latin America. But it doesn’t operate in isolation. It works in tandem with the city’s formal systems: Metro lines, the Bus Rapid Transit systems (Metrobus and Mexibus), and the expanding Cablebus. Colectivos often act as crucial connectors, providing ‘last-mile’ service and reaching parts of the city that formal transit doesn’t. Together, these formal and informal modes form a hybrid ecosystem that underpins daily mobility for millions.
Despite its importance, Mexico City’s informal system hadn’t been fully mapped—until the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) stepped in. Rather than rely solely on local volunteers, the IDB funded a large-scale data project and contracted a private startup, WhereIsMyTransport, to build what grassroots efforts often cannot: a complete, citywide dataset that can inform transit planning, empower riders, and integrate into platforms like Google Maps.
This story is about what that investment made possible, and what it reveals about the critical role multilaterals and public institutions must play in funding the foundational data infrastructure that makes cities more equitable and accessible.
A GRASSROOTS VISION, WITHOUT THE RESOURCES
Years before the IDB got involved, urbanist Humberto Fuentes had already tried to make Mexico City’s sprawling informal transit legible. In 2017, he and his consultancy Invernaideas organized a Mapatón—a crowdmapping event in which residents used their smartphones to trace routes and document stops.
“There was so much passion behind it, but we lacked the infrastructure to make the data stick,” Fuentes recalls. “You need servers. You need staff. You need QA. People move on. Funding dries up.” The Mapatón was a breakthrough, but it was not enough. What the mapping project needed was institutional backing.
CREATING DATA AS PART OF A REGIONAL STRATEGY
By 2018, the IDB and the OECD were seeking to create a standardized view of accessibility across Latin American cities, particularly for underserved communities. This required consistent, high-quality data, not only from one city but across many.
They turned to WhereIsMyTransport (WIMT), a South African startup with a growing reputation for mapping informal transit systems in emerging cities. After building successful datasets in African cities like Cape Town and Kigali, WIMT had begun expanding into Latin America. The company would eventually map more than 10 cities across the region (including Mexico City, as well as Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Medellín, San José, Recife, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Quito).
The IDB saw WIMT as a strategic partner that could deliver regional-scale datasets, enabling comparative research and supporting a wave of equity-focused urban mobility planning.
“In a lot of cities, there’s local knowledge but not the systems to make that knowledge usable at scale,” Yohnny Raich of WIMT explains.
The model raised questions. While WIMT’s ability to move quickly and standardize data across cities was a key strength, some urbanists and civic tech advocates argued that locally led data efforts—despite being slower and less polished—can be more sustainable in the long run. When communities build and maintain their own data, they’re more likely to keep it updated, adapt it to local needs, and use it as a tool for long-term advocacy.
A tension exists between scale and stewardship. Should data be produced by experts who can ensure quality and speed, or by communities who will live with its consequences long after international partners move on? Mexico City’s experience—where WIMT built on an earlier grassroots initiative—offers a potential middle ground: one where outside support amplifies, rather than replaces, local knowledge.
In Mexico City, the colectivo network—spanning more than 2,500 routes—is one of the largest and most complex informal transit systems in Latin America. But it doesn’t operate in isolation. It works in tandem with the city’s formal systems: Metro lines, the Bus Rapid Transit systems (Metrobus and Mexibus), and the expanding Cablebus. Colectivos often act as crucial connectors, providing ‘last-mile’ service and reaching parts of the city that formal transit doesn’t. Together, these formal and informal modes form a hybrid ecosystem that underpins daily mobility for millions.
Despite its importance, Mexico City’s informal system hadn’t been fully mapped—until the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) stepped in. Rather than rely solely on local volunteers, the IDB funded a large-scale data project and contracted a private startup, WhereIsMyTransport, to build what grassroots efforts often cannot: a complete, citywide dataset that can inform transit planning, empower riders, and integrate into platforms like Google Maps.
This story is about what that investment made possible, and what it reveals about the critical role multilaterals and public institutions must play in funding the foundational data infrastructure that makes cities more equitable and accessible.
A GRASSROOTS VISION, WITHOUT THE RESOURCES
Years before the IDB got involved, urbanist Humberto Fuentes had already tried to make Mexico City’s sprawling informal transit legible. In 2017, he and his consultancy Invernaideas organized a Mapatón—a crowdmapping event in which residents used their smartphones to trace routes and document stops.
“There was so much passion behind it, but we lacked the infrastructure to make the data stick,” Fuentes recalls. “You need servers. You need staff. You need QA. People move on. Funding dries up.” The Mapatón was a breakthrough, but it was not enough. What the mapping project needed was institutional backing.
CREATING DATA AS PART OF A REGIONAL STRATEGY
By 2018, the IDB and the OECD were seeking to create a standardized view of accessibility across Latin American cities, particularly for underserved communities. This required consistent, high-quality data, not only from one city but across many.
They turned to WhereIsMyTransport (WIMT), a South African startup with a growing reputation for mapping informal transit systems in emerging cities. After building successful datasets in African cities like Cape Town and Kigali, WIMT had begun expanding into Latin America. The company would eventually map more than 10 cities across the region (including Mexico City, as well as Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Medellín, San José, Recife, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Quito).
The IDB saw WIMT as a strategic partner that could deliver regional-scale datasets, enabling comparative research and supporting a wave of equity-focused urban mobility planning.
“In a lot of cities, there’s local knowledge but not the systems to make that knowledge usable at scale,” Yohnny Raich of WIMT explains.
The model raised questions. While WIMT’s ability to move quickly and standardize data across cities was a key strength, some urbanists and civic tech advocates argued that locally led data efforts—despite being slower and less polished—can be more sustainable in the long run. When communities build and maintain their own data, they’re more likely to keep it updated, adapt it to local needs, and use it as a tool for long-term advocacy.
A tension exists between scale and stewardship. Should data be produced by experts who can ensure quality and speed, or by communities who will live with its consequences long after international partners move on? Mexico City’s experience—where WIMT built on an earlier grassroots initiative—offers a potential middle ground: one where outside support amplifies, rather than replaces, local knowledge.
MAKING DATA VISIBLE CREATES CLARITY
WIMT’s first move in Mexico City was to hire Fuentes and his team as local partners. Then they deployed 60 trained data collectors, equipped with GPS-enabled apps and backed by a cloud-based QA system called Phoenix. Within a month, the field team traced more than 2,500 routes, documenting fares, head signs, and colloquial stop names.
The mapping revealed how deeply colectivos were integrated into the larger transit ecosystem. Vehicles shuttled passengers from far-flung neighborhoods to formal intermodal terminals, where they could connect to Metro or BRT lines. Some colectivos even had assigned bays at these terminals—a testament to a semi-formal status that had long gone unrecognized in the data.
“Mexico City is a great example of a city where these modes actually work together,” Raich maintains, adding, “ If you can’t see the informal routes, you can’t plan around them—or with them.”
One data challenge stood out: Oxxo. The name appeared hundreds of times in early drafts of the dataset—riders frequently used the ubiquitous convenience store as a reference point. WIMT addressed the issue by adding nearby landmarks or street names to distinguish each stop—“Oxxo–Durango,” for instance. The team also scrubbed and standardized the full dataset, ensuring it could serve both commuters and urban planners.
The result was a level of clarity rarely seen in informal systems. The data fed into Google Maps, powered RUMBO—WIMT’s own mobile app—and helped officials identify service gaps.
Designed specifically for commuters in emerging cities, RUMBO allowed users to plan journeys across both formal and informal modes, get real-time alerts about delays or disruptions, and even report service issues themselves. It offered interactive maps, estimated arrival times, and stop-level details—features that transformed everyday travel for riders long used to navigating by word of mouth.
THE CHALLENGE OF FUNDING DATA DEVELOPMENT
WIMT eventually shut down in 2023, as did many venture-backed startups navigating global headwinds. But the dataset they created continues to live on—in Google Maps, in municipal planning documents, and in the memory of a project that showed what’s possible when data is treated like infrastructure.
The story holds lessons for other cities. Informal transit is not temporary or fringe. Rather, it is essential. Grassroots knowledge must be partnered with institutional support. And finally, multilateral banks, foundations, and governments can play a catalytic role in funding the kind of baseline data that lets cities function more fairly.
Because visibility is power. And mobility should not depend on whether your bus route has been mapped.
If the IDB’s investment could produce such a lasting impact in Mexico City, it raises a simple question for other cities: who else is willing to fund the visibility that millions depend on every day?
WIMT’s first move in Mexico City was to hire Fuentes and his team as local partners. Then they deployed 60 trained data collectors, equipped with GPS-enabled apps and backed by a cloud-based QA system called Phoenix. Within a month, the field team traced more than 2,500 routes, documenting fares, head signs, and colloquial stop names.
The mapping revealed how deeply colectivos were integrated into the larger transit ecosystem. Vehicles shuttled passengers from far-flung neighborhoods to formal intermodal terminals, where they could connect to Metro or BRT lines. Some colectivos even had assigned bays at these terminals—a testament to a semi-formal status that had long gone unrecognized in the data.
“Mexico City is a great example of a city where these modes actually work together,” Raich maintains, adding, “ If you can’t see the informal routes, you can’t plan around them—or with them.”
One data challenge stood out: Oxxo. The name appeared hundreds of times in early drafts of the dataset—riders frequently used the ubiquitous convenience store as a reference point. WIMT addressed the issue by adding nearby landmarks or street names to distinguish each stop—“Oxxo–Durango,” for instance. The team also scrubbed and standardized the full dataset, ensuring it could serve both commuters and urban planners.
The result was a level of clarity rarely seen in informal systems. The data fed into Google Maps, powered RUMBO—WIMT’s own mobile app—and helped officials identify service gaps.
Designed specifically for commuters in emerging cities, RUMBO allowed users to plan journeys across both formal and informal modes, get real-time alerts about delays or disruptions, and even report service issues themselves. It offered interactive maps, estimated arrival times, and stop-level details—features that transformed everyday travel for riders long used to navigating by word of mouth.
THE CHALLENGE OF FUNDING DATA DEVELOPMENT
WIMT eventually shut down in 2023, as did many venture-backed startups navigating global headwinds. But the dataset they created continues to live on—in Google Maps, in municipal planning documents, and in the memory of a project that showed what’s possible when data is treated like infrastructure.
The story holds lessons for other cities. Informal transit is not temporary or fringe. Rather, it is essential. Grassroots knowledge must be partnered with institutional support. And finally, multilateral banks, foundations, and governments can play a catalytic role in funding the kind of baseline data that lets cities function more fairly.
Because visibility is power. And mobility should not depend on whether your bus route has been mapped.
If the IDB’s investment could produce such a lasting impact in Mexico City, it raises a simple question for other cities: who else is willing to fund the visibility that millions depend on every day?