Influence of public transportation on urban mobility in Celaya: a GIS case study

Sustainable urban mobility represents one of the greatest challenges for medium-sized Latin American cities, where public transport plays a fundamental role in reducing air pollution and traffic congestion and improving access to basic services. This paper examines the impact of public transportation on urban mobility in Celaya, Guanajuato, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to study the public transportation network in terms of coverage, accessibility, and efficiency. By compiling georeferenced data on public transport routes, such as departure frequencies and passenger flows, together with details on road infrastructure and sociodemographic data from open sources. Geographic information systems were used to construct thematic maps and spatial accessibility models, which made it possible to identify areas with poor coverage, long travel times, and disparities in urban connectivity. The findings show that, although public transport covers most of the urban areas, there are peripheral areas with poor accessibility and high dependence on private transport, which negatively affects sustainable mobility in developing industrial cities. Likewise, strategic corridors were identified where improving frequencies and modal integration would significantly increase the efficiency of the system. Finally, it is essential to include spatial analysis through GIS in the design of public transport, as this enables fairer and more sustainable mobility policies to be implemented, helping to reduce congestion and improve the quality of life in cities.