ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes research on the important theme in the growing debate over regional development issues. It aims to develop a framework of analysis for examining the relationships between the main components or “pillars” of regional development. The chapter deals with a critique of existing transport-based regional development strategies in Mexico. The interplay between national uniqueness, regional processes, and global interdependence in Mexico can be synthesized in a basic schematic of regional growth and change. In urban Mexico at the beginning of the 1990s, for example, 35 percent of all urban income went to the richest 10 percent of the population, while the poorest 40 percent received only 17 percent of the total urban income. Strengths are evident in Mexico’s development of regional economic ties, and weaknesses continue in the country’s transportation links to both internal and external regions. Transport’s role in Mexico’s regional, and global development should include an explicit acknowledgement of the relationship between transport, people, and places.
