Mexico City Nochebús
Integrated service and information design improvements to the passenger experience.
Mexico City’s night bus service operates from midnight until 5am. With 15% of employees starting or finishing work in the early hours and many visitors or residents returning home after a night out, it is a vital asset for the city.
A combination of poor reliability, concerns about personal safety, and a lack of visibility and information resulted in a poor customer experience an under-used / under-valued mobility choice.
Steer was commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank and Mexico City’s Innovation Lab to analyze service delivery issues across the network.
Our work included an international best practice review; PERS audits of passenger environments; on-street engagement with existing and potential users; passenger trip and user type analysis; and user journey mapping to identify pain points and determine the scale of demand that a revitalized service could generate.
Workshops with key stakeholders helped establish their aspirations for the service and identify opportunities or barriers to implementation of improvements.
Building on this analysis, we identified a series of practical interventions that could be implemented as a pilot along Avenida Insurgentes and later replicated on the other corridors. The interventions included Mexico City’s first fixed schedule bus service; consolidation of interchanges and enhanced stop environments; operational changes to improve service reliability, lighting, cleanliness and safety.
Complementing the service and operational enhancements, Steer designed a new identity that acknowledges Mexico City Metro’s iconic brand yet remains distinct and recognizable in its own right. The brand is translated through a suite of passenger information products, including a schematic network map, local area wayfinding maps, and templates for stop-specific information, all delivered as part of a system brand manual.
Steer provided design and cartography training to the city’s Innovation Lab so that they could apply the designs across the network.
Client: Inter-American Development Bank / Laboratorio para la Ciudad