## 4 Discussion
If the MMZ wants to reduce the extreme use of motorised vehicles, the first step to take is to reduce the public space designated to them by creating a safe built environment for other transport users;
4. **Accessibility is a social and gender policy. ** Usually, the groups with the lowest incomes live in areas of the city where accessibility levels are low and marginalisation levels are high; this is not an exception for the MMZ. Therefore, increasing accessibility in such areas will bring massive benefits to such populations as their transportation expenditures (for the specific case of women, this is known as the \"Pink Tax\") will decrease, as well as their travel distances and times, hence improving their quality of life and sense of belonging to their local community. Additionally, women in Mexican cities usually have more complex travel patterns than men, as they tend to visit many different destinations in one day (trip-chaining), carry heavy things, and accompany other persons (mobility of care) in their trips [23]. Consequently, making all these destinations easier and less expensive to access will bring important improvements to the travel behaviours and patterns of women. Finally, women argue that they usually feel unsafe when using public transport [23]; thus, using bikes and walking as their main transport modes will make them feel safer in their daily trips. In addition, further research should be conducted to assess the changing needs of an ageing society and accessible mobility in MMZ;
5. **Decentralise the city. ** As in many other cities in the world, most of the main employment centres of the city are located in central areas. This localisation pattern results in a phenomenon where, during the morning, the origin of most trips to go to work is from suburban areas, and the destination is the centre of the city. In the afternoon, most people travel back home, and the mobility pattern is inverted, starting in the centre and ending in suburban areas. Such a way of structuring the city creates traffic, as well as extremely long average distances and travel times, which result in high economic, social, and environmental costs. Hence, it is important to apply planning processes or economic activities (especially commerce and services) that encourage the localisation of such activities in different parts of the city, creating subcentres and reducing the need for metropolitan mobility;
6. **Increase the density of the city. ** With only 698 people per square kilometre, the MMZ is not a dense city. Large sprawling cities with low densities go against accessibility, as there is not enough critical mass (demand) to implement some opportunities throughout the entire city. This generates a dependency on middle to large-distance motorised travel. Considering the nature of the MMZ, it is recommended that the city no longer sprawl. To do so, it has to generate all-income-level vertical housing in central areas. The authorities play a key role in doing so by putting in action economic incentives for developers (such as tax waivers or reductions) to build social vertical housing in central areas and by eradicating any permits to develop large monofunctional suburban residential gated communities. This is an ambitious plan for a city like the MMZ, as it has historically grown horizontally and with most of its population preferring single-family housing schemes rather than apartments. Nevertheless, the transformation of its urban structure to a denser area will bring massive social, economic, and environmental benefits to the local population in the short, middle, and long term;
7. **Downsize urban infrastructure and equipment. ** It has been demonstrated that high-capacity and large-scale destinations such as public general hospitals or shopping centres attract many persons who live in other districts. Therefore, having a larger number of small-scale opportunities dispersed along the city would allow locals to access their daily needs in their neighbourhood.