5 de Mayo Road Diet
A tactical urbanism intervention for pedestrian space recovery in downtown Aguascalientes
Project Name: 5 de Mayo road diet
Type: Civic / Public Interest Project
Date: 2020
Location: Aguascalientes Metropolitan Area, Mexico
Type: Public space & mobility infrastructure proposal
Independent author / Urban designer
In collaboration with Biciescuela Aguascalientes and Aguascalientes architecture students
Project description
Calle 5 de Mayo runs through Aguascalientes’ historic downtown and primary commercial corridor, one of the city’s most heavily trafficked pedestrian environments. Despite its centrality, the street’s sidewalks were critically undersized, forcing pedestrians to compete for space with vehicles on oversized travel lanes that prioritized car throughput over human safety.
Working alongside civic organizations and architecture students, this project made the case to city government that sidewalk widening was feasible without disrupting vehicular capacity, reframing the street’s cross-section as a question of political will rather than engineering constraint.
Temporal Intervention
As part of International Pedestrian Day 2020, the coalition executed a tactical urbanism intervention: a temporary sidewalk expansion that physically demonstrated how space could be redistributed.
Permanent Intervention by City Government
The evidence proved persuasive. Years later, the city government formalized the proposal, permanently widening one of the sidewalks, a rare instance of temporary civic action translating into lasting infrastructure change.
