A Look Into the Mexican Institute of Transport

An SCT press release details a visit made over the weekend by its new head Jorge Arganis Díaz Leal to the Mexican Institute of Transport (IMT), a decentralized research center within the SCT. 

The IMT was created in April 15, 1987 to research both public and private transportation infrastructure and technologies and allow for international collaborations and a national integration of data and standards. At the time of its creation, Mexico’s economy was beginning a process of internationalization that would culminate in the signing of NAFTA a few years later. This created the need to benchmark the country’s safety and development standards to align them with international best practices. One of the ways in which the IMT does this is through its National Laboratory of Transport and Logistics Systems (SiT-LOG), a CONACYT affiliated institution capable of simulating nationwide distributions of economic activity and even supporting the creation of tools that can measure the carbon footprint of different growth models and development projections. Recently, SiT-LOG has even gotten involved in the development of logistical systems involving the use of unmanned automated drones. 

Another important component of the IMT is its National Experimental Center of Technological Innovation for Vehicular Safety (CENIT para la Seguridad Vehicular), composed of expert personnel, equipment and facilities, which include an enormous test track capable of simulating a large number of road conditions and measure the acceleration, turning and braking capabilities of specialized vehicles, such as PEMEX’s fuel trucks. Clients in the private sector also use this test track to check the resilience of their products; this includes the testing of Michelin tires. IMT’s current Director General Roberto Aguerrebere Salido showcased these and other top-of-the-line facilities to Díaz Leal as part of his tour of the Queretaro campus. 

The visit was a part of Díaz’s ongoing tour of various SCT facilities and projects, part of the political process through which Díaz has had to assume leadership of one of Mexico’s busiest federal dependencies after his predecessor Javier Jiménez Espriú resigned three weeks ago over disagreements with President López Obrador surrounding the militarization of the nation’s port custom facilities.