Research Paper ‘Neither motorists nor pedestrians obey the rules’: Transit law, public safety, and the policing of Northern Mexico’s roads, 1920s–1950s Michael K. Bess Centro de Investigacio´n y Docencia Econo´micas Sede Regio´n Centro Aguascalientes, Mexico Abstract In the first half of the twentieth century, Mexican authorities implemented transit laws to regulate motor traffic and address concerns about road safety. The northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leo´n serves as a case study for this process. Monterrey’s location at the junction of two major national highways, as well as its proximity to the United States, made it an important site for cross-border trade and tourism. Local officials in Monterrey developed US-inspired rules to modernise traffic patterns and bolster tourism. This essay examines how state authorities in Nuevo Leo´ n coped with an influx in regional motor traffic, passing transit laws that reflected ideological priorities in favour of US-style economic development and technological modernisation. Keywords State formation, road safety, transit, policing, automobility Corresponding author: Michael K. Bess, Centro de Investigacio´n y Docencia Econo´micas Sede Regio´n Centro Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes 20908, Mexico. Email: michael.bess@cide.edu The Journal of Transport History 2016, Vol. 37(2) 155–174 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0022526616654700 jth.sagepub.com