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Cable cars in urban transport: Travel time savings from La Paz-El Alto (Bolivia)

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  • Garsous, Grégoire
  • Suárez-Alemán, Ancor
  • Serebrisky, Tomás

Abstract

Recently cable cars have come to be considered as an urban transport alternative in many cities. After the successful implementation of Metrocable in Medellin, Colombia, in 2004, other Latin American cities developed projects to incorporate cable cars as part of their public transport network. The system in La Paz and El Alto is the longest urban cable car network in the world. It connects two geographically complex areas with about two million inhabitants and high rates of poverty. This paper provides quantitative evidence of the effect of the La Paz–EL Alto cable car on users’ commuting time, which may have an important impact on many dimensions of people's lives. Because cable cars have only recently been used for urban transit, literature on the subject is scarce. No paper has addressed the case of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia, as most previous studies have focused on anecdotical information of the case of Medellin. From a mobility survey carried out in La Paz-El Alto, we compare the average commuting travel times of using cable cars (treatment group) over other transport modes (control group). We estimate that travel by cable car cuts commuting times by an average of 22% over other transport modes. This translates into a daily reduction of nine minutes in travel time and an average net benefit of US$0.58 per commute. The effect holds across the distribution of commuting times: No matter how short or long the commute, it takes less time when the cable car network is used.

Suggested Citation

  • Garsous, Grégoire & Suárez-Alemán, Ancor & Serebrisky, Tomás, 2019. "Cable cars in urban transport: Travel time savings from La Paz-El Alto (Bolivia)," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 171-182.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:75:y:2019:i:c:p:171-182
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.05.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Morten Flesser & Bernhard Friedrich, 2022. "Are We Taking Off? A Critical Review of Urban Aerial Cable Cars as an Integrated Part of Sustainable Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Posada, Héctor M. & García-Suaza, Andres, 2022. "Transit infrastructure and informal housing: Assessing an expansion of Medellín's Metrocable system," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 209-228.
    3. Luis A. Guzman & Victor A. Cantillo-Garcia & Julian Arellana & Olga L. Sarmiento, 2023. "User expectations and perceptions towards new public transport infrastructure: evaluating a cable car in Bogotá," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 751-771, June.
    4. Jose Alberto Lara-Pulido & Adan L. Martinez-Cruz, 2023. "Stated benefits of teleworking in Mexico City: a discrete choice experiment on office workers," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1743-1807, October.
    5. Humberto, Mateus, 2023. "How to translate justice theory into urban transport metrics? Synchronic assessment of Latin American cities based on equality, priority and sufficiency," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    6. Arias, Juan F. & Bachmann, Chris, 2022. "Quantifying the relative importance of rapid transit implementation barriers: Evidence from ecuador," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Jara-Diaz, Sergio R. & Muñoz-Paulsen, Esteban, 2024. "Cable cars: From optimal design to optimal pricing," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • N16 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

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