A lifeline for the disconnected: A longitudinal study of a cable car's impact on accessibility, satisfaction, and leisure activities

Abstract

Urban transport using aerial cable systems has emerged as a solution to connect neighborhoods that are traditionally difficult to access. This study investigates the impact of a new cable car line on accessibility, public transport satisfaction, and participation in leisure activities within a peripheral, low-income, and highly segregated community in Bogotá, Colombia. In addition to a pre-cable car assessment conducted in 2018, three follow-up assessments were carried out between 2019 and 2023, comparing a treatment area with a control area. The treatment area consists of households located in neighborhoods surrounding the cable car corridor, while the control area includes households in the vicinity of a future cable car line in an area with similar geographical and socioeconomic characteristics. Household surveys (N = 6376) were conducted in both groups before and after the cable car line's inauguration, with 2052 surveys collected at baseline, 1679 during the first follow-up, 1419 in the second, and 1226 in the third. This study represents the first application of a large experimental-control group design around cable cars on a global scale. Despite the significance of this intervention, few transport studies have evaluated its impact using panel data over time. The panel design offers an opportunity to observe causal links between the project and the observed outcomes. The results indicate a significant increase in accessibility, satisfaction with public transport, and participation in leisure activities among the treatment group following the implementation of the cable car. However, women experienced a smaller increase in accessibility and expressed lower satisfaction with public transport, potentially due to their caregiving roles and concerns about safety and harassment. These findings underscore the important social and potential economic impacts that transport interventions can have on populations. Public investments of this nature are typically challenging to evaluate through social control trials, but the knowledge generated from this type of experimental evaluation could be highly valuable for policymakers.