The Red Line has benefited families who live in Villa 16 de Julio in El Alto, a busy business area that is famous for the weekly street fair that stretches for many blocks and attracts people from all over the city to shop. One of the interviewees who lives there talked about the ways in which the cable car changed the quality of life of her older son:
Her takes the Teleférico to go down to his university and pays 1.50 bolivianos each way. . . . He used to get home at eleven p.m., but now with the Teleférico he gets here a lot faster, always around eight p.m. and by nine p.m. at the latest. . . .
Unlike in the case of the Yellow and Green Lines, the Red Line is clearly a cheaper and faster alternative to the families who live in Villa 16 de Julio. This relates to the fact that the main alternative to it is to travel down the Autopista, a highway that meanders its way down into the center of the city where traffic accumulates and slows down. Moreover, people who live in Villa 16 de Julio have to either go to La Ceja to catch a minibus or take steps down from El Alto and board on a minibus off the Autopista highway. As has become clear by now, families see the minibus as the most uncomfortable mode of transport. Aside from being at the mercy of the drivers, who can hike up the price depending on demand, people who take the minibus often have to fight for a seat, so older children and students often suffer from being pushed around.
I thought it was just a story that we would have cable cars until I saw it and for me it has been great help in the first year. My son once got home at eleven-thirty p.m. because he couldn’t catch transportation. Now he gets here early and he feels safer. . . . It’s also cheaper. He saves one boliviano going down and up as well, and he comes back faster too and he doesn’t have to be pushing older people to be able to catch transportation. He is very polite and doesn’t want to push people.
Her son has come to depend on the cable cars so much that he struggles when the company must fix the lines and stops the cable cars from functioning. “On those days, he says that his calvario (Calvary) begins. I tell him it is only five days.” She cannot wait for the Blue Line to start functioning. At the time of the interview, the Blue Line was under construction and
it has been completed as of this writing. “My younger one walks to school because his school is nearby and there is no movilidad (vehicle) that can take me directly from here to his school. We are waiting for the new line to open because it would be a big help.” The line will connect her neighborhood to the school of medicine in Miraflores or the Universidad Pública de El Alto (Public University of El Alto—UPEA), which her younger son is considering for his university studies. “I will get him a student card to use the cable cars just like I did for my older son,” she said as she talked about her future.
Another one of the interviewees, a man in his 30s, lives near the school Integración in El Alto, but he sends his child to the Kinder Simona Manzaneda, which is in San Pedro in La Paz. He takes his child in his own movilidad (vehicle), but what was interesting was that he said he uses the cable cars during emergencies, whenever there are strikes or blockades on the streets. Comparing his private car to other vehicles, he said that “minibuses are uncomfortable and sometimes they don’t come or you have to push other people to catch one; that’s why I prefer my private vehicle. They are no good when there are bloqueos on the streets; sometimes they are the ones blocking the streets to get higher rates.” This was a common theme for families who send their children to schools in the center of La Paz. The blockades are a common occurrence in the streets of both El Alto and La Paz. Using data from the national institute of statistics, Pando Solares Consultores (2012) estimated that in 2009 and 2010 there were approximately five marches or blockades per day, excluding weekends. In addition, during weekends and sometimes in the weekdays as well, festivals and celebrations are carried out on the streets which slow down traffic. In those instances, the cable car becomes the preferred mode to get in and out of the center for anyone in Villa 16 de Julio or even beyond.
drivers. Minibus drivers make more money if they load and unload people quickly; they also make more money if they fill up their seats with as many paying passengers as possible.
Therefore, they often refuse to pick up families with many children because they would take too long to get on the minibus. They sometimes do not stop for older people either. If a parent is carrying a bag of goods to go to work and to take her child with her, minibus drivers would refuse to pick them up. In fact, in a survey conducted in 2011 with a sample of close to 2,000 people, 78% of the respondents stated that at some point they had been discriminated by the minibus drivers (Pando Solares Consultores, 2012). Residents of Villa 16 de Julio also
complained about the fact that the minibus drivers often charge more at night or they divide up a trip in parts and charge more for each part, which is called trameaje. Combined with the
discomfort of traveling in the tight space of the minibus, these attributes of the conduct of the drivers themselves makes this mode of transport one of the least appealing. The cable car, by contrast, has explicit rules against discrimination and offers preferential treatment to children, the old, and people with disabilities.
Conclusion
This chapter reported on interviews with several families who have used the cable car system to organize their children’s commute to school. Their accounts offer more detailed insights into the ways they view the cable car system compared to other modes of transportation. In general, the cable car has been described as faster, cheaper, more comfortable, reliable, and convenient than other modes of transport. However, whether families enjoy one or multiple of these benefits depends largely on their situation, the location of their homes in relation to the station, the location of schools, and their perceptions of the relative quality of local schools versus schools in La Paz. In other words, there as many cases as there are people, and a general
trend that applies to all is unlikely to emerge. What I can say is that for those who do use the cable car regularly, the long list of benefits cannot be reduced to monetary savings. The quality of life improves when people can avoid the busy and congested streets of La Ceja; their situation improves when they can avoid being blocked by protests or marches; their days are a bit easier when they do not have to push others to get a seat on a minibus; or when parents know they can expect their children to get home at a reliable, consistent, and reasonable hour. What cannot be captured in these interviews is whether the experience of students within the schools they attend is any better than it would have been with mass transit. That is one among many of the
limitations of this study, which I discuss in the next chapter, along with policy implications and questions for future research.