{"id":1842,"date":"2017-01-26T13:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1842"},"modified":"2017-02-13T13:09:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T12:09:29","slug":"cable-cars-a-system-to-improve-urban-transport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2017\/01\/26\/cable-cars-a-system-to-improve-urban-transport\/","title":{"rendered":"Cable-Cars: a System to Improve Urban Transport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve shared with you in previous posts some <strong>traffic stories<\/strong> from <strong>Lagos<\/strong> and <strong>Nairobi<\/strong> (see <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/10\/14\/urban-transport\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Urban Transport<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/05\/07\/transport-infrastructure-boosts-business\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Transport Infrastructure Boosts Business)<\/em><\/a>. Could there be any more? Yes! The longer you sit there, the more stories you have to share \u2013 this is how bad traffic can get. Here\u2019s another one: on my last day of a trip to Lagos, I was caught in a really <strong>bad traffic jam<\/strong> on my way to the airport. Despite having left my lodging with what I though was plenty of time, the jam was sooo bad that I started getting nervous. The driver noticed my stress. Trying to calm me down, he said: \u201c<strong>Don\u2019t worry, the Lord will blow the winds<\/strong>.\u201d And\u2026 guess what! He did blow the winds! Just a few minutes later, at a juncture, the jam was dissolved. Maybe <strong>cable-cars are one solution<\/strong> to this huge problem.<\/p>\n<p>I do believe in God and in his providence. However, I don\u2019t think He will solve the problems that we don\u2019t when we could. So, I\u2019m happy to see that there are plans to improve transport infrastructure in many large cities across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including setting up <strong>cable-cars<\/strong>. This innovative transport system has many <strong>advantages<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It has a <strong>low environmental impact <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s <strong>quick<\/strong> <strong>to build<\/strong> (estimated less than 2 years for a line),<\/li>\n<li>Its <strong>safety record<\/strong> <strong>is<\/strong> <strong>impeccable<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2012\/nov\/06\/cable-cars-transport-solutions-france\" target=\"_blank\">Both <strong>capital investment<\/strong> and <strong>operational costs are relatively low<\/strong><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So far, there are few cable-car lines in the SSA region:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>Cape Town<\/strong>,<strong> South Africa, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tablemountain.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Table Mountain Aerial Cableway <\/a><\/strong>and in <strong>Hartbeesport<\/strong>,<strong> South Africa<\/strong>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hartiescableway.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway <\/strong><\/a>are already operational. These cable-cars were not built to solve city congestion issues but for touristic purposes.<\/li>\n<li>In<strong> Cross River State<\/strong>, <strong>Nigeria<\/strong>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cometonigeria.com\/top-destinations\/obudu-mountain-resort\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Obudu Mountain Resort<\/strong><\/a>. It was also built to give visitors a scenic view of the mountain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1849\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1849\" style=\"width: 701px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/01\/Cable-car-Kenya.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1849\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/01\/Cable-car-Kenya-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Likoni Channel Project in Mombasa, Kenya\" width=\"701\" height=\"395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/01\/Cable-car-Kenya-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/01\/Cable-car-Kenya-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/files\/2017\/01\/Cable-car-Kenya.jpg 744w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1849\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Likoni Channel Project in Mombasa, Kenya. Source: Kenya Monitor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some cities are introducing them now to improve their transport network:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>Mombasa<\/strong>, <strong>Kenya<\/strong>, the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theugandatoday.com\/all-uganda-today-posts\/2016\/11\/kenya-introduces-cable-cars-at-likoni-channel-flying-across-the-channel\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong> Likoni Channel project<\/strong><\/a> will connect Mombasa Island and the South Coast, 1300 meters, starting in March this year. Its capacity will be <strong>11,000 passengers<\/strong> <strong>per hour<\/strong> in both directions. The trip will shorten to about only two minutes down from ten minutes that it takes now to cross it using the ferry service.<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>Lagos, Nigeria<\/strong>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng\/logistics\/ropeways-to-deliver-275m-lagos-cable-car-project-in-2017\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>cable-car<\/strong><\/a> will be 12.85 km long and will connect Lagos Island with both the mainland and Victoria Island. The estimated capacity is <strong>240,000 trips a day,<\/strong> and the expectation is that it will reduce average journey times by as much as 70 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once again, this is an area where SSA has the potential to leapfrog: these investments will provide a clean and fast alternative method of transport. They will <strong>reduce the intense traffic jams<\/strong> that people suffer on a daily basis, and will <strong>contribute to overall efficiency<\/strong>: as of now, most executives hire drivers so that they can work done during the rides.<\/p>\n<p>Any doubts about the African leapfrog potential?<\/p>\n<p><em>Nadim Elayan, Research Assistant at IESE Business School, collaborated in this article.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>RELATED ARTICLES<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/10\/14\/urban-transport\/\" target=\"_blank\">Urban Transport<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/05\/07\/transport-infrastructure-boosts-business\/\" target=\"_blank\">Transport Infrastructure Boosts Business<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/12\/10\/increasing-urbanization-and-smart-cities\/\" target=\"_blank\">Increasing urbanization and smart cities<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve shared with you in previous posts some traffic stories from Lagos and Nairobi (see Urban Transport, Transport Infrastructure Boosts Business). Could there be any more? Yes! The longer you sit there, the more stories you have to share \u2013 this is how bad traffic can get. Here\u2019s another one: on my last day of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99579,99314,492],"tags":[100534,603,93300,100535,100537,100536,100486,1380,87898,100372],"class_list":["post-1842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-african-economic-and-institutional-context","category-social-and-institutional-context","category-development","tag-cable-cars","tag-environment","tag-lagos","tag-leaprfrog","tag-likoni-channel","tag-mombasa","tag-safety","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-jam","tag-urban-transport","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1842"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}