On March 26, 2026 Angie Torres Lopez will present her Master Thesis on ” Assessing the accessibility improvements, public perception and potential beneficiaries of cable car systems in Mexico City and Medellin” at 14:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a.
From the abstract: Urban mobility and transportation in Latin America is characterized by significant challenges, especially in low-income peripheral zones. Residents of these areas face long commutes, which limits access to opportunities and reduces quality of life. In recent years cable cars have been implemented in different cities as an alternative to improve accessibility in topographically challenging areas. This thesis investigates the role of the cable car systems in improving accessibility in informal settlements, through a multimodal assessment in Mexico City and Medellin. The study integrates three components: (1) a morphological characterization of informal areas, (2) the evaluation of accessibility using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) based routing to compare travel times with and without cable cars, and (3) an analysis of public perception on the cable car systems through social media using Twitter (now X) data from 2019 and 2022 by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP), including topic modelling and sentiment analysis. The results show different structural patterns in the informal settlements, that vary depending on the terrain characteristics and settlement density. They also show clear time savings up to 35 minutes associated with the use of cable cars compared with scenarios without cable cars, in some cases, there is a slight time increase. In addition, the findings indicate differences in perception between the two cities and highlight how service, infrastructure, politics, and everyday experience shape public opinion. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the value of combining geospatial and social media data to provide a more comprehensive analysis of urban cable car systems. By integrating urban morphology, spatial accessibility, potential beneficiaries and public perception, it contributes to more integral assessment of urban mobility projects and supports more socially informed transport planning.
1st supervisors: Prof. Dr. Hannes Taubenböck
2nd supervisor: Dr. Richard Lemoine-Rodríguez
From the abstract: Urban mobility and transportation in Latin America is characterized by significant challenges, especially in low-income peripheral zones. Residents of these areas face long commutes, which limits access to opportunities and reduces quality of life. In recent years cable cars have been implemented in different cities as an alternative to improve accessibility in topographically challenging areas. This thesis investigates the role of the cable car systems in improving accessibility in informal settlements, through a multimodal assessment in Mexico City and Medellin. The study integrates three components: (1) a morphological characterization of informal areas, (2) the evaluation of accessibility using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) based routing to compare travel times with and without cable cars, and (3) an analysis of public perception on the cable car systems through social media using Twitter (now X) data from 2019 and 2022 by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP), including topic modelling and sentiment analysis. The results show different structural patterns in the informal settlements, that vary depending on the terrain characteristics and settlement density. They also show clear time savings up to 35 minutes associated with the use of cable cars compared with scenarios without cable cars, in some cases, there is a slight time increase. In addition, the findings indicate differences in perception between the two cities and highlight how service, infrastructure, politics, and everyday experience shape public opinion. Overall, this thesis demonstrates the value of combining geospatial and social media data to provide a more comprehensive analysis of urban cable car systems. By integrating urban morphology, spatial accessibility, potential beneficiaries and public perception, it contributes to more integral assessment of urban mobility projects and supports more socially informed transport planning.
1st supervisors: Prof. Dr. Hannes Taubenböck
2nd supervisor: Dr. Richard Lemoine-Rodríguez
