Cable Cars Over the Rio Favelas

Wired magazine looks at a $74 million idea for managing traffic in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.

There’s nowhere for public transit to go. Nowhere, that is, but up. That’s the direction for the newest transportation system in Rio, slated to open in March: a six-station gondola line running above a collection of favelas known as the Complexo do Alemão. The government says that 152 gondolas will carry 30,000 people a day along a 2.1-mile route over the neighborhood, transforming the hour-and-a-half trudge to a nearby commuter rail station into a 16-minute sky ride.

Photo credit by André Gomes de Melo

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