Socio-technical analysis of ropeways as an innovation in public transport services

Abstract

Cable cars are analyzed as an innovative modality of public transport through the sociotechnical approach. Analytical categories of the Dutch current of technological transitions and socio-technical alliances proposed by Latin American authors are used, the case of the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico is studied. The research aims to explain the construction of sociotechnical trajectories in the case of an urban cable car and the degree of interactions between relevant public and private actors. Latin America has been at the forefront in the implementation of cable cars for public transport in big cities. Although cable car technology is imported, its implementation has involved organizational, institutional and infrastructure innovations that aim to analyze comparing the different lines of the Mexican megalopolis. We obtained, from the theoretical approaches proposed, the description of the landscape, the regime and the level of innovation niche.