La Paz’s cable car system — the world's longest and highest — is cutting down commute times - The World from PRX
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Sitting at 12,000 feet above sea level, Bolivia’s La Paz has the highest altitude of any administrative capital of any country in the world. And it boasts having a world class public transportation system. There are 10 lines and 26 stations. But this is no metro — it’s the longest and highest cable car system in the world.

An hour and a half: That’s how long it used to take Juan Carlos Plata to travel to and from work along the winding, car-choked streets of La Paz, Bolivia.

Now, it takes only 11 minutes.

“It’s been really good for us. It’s incredible,” Plata said. “It’s calm. No one bothers you. You couldn’t expect anything like this before.”

The cable car, or teleferico, was a pipe dream for years. But then, with the financial boom of the late 2000s and early 2010s, then-President Evo Morales made it a priority. It was inaugurated in 2014. And now, 200,000 people use it each day.