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Research on Extent of the Effect on Poverty Reduction by Improvement of Mobility―Case Study of Metrocable in Medellin, Colombia

Sarika Okami*, Mihoko Matsuyuki** and Fumihiko Nakamura***1. Research backgrounds and objectives
Poverty has been an issue that the international society has continuously been tackling formany years. In recent years, improvement of mobility such as introducing public transportation,
constructing and improving infrastructure, has been assumed as important to reduce poverty andthe number of this kind of projects has been increasing. Therefore, it is obvious that to clarify theextent of the effect of the mobility improvement project should be useful henceforward.
Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia, introduced a ropeway which is called“Metrocable” in 2004. This mobility improvement project is highly appreciated worldwide.
However, as in the some of the similar projects, it is assumed that not all the people in the area
are benefited equally by Metrocable. Instead, only people who live close to Metrocable, or who
can afford to pay the fare of Metrocable might be able to use it. Based on this assumption, thisstudy has a purpose of identifying the extent of the effects of Metrocable from two points of view,that is, spatial and socio-economic perspectives. This research reveals who are benefited by the
introduction of Metrocable, by comparing groups that have different accessibility to Metrocable,
income level, and personal behavior.
2. Characteristics of research area and project
Medellin developed along the river that runs at thecenter of the city, and it has a vast area of slums
spreading across the hillsides. The inconvenience ofgoing to the central city area caused an economicdisparity between slum areas and other districts. Thecity introduced Metrocable as public transportation tosolve this problem aiming at the improvement ofMetrocablemobility of slum dwellers. It connects with a line of atrain which runs along the river.
This study aimed at analyzing the extent of theimpact of Metrocable focusing on one district called
Comuna1 (Figure-1). It includes two stations ofFigure-1 Comuna1 and Metrocable Metrocable and the area is assumed as the poorest one
2(Source of map: Alcaldia de Medellin, Plan de in the city. The area of Comuna1 is about 3.1 km andthe population is about 150,000.
Desarrollo Local, Medellin, 2014, p.36)* Student member, Institute of Urban Innovation, Yokohama National University,** Regular member, Institute of Urban Innovation, Yokohama National University*** Regular member, Yokohama National University
E-Mail: okami-sarika-ht@ynu.jp

3.2 Methodology
To identify the extent of the effect of Metrocable, this research reveals the relationshipbetween their uses of Metrocable and their behaviors from spatial and socio-economic aspects.
The authors also analyze the relationship between their utilization status of Metrocable and theirpoverty reduction based on the increase in income.
4. Characteristics of Metrocable users
4.1 Spatial aspect
The authors classified the sample into four groups of different accessibility to Metrocable bycalculating the linear distance between their houses and the closest station of Metrocable.
According to the Figure-2, it is clear that the closer they live, the more they use it for commuting.
In case of other trips (Figure-3), many people use it indifferent from where they live. Most of thepeople in Comuna1 use Metrocable, but low proportion of them use it as a commuting mode.
100%50%0%100%

7230~400

80

8125

17400~800 800~1200
use

5450%

40%

1200~

not use(m)Figure-2 Linear distance andcommuting trip by Metrocable

2327

16

575

75

80

53~400400~800 800~1200
use

1200~(m)not useFigure-3 Linear distance and othertrips by Metrocable

4.2 Socio-economic aspect
To analyze the use of Metrocable from the socio-economical point of view, we classified
samples by their gender, academic background, and economic condition, type of occupation,commuting district, and transportation to the workplace.
100%
50%

112

1780%

1858

MenWomenuse

University 0Technological college 0
Technical college
8High school
29Junior high school
12Primary school
21Nothing 4

not useFigure-4 Gender and useof Metrocable

Figure-50%20%use

not use

4548
113
2266
3740%

60%

80%

100%

Academic background and use of Metrocable

Proceedings of 2017 International Conference of Asian-Pacific Planning Societies

3. Outline of research
3.1 Outline of survey
This research is based on the data of questionnaire survey done from October 2016 to May
2017. The survey to the residents targeted the heads of households in Comuna1, who continuously
work and live there before and after Metrocable has been introduced. The questionnaire contains
questions about personal behavior, structure of the family, income of each member of thehousehold, commuting place, and mode of transport to commute. The total sample size is 372
individuals. Among them, 36% are men and 63% are women. The average of age is 45 years old.

Proceedings of 2017 International Conference of Asian-Pacific Planning Societies

Figure-4 shows that women are likely to use Metrocable for commuting more than men.
Figure-5 shows the classification by the academic background, which reveals that the percentageof Metrocable users is the highest in the group whose final academic histories are junior highschool. So it can be said that people whose the level of the academic background is relatively low
but not the lowest tend to use Metrocable as a commuting mode. In addition to their direct
influences to the use of Metrocable, these characteristics must be related to their job andworkplace.
In case of a comparison the type ofCommunication staff
213
occupation(Figure-6),
remarkable
Transportation staff 017
tendency is that Laborers and service
Service staff
3060
staffs are more likely to use Metrocable
Security staff
422
Sales staff
1471
than other jobs. It is assumed that people
Office worker
925
who do management or professional work
Laborer1318
such as teacher never use Metrocable to go
Profession 0
13
to work in spite of their high income. ThisManagement 03
result is somehow related to the work
0%
50%
100%
place, car ownership, and willingness touse
not useuse other transportations.
Figure-6 Type of occupation and use ofMetrocable
Many residents of Comuna1 work in Comuna1, 10, and 14. The authors classified the people
who work in Comuna1 into two groups: one is self-employed workers, and the other is workers
who pick up garbage or run stalls. Namely, the former group who work there and do not need touse Metrocable contains a disparity of income level. Comuna10 is a downtown area that has manyindustries there. Comuna14 is a luxury residential area that contains district of high-end shopping
centers. There are a lot of transportation
100%
modes for going to Comuna 10, but themost popular one is microbus, followed by97397350%
80
private cars. Therefore, only a few people
47
use Metrocable (Figure-7). On the other14120%
2hand, they can easily access to Comuna14
Comuna1 Comuna10 Comuna14 Others
and other areas by train, and they useuse
not useMetrocable as a feeder mode to the train.
Figure-7 Workplace and use of Metrocable
100%

1650%

0%

26

111

64

35

1029

122310291
10~600 600~650650~700700~750750~800800~850 850~
(1000 peso/month)use

Figure-8

not useAccording to the classification ofmonthly income of the head ofhousehold (Figure-8), the group whichhighly use Metrocable is 600,000 –
650,000 pesos per month. It looks thatthe lowest and highest group do nottend to use it.

Income level and use of Metrocable

4.3 Key findings
In summary, these results show that there is a spatial limit of using Metrocable as acommuting mode, while in case of other trips there is not strong limit of using it. Actually, people

5. Relationship between use of Metrocable and income increase
In 2016, the minimum wage of Colombia increased by 2.08 times compared with that of2003 1). Especially in Medellin, the average income of the head of household in 2015 increasedby 2.20 times compared with that of 2003 1). In case of Comuna1, the sampled heads of thehouseholds earn 739,697 pesos in average. That increased by 2.49 times more than that of 2003
(296,759 pesos). It means that after Metrocable launched, the economic condition of Comuna1
has improved much more than the domestic or city economic growth.
The authors divided samples by theTable-1 Average income of head ofutilization of Metrocable and compared thehousehold and the rate of increase(pesos/month)rate ofaverage income of each group. Table-1 reveals
2003
2016
increasethat people who use Metrocable relatively earn
use
267
714
2.67
less both in 2003 and 2016 than those who do not
Commutingnot use
303
746
2.46
use it, but the rate of increase is much higher.
use
277
735
2.65
Other trips
Moreover, that difference of the rate in other trips
not use
366
744
2.03
is more than that in commuting.
6. Conclusion
To sum up, this research identified that there is a spatial and socio-economic tendency to use
Metrocable. The extent of the use of Metrocable as a commuting mode is limited. However,people use it as a mode of other trip purposes even if they live far from the stations. It turned outthat woman, low level of academic background, and laborer or service staff tend to use Metrocablefor commuting more. This result is related to the workplace, and also to the socio-economic
environment like car ownership, and willingness to use other transportation modes. Moreover, it
became clear that the lowest and highest income group do not tend to use it. It means that
Metrocable does not benefit the poorest people directly whom it targeted at initially. Additionally,
the increasing rate in income of the group which uses Metrocable is higher than that of the othergroup.
Keywords: mobility improvement, public transportation, poverty reduction, extent of effect,
developing country
This research is founded by the Kajima Foundation’s Research Grant.
Reference:
1. Julio D. Davila, Urban mobility & poverty: Lessons from Medellin and Soacha, Colombia, Development
Planning Unit, 2013, p.46-104

Proceedings of 2017 International Conference of Asian-Pacific Planning Societies

who live far from the stations use it for other trips more than those who live close to the stations.
It is also clear from socio-economic aspect that particular groups such as woman, low levelof academic background, and laborer or service staff tend to use Metrocable for commuting morethan other groups. The comparison of the different income groups shows that the lowest andhighest group do not tend to use it. Therefore it is assumed that people whose economic conditionis on the border line which they can afford to buy and manage their vehicles tend to stick to usethem.