In the sprawling megacity of Bogotá, a groundbreaking urban intervention has cast new light on the intricate social fabric woven within the city’s most marginalized communities. Latin America’s informal settlements on urban peripheries, often marked by stark inequalities and scarce resources, face compounded challenges that transcend mere physical deprivation. A transformative infrastructural project, Bogotá’s TransMiCable cable car system, launched in 2018, has offered a fresh lens to explore how transport innovation can influence social dynamics in these underserved neighborhoods. Emerging research delves into how this aerial transit solution not only redefined physical connectivity but also restructured social capital—the complex web of relationships and trust that underpins community resilience and collective action.
The concept of social capital (SC) serves as a pivotal framework in understanding community well-being and empowerment, especially in urban environments where formal institutions frequently fall short. SC encapsulates multiple dimensions, including bonding ties between close kin, bridging links among acquaintances, and linking connections that extend to institutions and civic structures. Measuring these nuanced layers within informal settlements provides critical insights into the social ramifications of infrastructure investments and their capacity to catalyze social cohesion. The latest study on TransMiCable examines these dimensions meticulously, illuminating significant shifts brought about by enhanced mobility and accessibility.
At the heart of this research lies the categorization of social capital into three distinct classes, revealing the variegated nature of trust and engagement across Bogotá’s peripheral populations. The first identified class, described as “predominantly bonding,” reflects a social milieu where trust and networks are innately centered on familial relationships. This form of social capital is characterized by strong affective ties but limited external reach, often fostering insularity but providing vital emotional and material support. The second category, termed “predominantly bridging,” indicates moderate trust and interactions extending beyond tight-knit family units to friends and neighbors, suggesting an expanded social horizon and inter-personal cooperation. Finally, the “predominantly linking” class surfaces as an advanced form of SC, showcasing enhanced trust in formal government entities coupled with substantive civic participation.
The intervention area serviced by TransMiCable exhibited a noteworthy propensity for transitioning between these SC classes, with individuals displaying a significantly higher likelihood of moving from bonding to bridging social capital configurations. Quantitatively, residents in the intervention zone were found to be over three times more likely—3.34 times to be exact—to experience this social capital evolution compared to those in comparable, non-serviced control areas. This pronounced shift underscores TransMiCable’s role not merely as a physical conduit but as a catalyst fostering broader trust networks and neighborly interactions. The cable car system emerges as a salient example of how urban infrastructure can stimulate social integration by physically and symbolically bridging diverse social groups.
This transformation carries profound implications for urban planning and social policy. Historically, informal settlements in Latin America endure systemic marginalization, with inadequate public services reinforcing social segregation and limiting opportunities for upward mobility. By altering access patterns and enhancing visibility and engagement across community boundaries, TransMiCable introduces a paradigm where infrastructure works hand-in-hand with social empowerment. The consequential strengthening of bridging ties elevates collective efficacy, enabling communities to engage more cohesively in governance processes, advocate for resources, and foster inclusive neighborhood identities.
Technically, the study leveraged sophisticated methodologies to unpack these social capital dynamics, employing quantitative surveys and advanced statistical modeling to capture relationships between transport interventions and social behavior shifts. The use of confidence intervals provides robust probabilistic measures of effect sizes—an essential tool for distinguishing substantive social changes from random variation. In particular, the 95% confidence interval range (2.43–4.62) around the odds ratio for transitioning to bridging social capital conveys strong evidence supporting the intervention’s impact. Such rigorous analysis lends credibility and generalizability to findings that otherwise might be dismissed as anecdotal or localized phenomena.
Moreover, the study’s granular focus on six distinct dimensions of social capital introduces a nuanced approach rarely applied in urban infrastructure evaluations. These dimensions include interpersonal trust, civic engagement, social networks, reciprocity, institutional trust, and support structures within families. By dissecting these elements, researchers delineate the multidirectional mechanisms through which transport accessibility influences social ties. For example, increased mobility can reduce spatial isolation, thereby enabling more frequent neighborly interactions and collective events that nurture trust and solidarity. Importantly, the measurable uptick in civic participation among linking SC class members also highlights how infrastructure bridges the gap between citizens and governmental institutions, fostering democratic governance and accountability.
This research is particularly timely as cities worldwide grapple with social inequality exacerbated by urban sprawl and fragmented public transit systems. It challenges prevailing wisdom that transportation projects merely yield economic benefits or reduce commute times, illustrating that they also act as social innovations with wide-reaching ripple effects. The Bogotá case serves as an exemplary model for other Latin American metropolises wrestling with informal settlements and the quest for inclusive urban revitalization. It emphasizes that technology and physical infrastructure must be thoughtfully integrated with social objectives to unleash their full transformative potential.
At a community level, the increased trust among friends and neighbors initiated by TransMiCable has tangible manifestations. Residents report enhanced feelings of safety, mutual support, and willingness to engage in neighborhood improvement initiatives. These social reinforcements contribute to a positive feedback loop that sustains infrastructural benefits over time. Additionally, the project’s inclusion of community participation throughout planning and implementation stages appears to be a cornerstone for its success. By involving residents actively from the outset, the intervention cultivated a sense of ownership and legitimacy, further buttressing the social capital gains observed.
However, despite these promising outcomes, the complexity of social capital underscores that such transformations are neither automatic nor guaranteed. Infrastructure must be paired with policies that address broader socio-economic inequities, including poverty, education, and access to health services, to sustain and deepen social integration. Continuous monitoring and adaptive management are essential to ensure new social connections are resilient in the face of urban pressures such as gentrification or political shifts. The Bogotá experience offers critical lessons in balancing technical innovation with inclusive governance to safeguard social gains.
From a global urbanist perspective, the TransMiCable project demonstrates the potential of cable cars as a transport modality uniquely suited to hilly or densely built informal settlements, where conventional mass transit infrastructure faces practical limitations. The aerial system’s relatively low cost, rapid deployment, and minimal land displacement compare favorably to alternatives like tunnels or extensive road networks. Its social impact, as illuminated by this research, invites a reimagining of cable cars beyond mere conveyance tools toward instruments of social engineering and urban equity enhancement.
In synthesizing the findings, it is evident that the spatial dimension of social capital plays a critical role in shaping urban life quality. Improved connectivity promotes interactions that breach social divides entrenched by geography and socio-economic status. Yet, the study’s most compelling argument lies in illustrating that social capital is malleable and can be purposefully engineered through infrastructural design. The TransMiCable embodying this principle stands as a beacon for future urban development strategies aiming to intertwine social inclusion with physical accessibility.
To conclude, Bogotá’s TransMiCable cable car has transcended traditional conceptions of transportation projects by significantly reshaping the social landscape of underserved neighborhoods. Its ability to propel shifts from bonding to bridging social capital evidences the power of integrating urban infrastructure with community-centric policies. This pioneering research advances our understanding of how social capital metrics can be effectively used to measure and guide urban transformations, offering a replicable blueprint for cities battling inequality and social fragmentation. As urbanization proceeds apace globally, such insights are invaluable for crafting resilient cities where infrastructure not only connects places, but also people across social spectrums.
Subject of Research: Social capital dynamics influenced by urban infrastructure interventions in informal settlements.
Article Title: Social capital of urban infrastructure with Bogotá’s cable car.
Article References:
Useche, A.F., Rubio, M.A., Higuera-Mendieta, D. et al. Social capital of urban infrastructure with Bogotá’s cable car. Nat Cities (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00366-z
Image Credits: AI Generated
