Driving in Curridabat in rush hour is impossible mission: from Tirrases to Plaza del Sol, a distance of less than 5 kilometers, takes up to 45 minutes.
The solution to the road’s chaos could be in the air. The Municipality of Curridabat is conducting a study to determine the feasibility of building a cable car for Tirrases to communicate with the center of the county.
The cable car could carry 10 thousand passengers per hour, which would ease vehicle traffic in the area.
People would go from taking 30 or 45 minutes to reach the center of Curridabat, to taking only 9 minutes with no waiting time. The construction of the cable car is not as complex as that of a road and does not need expropriations. It is safe, it does not compete with cars for space in the street and it is environmentally friendly because it is electric,”
said Edgar Mora, Mayor of Curridabat.
The cost per kilometer of travel is 10 million dollars, according to calculations by the Municipality of Curridabat, the canton needs 5 kilometers.
The idea is to analyze which is the best mechanism of financing. It can be mixed, where the municipality is associated with the central government or intervenes with some inter-institutional public transport authority,”
added Mora.
The Municipality of Montes de Oca also participates in the study, since the idea is to replicate the project in other cantons. The company Doppelmayr advises municipalities, since the country has little background in the subject.