Commuting in the Clouds

Paris, France, unveiled a three-mile cable car route on December 13. It’s the first cable car route in the region, and the longest urban route in Europe. Commuters in the suburbs of Paris can now float over rush-hour traffic. The system is expected to carry more than 11,000 people a day in its 105 gondolas, or cars.

Cable cars are a mode of transportation typically found in mountain areas. They’re increasingly used in cities, partly because they’re cheaper to build than subways. The new route in Paris cost about $160 million. A train route would have cost more than $1 billion, according to Grégoire de Lasteyrie, of the regional council in charge of transportation. “[A subway] could never have been financed,” he told the Agence France-Presse.