Moving Citizens and Deterring Criminals: Innovation inPublic Transport Facilities

This paper explores the relationship between urban public trans-portation innovation and crime. In 2004, the city of Medellin inColombia developed an innovative public transportation systembased on cable cars (Metrocable) to... [ view full abstract ]

This paper explores the relationship between urban public trans-portation innovation and crime. In 2004, the city of Medellin inColombia developed an innovative public transportation systembased on cable cars (Metrocable) to reach dense, isolated anddangerous neighborhoods. Using Spatial Difference in Differenceapproaches and a rich dataset at spatial analytical level, usingmax-p modeling, we explore the effects of the Metrocable on crimeand its mechanisms. We find a significant impact on homicidesreduction in the treated neighborhoods, especially in the mediumrun. Homicides decreased around 41% more than the generalcrime reduction in the city between 2004 and 2006, and by 49%between 2004 and 2012. We explore two mechanisms throughwhich this intervention may affect the level of criminality, one isreducing the travel costs and improving accessibility to the rest ofthe city for low-income population (socioeconomic mechanism);the other is the increasing of the probability of apprehension forpotential and active offenders (deterrent mechanism).