La Paz transport system

The La Paz so called public transport system is of a special kind. So called as it's not really a public system but a layered system of private services. Pricing is however controlled by the government. 

I'll list the transport infrastructure from the biggest and slowest to the smallest.

Micro is a half-sized bus. The style of the vehicles is similar to standard American school bus. Brands are mostly American like Dodge. Capacity is about 30 passengers. The micro is very cheap as a ticket from downtown La Paz to the Zona Sur is around 1.50 bs (20 cents US).

A typical decorated micro in downtown La Paz

The Minibus is a van converted to a mass people transporter. Brands and models are commonly Toyota Hiace, Nissan  Urvan and more recently several Chinese brands like King Long. There are typically 4 seating rows in addition to the driver's row. There are 2 passenger seats next to the driver and 4x3 in the back part to a total of 14. It's common to see the the driver having an assistant who collects the payments and shouts the route out of the window. The assistant doesn't have his/her own dedicated seat so if the minibus is full he squeezes himself between the sliding door and the passenger seats. The route of the minibus is marked in the windshield with interchangeable signs.

Minibus fleet in El Alto collecting passengers for downtown La Paz.

   Trufi is a car with 2 or 3 rows of seats. Typically the trufi has 2 rows with 2 places next to the driver and 3 in the back seat. Some station wagon type models can have a 3rd row which gives a capacity of 8 passengers plus the driver. Like the minibus the trufi's route is dispalyed on the windshield with signs.

A trufi on the Prado avenue in down town La Paz.

Radiotaxi is a typical car taxi. The look very much like trufis except there's is no pre-defined route. A radiotaxi can be called or hailed on the street.

Changes are coming to this system as La Paz will inaugurate the first city buses in 2014. The buses are called Puma Katari and the city has acquired 61 of these from China. They are designated to replace some of the traffic congesting trufi- and minibus-traffic. Naturally the private minibus- and trufi- operators are not happy with this and have threatened to burn the buses once in traffic.

Another step ahead is the new telecabin connecting down town La Paz to El Alto. It is excpected to be inaugurated around July-August of 2014. Each cabin can carry 8 passengers so in practise each cabin will replace one trufi or minibus. The telecabin is however purely for people transport purposes so there will still be some demand for wheel based transport..