December, 2009

28
Dec

2009

The Innsbruck Hungerburgbahn

The Hungerburgbahn "Hybrid" Funicular

I’m in transit today to visit the Innsbruck Hungerburgbahn. This should be a fascinating system to explore given that it is one of only a few so-called Hybrid Funiculars in the world.

As I understand it, the beauty of a Hybrid Funicular is that the chassis and the cabins align themselves separately from one another. That is, while the vehicle’s chassis is parallel to the track below, the cabins are parallel to the horizon. This allows a vehicle to move from a 0 degree gradient up to whatever maximum gradient is required but the passengers, meanwhile, are afforded maximum comfort without excessive leaning either forward or backward.

No spilled coffee in other words.

The embedded video below should help illustrate the concept, especially beginning at around the 0:50 mark. When watching the video, notice that the videographer has placed his camera on the vehicle’s dash; he/she’s not holding it. As the vehicle shifts through various inclinations, the camera is consistently oriented parallel to the horizon. This is only possible because the vehicle’s cabins orient themselves separate from the orientation of the chassis. If not, the camera would tilt forward or backward and fall from the dash.

Creative Commons image by Adam Sporka

Funiculars / Innsbruck Hungerburgbahn / Urban Planning & Design
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27
Dec

2009

One Friday Night in Toronto

The frustration of transit riders made clear on April 27th, 2008, the day after a midnight wildcat strike by transit personnel in Toronto

On April 26th, 2008 unionized staff of the Toronto Transit Commission walked off the job at 12:01 am. The action occurred on a Friday night, thereby stranding late night workers, revelers and bar patrons.

People were not happy.

At the time, I was without a contract and was scrambling to find a way to continue my research and pay my bills. I’d been playing with the idea of soliciting donations online, but thought better of it. I’d rather a good idea not be subject to the irrational whims of charity and realized such a strategy would bear few, if any, fruits.

Nevertheless, I’d mentioned the idea to some friends and colleagues and the concept, if not the act, was out there.

But back to the strike . . .

I’d gone to sleep early that evening and hadn’t even been aware that a strike had occurred. The next morning I had two phone messages from friends. Each message said that they and their friends were stranded in a bar somewhere in downtown and they had dozens of people ready to each give me $10 right there to continue my work.

Of course I never took them up on their offers for three reasons:

a) Canadians are notorious story-tellers with a fondness for exaggeration. “Dozens” likely meant “three.”

b) The offers were likely made in a state of drunken, angry rebellion (which only heightens Canadians’ fondness for exaggerated story-telling) and;

b) The logic behind the offers was misguided. Just because a city has urban gondolas or cable cars as transit, doesn’t prevent the workers from halting the operation of that transit (although that very thing occurred in New York City once).

Nevertheless, the gesture had an impact on me: People were behind this idea not despite it being revolutionary, but because it was revolutionary.

Revolution, after all, is just a synonym for change. On that night, people had had it with the status quo and wanted change.

Creative Commons image by jbcurio.

Analysis / Thoughts / Urban Planning & Design
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26
Dec

2009

The Gondola Project on Flickr

Since no one on Boxing Day really wants to spend their time learning about anything, and no one has any real need to go anywhere by transit (hopefully), I’ll lay off today.

Instead, I’d just like to draw your attention to the new Flickr badge on The Gondola Project sidebar. Clicking it will take you to The Gondola Project group hosted by Flickr.

As you know there’s scant research out there on Cable Propelled Transit. The Gondola Project Flickr group exists to help alleviate that problem. It allows people to browse images of CPT from around the world. We already have dozens of members and hundreds of photos, but we’re always looking for more.

This is how research is going to be done more and more in the future. One guy sitting in a cubicle reading a report that no one else has ever read (or ever will) just can’t compete against a whole world of people pulling together in a common direction.

Get involved, we’d love your help.

Research Issues / Thoughts
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25
Dec

2009

Happy Holidays

All the best to everyone on this, the last holiday season of the first decade of our new millennium.

I’m terrible with Christmas cards (as any of my friends or family members will tell you) so let me just say this:

The last ten years have been rare, yes. Much ink and bandwidth will be spilled in the coming weeks on just how very special these last ten years have been. The meaning of special, of course, will be highly subject.

But then again, every age is special. Every age is unique. Sometimes I think we forget that. We forget to recognize that everyone who came before us had their successes and their failures, their trials and tribulations, their crises and their renaissances.

We also forget that everyone after us will experience the same. We’re nothing more than torchbearers, stuck between the rock of the past and the hard place of the future.

Enjoy that fact. Relax, reflect and celebrate. Have a happy holidays, whatever that means to you and your family.

Image by *clairity*.

Thoughts / Urban Planning & Design
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24
Dec

2009

Awe Is Good

Financial District Gondola

Urban Gondolas provoke awe and that’s a good thing.Cities need more of that, so long as that awe isn’t at the expense of good ideas and sound planning.

Back in the winter of 2008, I was working on a report about Cable Propelled Transit (CPT). I’d had the idea to take images of familiar landscapes from my native Toronto, and photo-manipulate the images so that gondolas appeared as part of the local infrastructure.

The images were crude and aggressive, but intentionally so. The point was not to suggest to the reader that this is what exists in reality, but was instead to engage the reader’s creativity and imagination by posing the questionwhat are the implications of this?

Nearing the end of the project, I was proofing a draft of the report at my local pub in Cabbagetown, the truly wonderful House on Parliament (excellent Prime Rib on Sundays, by the way). One of the bartenders, a terrifically cheerful girl named Kari, asked me what I was working on. I held up the following picture:

Don Valley Gondola Line

Kari’s eyes grew wide like a child at a newly-discovered toy store and she said (with not a hint of sarcasm) “that would be awesome!” It was at that point I knew I was onto something.

In this age of civic ennui, when was the last time someone invoked awe to describe any municipal project, let alone infrastructure? Nowadays, we’re so jaded and bitter about transit, we’re impressed by the mere act of a streetcar arriving 7 minutes late instead of 15.

Maybe a little bit of awe would be good for us.

TD Centre image by Steven Dale, licensed under a Creative Commons cc-by-sa license. Original images by –b– and John Vetterli.

Don Valley image by Steven Dale, licensed under a Creative Commons cc-by-sa license. Original images by PearlyV and macloop.

Analysis / Thoughts / Urban Planning & Design
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23
Dec

2009

The Cost of Light Rail

I tend to pick on Light Rail for a reason. It’s a technology akin to the average beauty contestant. It looks good on the outside, but is kind of useless on the inside.

Subways (HRT) can move hordes of people quickly and buses can move a moderate number of people cheaply, but Light Rail seems incapable of either. LRT is not quick, it doesn’t move a tonne of people, and it’s certainly not cheap. But as I’ve said before, Light Rail managed to come up the middle between a technology we cannot afford and a technology we do not like.

I’ve talked in the past about the speed of Light Rail, but let’s now talk specifically about that cost matter.

According to several recent studies by Bent Flyvberg, a respected scholar from Denmark, urban rail systems cost on average, US$50-150 million per route-kilometre. Granted, this range includes both light rail and heavy rail, but the point is this: At the low end of analysis, an urban rail system will cost a minimum of US$50 million per route kilometre to construct. It’s reasonable to assume that systems in that range will be of the light rather than heavy variety.

Cable systems rarely reach such costs. The Portland Aerial Tram, yes, reached the US$50 million per kilometre threshold, but that system is the exception rather than the rule. When looking at systems build worldwide, cable rarely eclipses the US$30 million per kilometre mark.

Given that cable is cleaner, quieter, more reliable and safer than light rail, the cost factor more than justifies cable’s place in the minds of transit planners everywhere.

I’m not saying forget about Light Rail entirely. I’m just saying that there are several instances where cable could do the job and is worthy of consideration.

Light Rail & Streetcars / Thoughts / Urban Planning & Design
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22
Dec

2009

Cable Propelled Bicycle?

Trampe Bicycle Lift, Image From www.trampe.no

One of the things I genuinely love about Cable Propelled Transit, is its near constant ability to surprise me. The moment I begin to think I’ve seen it all, then something else lands on my desk.

The Trampe bicycle lift system is a fifteen year old invention by Norwegian Engineer, Jarle Wanvik. It operates in Trondheim, Norway and it is the only lift of its kind in the world, though rumour has it that Vancouver, Seattle, Quebec City and Ithaca are all interested in the technology.

It’s a simple and logical concept: For casual cyclists, hills are a major barrier to increased bicycle use. The Trampe makes riding uphill simple.

Cyclists pay a nominal fee to use the lift through the use of pre-paid key cards. Moving cables below the road surface propel a small foot pad that cyclists use to speed up the hill. Up to 5 cyclists can use the device at a time.

Trampe Bicycle Lift in Use

The Trampe website claims that 20-30,000 people use the lift per year and there has not been a single accident. The site also claims that the existence of the Trampe has increased bicycle usage by 41%. (I highly doubt the number to be that high as it’s almost impossible to prove clear cause-and-effect, but I digress.)

What fascinates me is that the Trampe is nothing more than a play on the old San Francisco cable cars. For those who don’t know, the San Francisco cable cars operate in almost the exact same manner as the Trampe. The vehicles were propelled from below by underground cables. The vehicles above can detach and attach at will.

Stuff like the Trampe isn’t just a curiosity or an oddity. It shows once again, that cable is not a niche technology and is limited purely by your imagination.

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Oddities / Trampe Bicycle Lift / Urban Planning & Design
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