A while back I wrote a post soliciting people to contribute their own Cable Propelled Transit conceptual ideas. Aside from some uptake from the good people over at neoHouston, there was little interest. No wonder: I never offered my own conceptual. Kinda’ hypocritical, huh? So, without further ado . . . Here’s how I’d use...
The good folks over at US Infrastructure have invited me to blog for them on occasion. So, of course, the first blog has to do with the Caracas Metrocable and how various people (including The Economist) choose to portray the costs of civil works projects. Please check out Cost Is Relative With Urban Infrastructure.
Von Roll Seilbahn was a prolific Swiss builder of ropeway systems in the 20th century. While Von Roll itself lives on as a supplier of industrial and electrical components, the ropeway division was acquired by Doppelmayr of Austria in 1994.
The above map is the Caracas Metro System. Metro de Caracas, of course, is one of the few transit systems in the world to utilize a Cable Propelled Transit (they call it the Metrocable) system. Look closely at the map and you’ll see all the other CPT lines Metro de Caracas has planned. All eight of...
According to a recent poll by the World Wildlife Fund, many “Canadians would rather give up junk food, coffee, television and, some of them, sex rather than park their cars.” Read the whole Toronto Star article. I’m not sure Public Transit is willing to accept this. They’re too busy denying that people actually like cars....
Over at Human Transit, Jarrett Walker has an excellent post called Transit and the Hierarchy of Needs. In it, he explores Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs and its relationship to public transit. His argument boils down to this: People will only care about high-order transit concerns such as urban design and technology choice once their lower-order...
The Table Mountain Cableway in Cape Town, South Africa is an Aerial Tram with a twist (sorry): It slowly rotates 360° during its ascent and descent. It’s one of only 3 systems in the world that does this; the other two being the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in California and the Titlis Rotair in central...
I’ll admit it: One of the things I love about cable transit is the “treasure hunt” quality of the entire thing. It’s a “lost” technology with clues and remnants scattered around the world. Picking those clues up and piecing them together is – for me – one of the most exciting parts of this work....
The above is one of several cable lines connecting Mount Titlis to the resort town of Engelberg, Switzerland. Built in 1984 by the Von Roll Company, it’s an incredibly common and dated MDG system: It’s slow – 15 km/hr. It’s cornering requires large stations. It doesn’t have great capacity – 1,600 persons per hour. It’s nothing...
Check out the Sketchup rendering of the Palmylink proposal that came out of New Zealand last week: