Have you ever noticed that the front-most and rear-most cars in a train are typically underused – indeed, sometimes empty! – even at the height of rush hour? Smart and experienced transit riders walk those extra 50 meters to the end of the subway platform and get a seat, while everyone else just crowds (miserably) into...
Year Leonid Murlyanchik started building his own personal subway: 1984 Passenger capacity for his fully-automated cars: 3-4 Distance Leonid can tunnel per day: 1m Distance tunnel boring machine can tunnel per day: 15m Island wide speed limit on Bermuda: 35km/hr Number of Chinese cities with population over 1 million in 2030: 220 Number of Chinese...
I recently spoke with a cable engineer who thought it completely absurd that people use Aerial Tram statistics to negate the feasibility of Urban Gondolas. When I told him such confusion was the norm rather than the exception, he became flustered. He simply couldn’t accept that people make that mistake. They’re two completely different performance packages!...
The first and most important thing necessary to understand about Cable Cars as opposed to aerial cable technologies is this: The two technologies are not fundamentally different. Knowing your way around Gondolas and Aerial Trams will help your knowledge about Cable Cars immensely. Both are characterized by passive vehicles being propelled along guideways for support....
London is looking at building an Urban Gondola (‘Cable Car’ as they’ve mistakenly dubbed it) for the 2012 Olympics. On first glance, the idea seemed somewhat suspect. It appeared to be more a Toy for Tourists rather than a genuine piece of cable transit infrastructure. Upon closer examination, however, not only does this project have...
In February The Gondola Project held a mini-competition. The winner was to receive their $50 prize by email money transfer. Matt Thredgold of Wellington Cycleways won. But as Matt lives in New Zealand and email money transfers are apparently a uniquely Canadian phenomenon (they’re awesome, by the way), Matt asked that his prize come in...
Aside from high-profile systems in South America, Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit systems are relatively obscure. Yet there is one other country that’s quietly been hopping on the band wagon. That country is Algeria.
The internet is all a-buzz right now with the recent announcement of a proposed Urban Gondola system spanning the Thames River in East London for the 2012 Olympics. Nevermind the fact that everyone seems to be calling it the London Cable Car – it’s a gondola – it’s an exciting idea that’s raising a lot...
In the last couple of weeks, readership, commenting and questions on The Gondola Project have increased dramatically. At the same time, we’re being contacted by more and more cities interested in the technology and how it could be used in their regions. And no, we can’t say who/where . . . yet. This is –...
A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT): Percent of trips that were “work trips” in 1951: 40% Percent of trips that were “work trips” in 2007: 16% Percent of females in workforce in 1950: 28% Percent of females in workforce in 2007: 48% Rate of increase of...