22
May

2012

Cable Car Transit in Washington, DC?

Post by Steven Dale

Over at Imagine Metro Kevin Picken has proposed a cable-propelled transit / urban gondola / cable car connection between Washington’s Dulles International Airport and an upcoming rail link.

Picken’s thesis is intriguing.

According to Picken, the upcoming Phase II of the Silver Line Rail Link works out to a per foot cost of $44,856 USD. The vast majority of the line would be built along a traffic median in the Dulles Toll Road but would divert from the median to service the airport then return to the median.

You can note the line diversion in the above map as the dotted U-shaped line passing through Dulles Airport. Image via Dulles Metro.

Pickens calculates that the difference between merely continuing the line along the median and the airport diversion to be 7,359 feet. Opting to stay in the median and by-pass the airport would result in a potential cost savings of $330,095,304.

He’s also quick to note, however, that such an option would eliminate any direct connection to the airport, thus negating a great part of the appeal of the line.

Which is where gondolas come into play . . .

Pickens assumes that a gondola connection to Silver Line Phase II would be 6,591 feet. Using Whistler’s Peak 2 Peak as a benchmark, Pickens calculates a per foot cost for a 3S system to be $3,600 – which is reasonable, but may not be accurate given the cost escalations we’re seeing when applying the technology in urban environments. That works out to ~ $25m USD for a gondola connection.

Deduct $25m from $330m and you’ve just saved a whopping $305m USD while still providing the direct airport link.

I like this concept . . . a lot. My major concern, however, is with the cost estimate. As we’ve seen before, cable in urban environments (at least in westernized democracies) have a tendency to meet with a lot of scope creep and cost inflation. If we were to use the Burnaby Mountain situation as a benchmark, we could assume a potential cost escalation of up to 340%.

Yet even still that would only result in a cost of $85m USD for the gondola connection thereby saving the Dulles Silver Line approximately $250m USD.

At numbers like that, Picken’s idea deserves a lot of attention.

Dulles Airport Gondola
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21
May

2012

Happy Victoria Day!

Post by Steven Dale

Our dearest apologies,

Today is Victoria Day in Canada which means Nick and Julia are off. Meanwhile, I got caught in a last minute work trip overseas.

As such, there was no material today and we’re sincerely sorry for the oversight.

Nevertheless, be rest assured we’ll have new materials – as usual – up tomorrow.

And for all our fellow Canadians out there: Hope you had a Happy May Two-Four!

Uncategorized
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18
May

2012

Weekly Roundup: Monkey Rides Cable Car (Seriously)

Post by Steven Dale

How long until someone decides to use this as evidence that cable is bad for the environment? Image via Vox.

A quick look at some of the highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit:

  • Here’s something I never – and I mean never - thought I’d be obligated to include in a Weekly Roundup: A Gibraltar area ape took a harrowing cable car ride and found himself stranded onto a service cable running between the cars.
Uncategorized / Weekly Roundup
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17
May

2012

Infrastructure Financing – Chicago Infrastructure Fund

Post by Nick Chu

Chicago is famous for a lot of things. Deep dish pizza, Michael Jordan, Barack Obama and CUP’s very own, Julia – just to name a few.

In terms of infrastructure construction, the city has also left its mark on the world with many impressive pieces of work. It boasts many accomplishments including: the first city to build a skyscraper; the world’s second busiest airport; the second oldest rapid transit system in the Americas and much more. However, like many large metropolitan cities in the US, the city has long been neglecting its infrastructure. While existing roads, buildings and bridges are all rapidly aging and crumbling, all levels of governments are unwilling to and/or incapable of investing more money into infrastructure.

For example in 2010, Chicago’s transit system had $7 billion in unfunded maintenance needs.

Despite being designed to run at 70 mph, some trains now must operate at 15 mph due to "fragile rails". Image by Flickr User ruffin_ready.

However, a ray of hope is now shining through. Under the leadership of the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, a infrastructure finance instrument called the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT) was recently developed and approved by council. With a fund of $7 billion, private investors will be able to submit proposals to the city. In turn, public officials will pick projects deemed the most worthy and match the private dollars offered.

Over the next years, other cities will be paying close attention to this financing tool. Undoubtedly, if proven successful, many officials will be eager to replicate and implement their own forms of the CIT in their city. Given the dearth of infrastructure investment in North America, this tool certainly looks promising and probably couldn’t have come at a better time.

For more information on CIT, please follow this link.

Infrastructure / Policy
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16
May

2012

Emirates Air Lines – Mayor Still not ready to commit to deadline

Post by Nick Chu


During testing phase, 700 kg weights are being placed into cabins to replicate 10 passengers. Image by thisislondon.co.uk.

Despite undergoing testing at the moment, a recent interview by ITV News with London Mayor, Boris Johnson, indicates that he is still not willing to guarantee that the cable car project will be ready in time for the Olympics.

However, he did agree that it would be unfortunate should the system be not completed by that time. Who knows, I guess we’ll see and keep our fingers crossed because as of today, there’s only 72 days before the Games start!

Emirates Air Line
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15
May

2012

Chongqing Cable Car – More Urban Than Originally Thought?

Post by Steven Dale

The Chongqing Cable Car. Image via flickr user Edward Jung.

We’ve known about the Chongqing Cable Car for a while now but have always lacked good information about it. We know it was an Aerial Tram, was around 1 km in length and it served for 29 years. But that’s about it.

Sadly, we’ll never have a chance to witness it in person as the system was officially retired in February of last year.

A new video of the system, however, sheds additional light on this little known oddity of public transportation. The video shows the systems clearly navigating several skyscrapers and dense urban form.

Most interestingly: One of the stations is located on what appears to be the top floor of an approximately 10 storey residential building. Even though the Singapore Cable Car did something similar a decade earlier, this is still an incredibly rare and unique feature with clear implications for urban public transit.

Too bad we’ll never get to see it. Take a look:


Chongquing Cable Car
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14
May

2012

Why Wheeled Luggage Is Important

Post by Steven Dale

Image by flickr user Andrew Stawarz.

Ask yourself a quick question:

How long have suitcases, trunks and luggage existed for?

The answer – of course – is almost hopelessly elusive. Luggage, in some form, has been around since humans have been travelling.

Knowing when the first person slapped together an ancient ancestor of Samsonite is impossible to determine. But we can make a reasonable guess and assume luggage has been around for at least a few thousand years – probably more. I don’t think anyone would challenge that assertion.

Now ask yourself a second quick question:

When did someone decide to put wheels on luggage? The answer might surprise you.

Bernard D. Sadow holds the United States’ first patent for “Rolling Luggage” and it was issued in 1972. The so-called “Rollaboard” with telescoping handle, meanwhile, was invented in 1987 by Robert Plath.

In other words, what are arguably the two greatest innovations in the industry of personal material transport only occurred within the last 40 years – for a product/industry that’s existed for thousands of years.

Weirder still? Fashioning a wheeled trunk or suitcase requires little in the way of advanced mechanics, technology or know-how. It simply required wheels. Your 8 year old cousin could build one over the course of a Sunday afternoon. There’s no genius involved here.

I mention this solely to remind people how long change can take – and how utterly illogical the innovation process can be.

For every Google, Apple and Facebook that conquers the world in what seems like a heartbeat; there are those innovations, ideas and technologies that take (quite literally) millennia to come into being. Cable transit (to bring this back to home) has existed since at least 250 B.C. Strangely though, we’ve only started seeing it within the last generation as actual public transit.

The key is to understand the market conditions that (dis)favour your idea, technology or product and figure out if what you’ve got is wheeled luggage or Facebook. Likely, you’ve got something somewhere in between those extremes and it’s essential to understand how close to uptake the idea is – then plan your strategies and tactics accordingly.

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Innovations / Marketing Issues / Marketing Public Transit / Thoughts
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