The Gondola Project has been dedicated to exploring cable systems for a couple years now, and have amassed a large amount of information throughout this site. That is why yesterday we introduced our most recent CUP endeavor — WHITE CARDS, a new (and we hope more succinct) learning tool for cable. Devised from the idea of a White Paper,...
Various media sources have been reporting that Makkah, Saudi Arabia has plans for 12 Urban Gondola systems throughout the city (here, here and here, for example). While that’s certainly exciting news, it’s not exactly true. The study that led to these reports explored only three routes with multiple technology and route configurations. The number of...
Metro de Medellin is in no rush to slow down. The transit agency of this Colombian metropolis has been expanding their public transportation system at breakneck speeds for the past 15 years and things just continue apace. The agency recently released plans for their Corredores Verdes (Green Corridor) Light Rail/Tram plan. Their approach is a...
Last month CUP conducted a study of all planned, conceived or under-construction cable systems in South America. Our findings shocked even us: Almost 5 dozen systems are in the works on that continent and that number doesn’t even include Brazil (because of the Portuguese language issues – as in, we don’t speak Portuguese), the largest...
I got my first email account in the summer of 1998. It was a Hotmail account. Someone dragged me to a local café and signed me up. It wasn’t that advanced at the time and I wasn’t overly impressed. Was email great at the time? Sure it was, but I didn’t see it. I missed...
It’s only a matter of time before someone builds an urban gondola or Cable Propelled Transit system in your world. It’s only a matter of when, where and whose first. I know this because I read dozens of documents and reports from amateurs and professionals alike, answer a fair bit of email and listen to...
In her seminal work The Death and Life of Great American Cities, urban theorist Jane Jacobs declared that a safe street or neighborhood was one that had plenty of “eyes” on it. That is, the more people use a street, the safer it becomes. Criminals, after all, don’t like the prying eyes of strangers and...
The good people over at Fourstory.org asked me to write a piece on Medellin’s Metrocable and it went live yesterday. Check out The Gondola Revolution. Special thanks to Tony Chavira for all his help and support. Please take some time to cruise Fourstory’s site, you’ll be well-rewarded.