Posts Tagged: Urban Gondola

22
Nov

2011

A Tramway Aérien, Urban Gondola, Cable Car, or Téléphérique in Laval, Quebec?

We’re currently monitoring developments in Quebec and an announcement by the Société de transport de Laval (STL), the transportation planning agency for the Montreal suburb of Laval.

According to an STL press release the agency will provide details regarding a feasibility study for what they’re calling “Un Tramway Aérien” as part of that city’s transportation network. In addition “a visual simulation of the proposed aerial tramway, in the context of planned developments in downtown Laval, will be presented at the press conference.”

We’ll provide more details and information after the press conference.

For those interested, forum debates on the topic (in French) are currently ongoing at mtlurb.com and metrodemontreal.com. Our French readers are encouraged to provide details and translations in the comments.

UPDATE . . . 

The official STL Press Release is now available here. The visualization video is also up on Youtube. It’s only in French, but well worth a look:




Well talk about this more, I’m sure.

Laval / Quebec / Uncategorized
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21
Oct

2011

Weekly Roundup: Irish Cows Banned From Riding Dursey Island Cable Car

A new weight restriction on the Dursey Island Cable Car in Ireland threatens to impede the flow of . . . cattle?

A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit:

  • Cattle farmers on the remote Dursey Island in Ireland are concerned that a weight restriction on the Dursey Island Cable Car will prevent them from moving their livestock to and from the island, effectively destroying a 2,000 year old cattle industry. We mention this only because we previously provided a video clip of this outdated system, but were completely unaware that the system was used for transporting cows. Has anyone else heard of such a practice? If so, please tell us in the comments below.
  • The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is presenting Design with the Other 90% Cities at the United Nations in New York City. The exhibit chronicles how developing world cities are leveraging design to improve the lives of its citizens. The Medellin Metrocable is among those design solutions. (Voluntary Disclosure: CUP Projects provided photographs to the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt for their coverage of the Medellin Metrocable.)
  • Edmonton, Alberta, Canada takes a major step towards installing a cable-drawn funicular system to connect their downtown to the North Saskatchewan River Valley. The Edmonton Journal seems to be the first to break this story, but gets tripped up calling using the word “gondola” as a synonym for “funicular.” No surprise, really, as problems with nomenclature have always been an issue (see here, here or here for example).
  • The Mountain Village Owners Association contemplates ways to keep Colorado’s iconoclastic Telluride Mountain Gondola running free of charge. For those unaware, the Telluride gondola is one of the only gondola systems in the world to be 100% from of charge to all users and acts as a local transport system connecting several mountain villages and recreation areas.
  • Back to Ireland: Is that picture up above not the most amazing thing you’ve seen in a while? I think the only thing that tops it for us is Tuffi the Elephant.
Weekly Roundup
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20
Oct

2011

Bumblebees Can’t Fly

Above: A bumblebee not flying. Image by flickr user cuellar.

There exists an almost century-old anecdote about a German aerodynamicist and a bumblebee.

Over dinner, the aerodynamicist remarked to a biologist that – according to his calculations and the accepted theory of the day – a bumblebee was incapable of flight.

This, of course, wasn’t true. Bumblebees could fly (still do, I believe) and it didn’t matter that the aerodynamicist and his calculations said otherwise. Delighted by the absurdity of the situation, the biologist spread the story far and wide.

Is the story true? Who cares. It’s a good story and that’s all that matters.

Whether the story is true or not is irrelevant because as a fable and piece of folklore it resonates with us as human beings (check out The Straight Dope for their take on the tale).

For better or for worse, it’s a story that feeds people’s willful distrust of experts, specialists and trained professionals.

Most of the time, I think, we should listen to the experts, specialists and trained professionals. The reason they’re experts is because they know more about something than the general population does.

But the same mechanism that makes an expert an expert can also blind him to anecdotal reality. Nine times out of ten the aerodynamicist will be right with his calculations. But because he knows nothing about bumblebees and their biology, his calculations were worthless in the above situation because no matter what his equations foretold, we’ve actually seen bumblebees fly.

It’s in those moments where it’s incumbent upon the non-expert to point out the error – and incumbent upon the expert to admit his shortcomings.

According to the accepted theory of the day you probably can’t use gondolas as public transit. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t doing it.

A good rule to live by for non-experts: Defer to the experts until they’ve demonstrated themselves no longer worthy of the name.

A good rule to live by for experts: You’re ability to remain an expert is dependent upon your willingness to admit what you don’t know and defer to those that do.

 

Research Issues / Thoughts
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19
Oct

2011

Are Gondolas and Cable Cars Safe?

Perhaps the most common question we’re asked about Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit is the safety question. Namely, are they safe?

And while anecdotally we’ve always known them to be a remarkably safe technology, gathering clear statistical proof has been very difficult. Most countries don’t have readily available access to numbers on this and those that do make the mistake of combining ski hill chairlifts and gondolas within the same statistical category despite the two having fundamental differences in their safety statistics.

Nevertheless, the Switzerland’s Office fédéral de la statistique OFS recently put out some new statistics that help shed some light on the safety issue. While by no means definitive, we’ve compiled some of the important numbers in the tables below and our preliminary investigations suggest Cable Propelled Transit technologies such as Funiculars, Gondolas and Aerial Trams are amongst the safest public transit technologies around.

Take a look:

Compiled by CUP; Based Upon Numbers Gathered By Office fédéral de la statistique OFS.

You’ll note that during 2008 and 2009 Funiculars and Gondolas/Aerial Tram technologies consistently experienced the fewest number of accidents, injuries and deaths per 1,000 passengers. Rail-based technologies consistently experienced the most.

These numbers are important for a couple of reasons:

  • Switzerland has the largest number of cable transit systems in the world with a well-used and highly-developed multi-modal transit network across the country. If cable is to be compared to other travel modes, this is the place to make the comparisons.
  • These numbers necessarily did not include small, private gondola systems nor ski hill chairlift systems. This lack of inclusion makes the comparisons far more apt.

Notwithstanding the above, these numbers do come with a few caveats:

  • It would have been preferred to see numbers across a wider time period. Unfortunately the data series used did not include accidents, injuries and deaths for Tram, Trolleybus and Autobus technologies prior to 2008.
  • Owing to Switzerland’s almost complete lack of Subway/Metro technology, no statistics were available for those technologies.
  • While complete accident, injury and death statistics were available for 2010, passenger volumes were not available.
  • An additional comparison between modes by Passenger Kilometers Travelled would’ve been preferred as the distance travelled by cable is likely to be shorter than the distance travelled by the other modes. Such figures, however, were not present in the datasets for Gondola systems. Instead, gondola values were given in Hours of Operation.
  • All information was given in French. And while as Canadians we have a base understanding of the language, there is clear potential for error. Anyone with a greater grasp of the French language is invited to double-check our work.

Having said that, this is still a step in the right direction and more than a little bit eye-opening.

As always, additional information, corrections or amendments can be posted in the comments and we’ll be sure to correct any errors or omissions.

Research Issues / Safety
4
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18
Oct

2011

Conceptual Designs Wanted

For the upcoming 2 year anniversary of The Gondola Project, we’d like to dedicate a week purely to conceptual gondola plans created by Gondola Project readers.

Concept plans such as those created for Pittsburgh, Seattle or Toronto invariably spur some of the most interesting discussions on the site and generate a lot of local interest. Furthermore, they take the idea of Urban Gondolas out of the realm of the fantastical and theoretical and ground it in reality.

As such, if you’re a student, professional or armchair enthusiast with an interest in Urban Gondolas and an idea or concept plan for a route or system in your city, please send us an email at gondola (at) creativeurbanprojects (dot) com and we’ll make sure to feature you and your work in late November / early December.

Note: If your concept/idea exists on another website (or your own website), we’ll be happy to link to it.

Site Issues and Updates
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17
Oct

2011

Why is Boarding and Alighting an Urban Gondola Seen as a Problem?

Like Escalators and Moving Sidewalks, Urban Gondolas also involve boarding and alighting a moving "vehicle." Image by flickr user JD Lasica.

Perhaps the oddest argument against Urban Gondolas is the boarding and alighting process. Oftentimes, people complain that passengers will be unable to board and alight these systems given the unique process involved:

Generally speaking, urban gondolas move through stations at what is known as “crawl” or “creep” speed. While crawl speed can vary by system, a good back-of-the-envelope rule is 0.25 m/s or 0.9 km/hr.

Some might consider that fast. Others might notice it’s significantly slower than the average speed of escalators (0.30 – 0.61 m/s) or moving sidewalks (0.5 m/s) – two technologies where boarding and alighting also occurs while the method of conveyance is in motion.

It’s also worth pointing-out that these technologies are also used constantly by both the disabled and able-bodied alike?

So what gives?

My gut says there are four things at work here:

Firstly, when boarding and alighting an escalator or moving sidewalk, one is moving in the same parallel direction as the method of conveyance. In a gondola situation, one is moving perpedicular to the method of conveyance. Whether this has an impact on one’s ability to board or alight is unclear, but it likely causes a difference in perception.

Secondly, the wheelchair-bound are not often (if ever) be seen riding escalators and moving sidewalks. This may create the impression that any method of conveyance that moves during the act of boarding and alighting is therefore inappropriate for the disabled or elderly.

(Note: Boarding and alighting for the wheelchair-bound is common and simple. Please see moments 1:10 – 1:30 of the Rostock Gondola video for evidence.)

Thirdly, it is not commonly known that most gondola systems are equipped with a manual override mechanism that allows a station attendant to routinely stop the vehicle mid-station to ease boarding and alighting where necessary. Furthermore, systems such as the Bolzano 3S come to a complete stop in stations while the Sulphur Mountain Gondola in Banff is moved through stations by hand thereby allowing for full-stop boarding and alighting.

Lastly, for reasons only a cognitive psychologist could explain, new ideas are always held to a higher standard than older ones. It’s the same reason people question how well a gondola performs in the snow yet never ask that same question about light rail or streetcars.

People are funny that way.

Engineering
10
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14
Oct

2011

Weekly Roundup: 12 Urban Gondolas in Makkah?

Could the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia be the next place Urban Gondolas appear? Image via Arabian Business.

  • 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 lines studied was actually only 3. (Full Disclosure: CUP acted as a special advisor on this study but has no vested interests in the project. It was conducted by Dr. Amer Shalaby of the University of Toronto Cities Centre. You can learn more about this study here.)
  • London Assembly member John Biggs has asked Mayor Boris Johnson for further details about the London Thames Cable Car deal. We have questions about the deal, too but question the political motivations behind Mr. Biggs’ actions. After all, he’s been vehemently against the Cable Car from the beginning as you can see here and here.
  • Unfortunate news: A stray bullet during a gang fight in Medellin’s Comuna 13 killed a passenger riding Linea J of the Metrocable.
  • Lastly, CUP’s interview on the CBC gained significant attention throughout Canada, spawning multiple online conversations and stories about the topic (here and here, for example). It also led to a massive jump in readership throughout the week. So that’s a good thing.
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Weekly Roundup
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