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

• London mayor Boris Johnson requests government funding for the proposed Thames Cable Car. Johnson joked that he would name the system after – get this – business secretary Vince Cable, should Mr. Cable come through with the funding.

• Home Vaganza has images of the newly completed stations for Barcelona’s Montjuic gondola system.

• Planetski has a brief photo essay entitled So how do they put up a cable car?

• Brazilian companies help to build much of Venezuela’s infrastructure, particularly the Metrocables.

• In a post entitled Why Transit Will Never Be Energy Efficient, The Antiplanner dismisses cable technology stating that “Cable cars are mainly a tourist attraction and run through the center of one of the densest cities in America.” The Antiplanner misses the fact the system he references (clearly New York’s Roosevelt Island Tram) is used mainly for commuting purposes, not tourism.

• An opinion piece in the Nepal República suggests that country is “study(ing) the construction of railway, metro cable cars and waterways.” This is the first I’ve ever hear of Nepal looking into “metro cable cars” but given the topography of the country, it makes logical sense. Anyone else know anything about this?

• The Netherlands Architecture Institute discusses the impact of the Caracas Metrocable.

• Long-overdue improvements on San Francisco’s California Street Cable Car continue, reads a press release from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Phase II is scheduled to begin in January and continue for six months.

• For some unknown reason Canadian planners in the small city of Kitchener-Waterloo muse about the Chinese Tunnel Bus.

• The Lego Mindstorms community builds the world’s first remote-controlled Lego Aerial Ropeway. Transit geeks everywhere proclaim it to be a “niche Lego transit technology” citing it’s lack of capacity, air-conditioning and inability to turn corners without intermediary stations.

Because why not?