Who knows. I certainly don’t.
It’s a question we get all the time. Is such-and-such a project a success? Is it going to be a success? Why was this project a success? Why was that project a failure?
Again: Who knows. I certainly don’t.
Success is one of those awful words that sounds great but means virtually nothing.
To measure success, one first has to know the intentions and strategic goals underlying the project. That goes not just for gondolas but any project.
That may seem blatantly obvious to some, but is too often completely outside of the debate when it comes to major infrastructure projects. Too often we focus on what we are building, instead of why we are building it.
But that’s only half the problem. Another significant obstacle is that not everyone’s strategic goals are the same. Again — totally obvious to some but all too often missing from public debate about our infrastructure needs.
What’s worse is when the intentions are unintentionally miscommunicated or — even worse again — intentionally obscured. That’s why there’s such a debate about things like London’s Emirates Air Line. Everybody seems to think they know why it shouldn’t have been built, but know one really seems to know why it actually was built.
There’s a difference there, and an important one at that.
When you know the reason something was built, it’s far easier to measure whether it was a success or a failure.
In fact, there’s no other way.