From our time on the Gondola Project, we know that gondola station design is incredibly flexible and can be built in almost any scenario and setting. Let’s take a quick recap: Skyscraper station? Check. Underground station? Check. Light and airy station? Check. And today, thanks to one of our readers, we can now add “in-mountain...
The tower infrastructure associated with cable transit is justifiably maligned. It’s utilitarian and rarely pretty. But it doesn’t have to be. Last year, the Royal Institute of British Architects tackled this very issue through their Pylon Design Competition. Now granted, that competition was specifically targeted towards electricity transmission towers, but the same applies here. (Note,...
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...
The other week we talked about the difference between those features that are intrinsic to a transit technology and those things that are extrinsic. Intrinsic features are those things that make a technology what it is; they define it. Extrinsic features, meanwhile, are those items and factors that affect the cost or operation of the...
When a city plan is planning a new transit infrastructure project, a lot of time is often spent deliberating over which technology should be implemented. This discussion generally floats back and for between bus and rail (and more recently, sometimes even CPT). For many cash-strapped cities looking for quick wins and cost-effective mass transit solutions,...
Elevated infrastructure can elicit different responses and reactions from cities and communities. Some find a gap in the underutilized spaces below a structure (such as with the boxing ring built under the Sao Paulo highway) while others enjoy the convenience of well-planned, multi-layered cities. For the latter let us turn to Japan. The Yurikamome (aka Black Headed Seagull) is a 15km elevated...
In the past, we’ve discussed the implications of creating aesthetically-pleasing elevated infrastructure (recall the Ranstadrail and Most Beautiful Elevated Transport Infrastructure). While these examples exemplify the capabilities of planned transit infrastructure, I believe informal uses (and their spinoff effects) may deserve a little more attention. One of the most inspiring case studies that I’ve come across...
On this blog there’s a lot of talk about cable as a flexible and adaptable technology for urban transit. CPT can travel above roads and traffic, go through buildings, and cross rivers and gorges. But for all that to work there needs to be space for towers and stations, too. So what happens when a...
Despite the paranoid and near-endless calls by come columnists and pundits for economic austerity measures throughout the developed world, there are those in America calling for much-needed upgrades to that nation’s infrastructure as a way to stimulate job-creation and engage in the patriotic act of nation-building by actually building a nation. The New York Times’...