Here’s a question: Why is it that the stations for bottom-supported cable car systems are almost never staffed with attendants whereas aerial systems always are? This is something that just occurred to me the other day and I have no answer for it. Thoughts?
Last week a German paraglider crashed into the cables of a Bavarian gondola. The incident trapped 20 people in the gondola for 17 hours overnight. There were no injuries or fatalities and all parties were rescued via helicopter. Does this mean gondolas are unsafe? No. It means accidents happen. For example: During the Christmas season...
Remember: Light Rail Transit (LRT) isn’t always Light Rail Transit. And that goes for all forms of public transportation. Anyone recall our CPT / ART debate? While we may like to pretend we work and live in a scientific field, the world of city-building and transit is anything but scientific.After all, there’s no official taxonomy...
Tomorrow we return to “normal” operations here at The Gondola Project. Having just returned from a month-long sabbatical from the site I’m hoping to be refreshed, renewed and reinvigorated. Thanks so much to Julia, Nick and Ryan for keeping the site going while I was away and thanks to all the readers who stuck with...
In terms of financial viability, public transportation in North America is a perpetual loser. However, rumours have it that some transit agencies abroad break even or even make a profit. So let us take a closer look into one of these transit agencies – Hong Kong’s MTR (Mass Transit Railway) – and see if its...
Still a relatively sleepy summer for gondola news, but nonetheless, here’s what’s happening this week: Construction has finally started on London’s Thames Cable Car. Don’t cross your fingers too hard for a 2012 Olympic opening, officials reiterate that it’s not part of the Olympic transport plan. A quick overview of Rio cable car system after...
This week on the Gondola Project forum, in response to last week’s post about the future of aerial transit, there was a video response with the Jetson’s theme song displaying the idea of personalized flying mobiles. This got me thinking about both science fiction and outer space (since everything in that show appears to be...
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series discussed many of the pros to combining CPT with Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Today we’ll consider one of the major arguments against cable transit — security concerns, and how smart design and planning can help mitigate these issues. Gondolas may pass alongside private property, even when traveling...
On a recent trip to China, I had the opportunity to visit a site that few planners outside of China have yet to see. First announced in 2008, Tianjin Ecocity is a large, ecological development designed to encourage sustainable building and living practices and promote future “green” developments. Not to mention this is possibly the...