A couple of years back, Volkswagen came up with a brilliant viral marketing campaign known as The Fun Theory. The basic idea being that “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better” (their words, not mine). The shorthand for the theory was the very public transformation of a subway stairwell into...
A thought experiment: You’re now the owner of the world’s largest cable gondola transit manufacturer on the planet. This could be a fictional company or a real company; it doesn’t matter. You’re told by your CEO that three (and only three) innovations must be developed to ensure the technology’s viability into the future. One innovation...
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...
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...
I think it fair to say most transit geeks/advocates/aficionados/whatever start from the following rational, central assumption: The role of transit is to move as many people as quickly, cost-effectively and comfortably as possible. Obviously some might favor one aspect of that assumption more so than others. Jarrett Walker, for example, would favor speed over all...
Architects and urban designers may be no fans of elevated transport infrastructure and fair enough. Rarely is the overhead viaduct, rail bridge or elevated freeway a contributor to the urban form. Typically, they sap the very life out of the surrounding area. Notwithstanding that argument, however, is the fact that tunnelling is remarkably more expensive...
As I said yesterday, elevated transport infrastructure don’t get no love. In this, the second of two posts, we wrap up our list of the 10 most beautiful examples of elevated public transport infrastructure from around the world. ANY CHARACTER HERE 5. Station Square, Forest Hills Gardens – Queens, New York ANY CHARACTER HERE...
Elevated transport infrastructure don’t get no love. Architects and urban designers decry their ugliness and their ability to rip apart neighbourhoods and very few people are willing to step up and argue against that point. But to prove that elevated infrastructure isn’t always the city killer critics claim, we asked readers of The Gondola Project...
Note: this is a repost from an original article in 2012. Last week, guest blogger Ryan O’Connor, wrote a brief analysis on the state of HSR (high speed rail) and the potential implications and lessons cable can learn from China’s recent love affair with rail. If you haven’t been keeping up-to-date with transportation news in...
HISTORY Modern Cable Propelled Transit started in Caracas, Venezuela with the Mount Avila Gondola. This system was originally built in the middle of the last century to carry people from Caracas to the top of Mount Avila where the luxurious Hotel Humboldt had been built. Political and economic strife caused the government to leave for...