I’d like to congratulate Andrew Burleson, Dean Hall and David Morris over at neoHOUSTON for their Cable Propelled Challenge. The challenge was a quick and dirty design competition to see where neoHOUSTON’S readers would install a CPT system. Given the short turn-around time, it was impressive to see a half-dozen quality submissions. Congratulations to Danny...
It’s only a matter of time before someone builds an urban gondola or Cable Propelled Transit system in your world. It’s only a matter of when, where and whose first. I know this because I read dozens of documents and reports from amateurs and professionals alike, answer a fair bit of email and listen to...
A thought experiment: In the very near future, a global network of engineers, planners, scientists and policy-makers develop the most advanced form of public transit the world’s ever known. It runs solely on renewable resources. It carries tens of thousands of people. It doesn’t stop at intermediary stations. The vehicles themselves are 100% recyclable. It...
Over at The City Fix, Megan McConville has a great piece on cable transit called Up, Up and Away in a Cable Car. It’s an excellent analysis of the technology that talks extensively about the management difficulties and poor decision-making behind the Maokong Gondola in Taipei. Well worth the read and very informative for cities...
Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, He travels the fastest who travels alone. Rudyard Kipling (1890)
In the central German city of Wuppertal is a piece of transit infrastructure completely unique in the world. Translated directly, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn means “floating railway” and it’s easy to see how it received it’s name. Built in 1900, the Shwebebahn in the oldest monorail on the planet and an elegant piece of transit history...
My hunch is that many people stumble onto the topic of Cable Propelled Transit (and this website) by googling the words urban and gondola or urban gondola. If not, go ahead and try it and see what you come up with. I’ll wait . . . So what did you find? Likely you came upon several...
In her seminal work The Death and Life of Great American Cities, urban theorist Jane Jacobs declared that a safe street or neighborhood was one that had plenty of “eyes” on it. That is, the more people use a street, the safer it becomes. Criminals, after all, don’t like the prying eyes of strangers and...
I love skeptics. Skeptics are a necessary check and balance in our entire system. They’re also some of the most positive and exciting individuals you’ll come across. There is a difference, however, between healthy skepticism and cynicism, even though the two terms are often used interchangeably. Skeptics challenge the status quo and vet new ideas....
When done right, public transit becomes more than just infrastructure. It becomes a symbol and a form of marketing itself. It becomes famous and accomplishes the same thing as any famous building, landmark or museum. Here then, are eight public transit vehicles/systems that have transcended being merely transportation and are instead signals of sophistication, ingenuity,...