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The Ryerson University School of Urban Planning's Student Lounge, February 2010. A team of 9 students from the School became the first team of planning students to tackle the oftentimes difficult topic of cable transit in the urban realm.

For the last 3 months, myself and a team of 9 students from Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning have been working through the implications of what cable transit could mean for their city. A week-and-a-half ago, the team presented their findings in front of their colleagues, faculty and a 5-person panel of engineers, planners and architects.

It was a fascinating presentation and an afternoon of lively discussion. Sometimes conversation was heated and confrontational; other times, conciliatory and understanding. It was a great experience for the students to wrestle with a technology they’d never even heard of and inform the cable industry about how to better fit the technology into the urban environment.

One of their reports was so well-received, it generated talk of converting it into a primer text on the technology. As far as I know, this is the first ever group of urban planning students (not engineers or civil engineers) to actively work with this technology and the steep learning curve made for hard work. They did a great job and should be commended for their work.

Their insight, advice and imagination should go a long way to improve cable transit for the urban realm.

The Ryerson team laid essential groundwork, but there’s far more that needs to be done. Hopefully, other university planning programs are interested in continuing the team’s work. So let me put it out there: Are you or your university’s architecture, civil engineering and/or urban planning program interested in working on such a project some time in the future? If so, drop us a line at gondola (at) creativeurbanprojects (dot) com .

No commitments necessary, obviously. Let’s just start a dialogue.

Special thanks to Ryerson University; the cable transit team; faculty supervisor, Tom Ostler; the School’s Director, Mitchell Kosny; and panel members, Don Verbanac, Paul Bedford, Doug Jin and René Boiselle.