Others might disagree with my selection, but if you’re new to the world of Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) and Urban Gondolas, these are the 7 aerial systems you need to know about:
Ken Murphy spent 3 1/2 days taking one photo approximately every 15 seconds of the San Francisco streetcar track replacement occurring outside his house. The following is the mind-blowing result: Church and 30th St. San Francisco MUNI Construction from Ken Murphy on Vimeo.
A while ago, I introduced you to a young Designer and Mechanical Engineer named Julia Padvoiskis. One of Julia’s passions is explaining things simply and clearly through images. As such, her and I have decided to experiment with a new Gondola Project feature: The Infograph. We’re calling it the Cablegraph. Every week or so, Julia’s...
Back in January I posted an historical archive film of the San Francisco Cable Cars. The film is historically important for numerous reasons, not the least of which being its date. Filmed mere days before the Great Earthquake of 1906, this video stands as one of the most vivid documentations of San Francisco before the...
Last week, the New York Times ran an interesting debate between several economists and urban scholars regarding the place and future of High Speed Rail in America. Generally speaking, the two sides that emerged from the conversation are as follows: CON: High Speed Rail (HSR) is expensive and too risky. Americans drive (a lot) and...
A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT): Tons of Albertan oil sands to make a barrel of oil: 2 STM’s (Montreal) average railcar age: 36 Bus+Plants: Busroots Capacity of TTC subways: 30,000/25,500 Number of delays on subway in 2009: >1000 Hours of delay: 119 hours Cost of...
CNN Go Asia counts down the ten best ropeways in Japan. The Sentosa Island Cable Cars return from a year long hiatus. The overhaul made the vehicles more accessible to wheelchairs and strollers, added informational touchscreens to each cabin and expanded system capacity. It also added crystalline LED lights to the exterior of the cabins...
Yesterday, The Gondola Project was linked to by Planetizen, the world’s oldest and largest urban planning-related site on the internet. As a result, traffic has increased dramatically. In an effort to help ease these new visitors into the topic, I’ve linked to a group of 20 posts from the first few months of The Gondola...
A couple years back the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) decided to do away with the practice of transit vehicle drivers announcing upcoming stations and stops. It was decided that a GPS-enabled system would instead announce upcoming stations (in the case of subways) and stops (in the case of streetcars and buses) via generic, female, computerized...
With virtually no attention from the English-speaking world, Rio de Janeiro is about to become the third major city in South America to open a Cable Propelled Transit system. Located in the Complexo do Alemao group of favelas in northern Rio de Janeiro, the system appears to have been spurred by social mandates similar to...