For The Gondola Project to move and grow beyond its original 365 Day Mandate, the site’s going to need help. There’s no two ways about it. Based on the comments from last week’s post it appears that readers want the site to continue with a variety of upgrades, most of which are good ideas. But...
This past weekend, the New York Times ran a story that contains a harbinger of things to come. The story, titled Google Cars Drive Themselves, In Traffic, describes how a team of 15 Google engineers are actively pursuing technologies that will allow cars to drive themselves. And this isn’t just fanciful fiction. The team has...
A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT): Groundwork for American imperialism: The Guano Islands Act of 1856 Billions of dollars Japan willing to loan California for High Speed Rail: $40 Barrels of oil spilled in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforests: 14,000 Loaning your car for 20 hours a week:...
A few major developments this week in the world of Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit (the first three are particularly exciting!)… The Luzerner Zeitung is reporting on a proposal to link the central Swiss city of Luzern to the suburb of Kriens via gondola. Unfortunately at time of writing, the story link was not working....
A thought experiment: Imagine a city that wishes to build a medium capacity transit system in a specific, given configuration. Due, however, to the unique geologic, social, political, cultural and economic state of the area the following applies: An LRT, BRT or CPT system (for the sake of argument, you could include any technology you...
We spend too much time arguing about the type of public transit our cities should implement. It’s such a waste of time, energy and resources. Imagine what we could accomplish if we devoted just a fraction of that energy to working together and accepting the idea that all transit technologies have a place. Somewhere along...
Originally, The Gondola Project was to be a one year long exploration of Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit. 1 post per day for 365 days. And as any reader can see from the counter in the upper right hand corner of this website, we’re approaching 365 very quickly. It’s amazing how quickly a year...
Voluntary Disclaimer: While I have had conversations with individuals associated with the Vancouver/Burnaby Gondola, I have no stake within this project. Furthermore, while a report I wrote on the topic of cable was referenced in the original feasibility analysis associated with this project, I have not been consulted on this project whatsoever. The opinions expressed...
In Saturday’s post, I was accused by commenter Justin Bernard of being a promotor of “gadgetbahn.” This isn’t the first time I’ve been accused of this, nor do I suspect it will be the last. But let’s get to the core of the accusation; the real heart of what Justin is saying. In Justin’s mind,...
A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT): Estimated number of vehicles on Earth: 1,000,000,000 Estimated number of vehicles on Earth by 2025: 2,000,000,000 Number of pedestrians in Times Square per day: 364,000 % increase from 2008: 15 Number of years that surplus housing will last in Charlotte County, Florida: 100 Homes sitting empty in Florida: 300,000 Number of homes approved...