Post by Steven Dale
Yesterday The Gondola Project was featured in The Toronto Star in a piece called Looking to the skies for answers: A second look at gondola transit. It was, for all intents and purposes, a follow-up piece to their story from 2 years ago about the work we’ve been doing around these parts (which landed on the front page of the paper, above the fold).
The basic gist of the article is to demonstrate the progress the technology has made over the last 2 years, and to question why Toronto – with it’s rather unique urban topography of ravines and valleys – has yet to explore the possibilities, which is odd given the degree of attention the technology has received from other Canadian municipalities.
Toronto's "network" of ravines and valleys (in green) demonstrate that while the city is commonly thought to be flat, it is anything but - hence providing a topographical opportunity to implement gondola technology. Image via the City of Toronto.
The article’s conclusion is not unlike Nick Chu’s post from a couple of weeks ago that argues the reason cities like Laval (Montreal), Calgary and Burnaby (Vancouver) are more positive on the technology than Toronto is due to their proximity to world class alpine ski resorts.
It’s an opinion I certainly share but am hesitant to believe that to be the sole factor. At the same time, I’m not entirely sure what other factors may be coming in to play.
So as a great deal of our readership comes from good old Hogtown (Toronto), let’s throw the question out there: Why is Toronto reluctant to look at cable transit? Is it merely a question of not having used the systems at world class ski hills? Or is there something else that needs to be considered?
I’d certainly love to know because as we’ve pointed out before, Toronto would be a perfect fit for the technology.
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Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
