A quick look at some of the things that happened this week in the world of cable cars, urban gondolas and cable propelled transit: At only 202 meters long, Gulangyu Island’s urban ropeway system is said to be the shortest in the world. Built without approval in 1995, the system is being dismantled in preparation...
Ostensibly, I’m supposed to be something of a specialist in the (cough) art and science of using ski lifts as mass public transit. Would it surprise you, then, to learn that for the vast majority of my life I hated skiing? Seriously. It terrified me. If I’m honest with myself, it still kinda’ does. People...
So this weekend, I made a trip down to New York City to take in some of the sights and sounds of the Big Apple. Being a natural transit nerd, I decided to make a side trip to Roosevelt Island (aka the Little Apple) to ride the Roosevelt Island Tram (RIT). Much to the chagrin of the...
Ever wonder what bikers look like when you take away the bike? They sort of look like people who are learning to ride a broom stick, while falling over… Upon discovering these works by Chinese photographer, Zhao Huasen, I immediately set off on a Google searching frenzy for other modes of invisible transit. Here’s what...
The small Breton city of Brest, France will enter the small club of cities around the world with an urban gondola system to call their own. Back in December of 2011, the topographically-challenged city of 140,000 inhabitants approved plans to proceed with a short gondola system spanning the city’s harbour and Penfeld River. The system...
A quick look at some of the highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit: While the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish, British Columbia had been the focus of intense debates in the past, the province has officially given the project the green light. After a malfunction last...
In some non-gondola, transit related news, we happened to stumble across what has to be one of my favourite transport contraptions ever realized by man — the Beer Bike. With a ride on bar, you get to kill two birds (or three) with one stone: exercise, reduce carbon emissions, and have a drink. Why this idea...
A Thought Experiment: You live downtown and you’ve got to travel a distance of 1.5 km, drop off a package and return home. If you lived in Toronto (as I do), the trip would cost you $6.00 round trip by subway. Would you pay it? A great many people would probably say answer ‘no’ to...
(Note: Regular readers will have seen variations on this post in the past. To prevent any future repetition a version of this has been added permanently here.) The Gondola Project is doing better than we imagined. The site now routinely experiences 23,000 page views per month split amongst 8,000 unique visitors – not too shabby...
So a couple weeks ago, we found out that the Singapore Cable Car was being retrofitted and turned into an Angry Birds themed cable car. This weekend, the system finally opened to the public. For a look into the celebrations and the system’s first run, check out the video posted below. — —