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.
Funivia del Renon
22
Oct
Oct
2010
The 7 Most Important Aerial Cable Systems In The World (For Various Reasons)
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:
Read more
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.
29
Jul
Jul
2010
The Bolzano 3S (Funivia del Renon), Part 3
Image by Steven Dale.
Back in January I drew attention to the Funivia del Renon in Bolzano, Italy. I suggested that it was likely a strong Urban Gondola system for teaching us about how to blend the stations into the surrounding urban fabric. Those comments, however, were made second-hand based on the few images and videos I could find of the system.
This past weekend, however, I had the opportunity to visit the Bolzano 3S in person. This is what I found. Note: This is Part 3 of a 3 part series of posts. Click here to read Part 1. Click here to read Part 2.
Read more
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.
28
Jul
Jul
2010
The Bolzano 3S (Funivia del Renon), Part 2
The Funivia del Renon, Bolzano Terminus. Image by Steven Dale.
Back in January I drew attention to the Funivia del Renon in Bolzano, Italy. I suggested that it was likely a strong Urban Gondola system for teaching us about how to blend the stations into the surrounding urban fabric. Those comments, however, were made second-hand based on the few images and videos I could find of the system.
This past weekend, however, I had the opportunity to visit the Bolzano 3S in person. This is what I found. Note: This is Part 2 of a 3 part series of posts. Click here to read Part 1. Click here to read Part 3.
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.
27
Jul
Jul
2010
The Bolzano 3S (Funivia del Renon), Part 1
Image by Steven Dale
Back in January I drew attention to the Funivia del Renon in Bolzano, Italy. I suggested that it was likely a strong Urban Gondola system for teaching us about how to blend the stations into the surrounding urban fabric. Those comments, however, were made second-hand based on the few images and videos I could find of the system.
This past weekend, however, I had the opportunity to visit the Bolzano 3S in person. This is what I found. Note: This is Part 1 of a 3 part series of posts. Click here to read Part 2. Click here to read Part 3. Read more
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.
29
Jan
Jan
2010
Funivia del Renon
The Funivia del Renon, Bolzano Station, Public Domain Image
Probably one of the single biggest counter-points to urban cable systems is the stations. People are quick to argue that the stations are large, ugly and imposing. It’s a difficult point to argue with because most cable stations are just that: Large, ugly and imposing.
But then again, so are many of our traditional transit stations:
Kennedy Station, Toronto, Public Domain Image
The point, however, is that they don’t have to be.
Cable transit isn’t dependent upon large, ugly stations, they’ve just been designed that way for most of their history. In order to make in-roads in urban cable transit, the cable industry has a responsibility to begin designing stations with cities in mind, but cities also have a responsibility to imagine cable stations in new and beautiful ways.
Which brings me to the Funivia del Renon in Bolzano, Italy (pictured above).
The Funivia is not an urban system, specifically. It doesn’t carry a lot of people and it services a mountain resort. It is, however, a cable system whose terminus is located within a city. The design of that station is therefore very important for our purposes.
While I’ve never visited the system myself, this new system appears (at least on the surface) to blend in excellently with the surrounding urban fabric. The station has an excellent relationship to street level pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Whether you like the architecture or not, it’s hard to deny that the station adds to the surrounding area, it does not detract from it.
I suspect it is the design of the stations – not the technology itself – that will make or break urban gondolas and urban cable transit. Thankfully, the cable industry seems to understand this and is working towards rectifying that problem.
The Funivia opened just recently in March of 2009, so there are few images and videos, but I managed to dig one up. Take a look:
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.
