Recently we ran an opinion piece about private gondolas, asking whether they may be a sign of things to come. But nothing prepared for us this precarious looking “trenino” or little train in Vernazza, Italy. Essentially it’s a mini-monorail and it turns out they’re not uncommon here. Vernazza is one of the “Cinque Terre”, five...
Surfing is not just for beach boys and Internet users any more. Using LEITNER Ropeway’s DirectDrive technology, Wavegarden has partnered with the South Tyrolean company to design a system that creates the world’s longest artificial surfing wave. Consider the confluence: mountain technology bringing ocean shore culture inland. The system generates continuous waves with ropeway technology...
The phrase “cable ferries” might evoke images of tiny urban transit planners who descend on a city in the middle of the night and install a shiny new gondola system throughout a gridlocked city. Oh, wait: ferries, not fairies. As amazing as the previous scenario might be, we’re interesting in drawing attention a far more reality-based...
Ever wonder what happens when you crossbreed a bridge and a gondola? Well if infrastructure could reproduce, it’d probably look a lot like the Vizcaya Bridge in Northern Spain. — First designed and constructed in 1893 with the latest 19th century building techniques, this 45m high and 160m long transporter bridge has been ferrying passengers across the Nervión...
In our never-ending quest to bring you the best and most unique transport stories, we were recently informed by a colleague of a curious transit system in Malaysia named the Malacca Monorail. Being true transit geeks (and huge fans of the Simpsons), we had no choice but to personally visit it ourselves. This 1.6km, 2...
A couple days ago a reader sent us a link to a proposed aerial PRT transit system called the SkyTran. At first glance, it looks kinda cool and sorta stands out from some of its PRT counterparts — its got a slick futuristic vehicle design; it’s suspended on lightweight tracks and it was co-developed by...
Guest post by Charlotte Boffetti. Dave Owsen is an American industrial and automotive designer. A few years back he proposed an aerial transport system called “Community Transit” where passengers ride in independent cabins which allow them to customize their route. He sees this urban cable car concept as a futuristic transportation system for not only...
Just when I thought I’ve seen all of the world’s most ingenious and resourceful forms of public transit, Myanmar’s “big belly” Chevy buses comes into the picture and blows my mind. These buses have been operating since 1939! You gotta see it to believe it. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about...
I just looked out my window two minutes ago and saw this: I don’t know what this is. I don’t know who it’s built by. I don’t know where it came from. What I do know is this: I want to drive that thing, right now.
In our never ending quest to document and showcase transport oddities, a reader has sent us a link to a rather delightful and fun transport vehicle from Ecuador. The Chiva Express as it’s called, is a traditional Latin American bus (known as a chiva bus) which was converted into a train. While chiva buses typically...