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Jun 29, 2018
Disney Skyliner, Installations, Public Transit

Are Disney’s Skyliner Gondolas Public Transit?

Construction works for the upcoming Disney Skyliner cable cars has reached an exciting milestone this week as the first wave of cabins were spotted on the back of a truck at the world’s most visited entertainment complex. For those who have not followed this project, the Skyliners are a network of three gondola lines that were first announced...

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Oct 16, 2017
Just For Fun, Public Transit

Crossing the Sky in the Indian Himalayas

— In a one-of-a-kind experience, BBC takes viewers on a captivating 360° video journey through the Indian Himalayas. Reporters follow two sisters from the remote village of Syaba in Uttarakhand State  as they travel up to six hours each day to reach their school in the nearby town of Maneri and Malla. As part of their long...

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Jun 09, 2016
Analysis, Public Transit, Research & Development, Thoughts

Urban Gondolas Take Centre Stage in American Media (Again)

This past week, urban gondolas once again took the centre stage as two major US media outlets — Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal — each wrote a piece on the rapid growth of cable transport systems. As more than a dozen proposals are now active in the US (from San Diego to Baton Rouge), city-builders...

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Jan 15, 2016
East River Skyway, Proposals & Concepts, Public Transit

New York Subway Shutdown: An Opportunity for Urban Gondolas?

Brooklyn residents received some grim news this week as the governor announced plans to start repairs on the city’s L Train tunnels in late 2017. Officials estimate repairs taking anywhere from 1-3 years to complete. With this disruption, upwards of 300,000 -350,000 daily riders may be affected. While this is terrible news for residents, this unexpectedly presents a massive opportunity...

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Dec 18, 2015
Public Engagement & Community Outreach, Public Transit

Would Fun Transit Stimulate Ridership?

A couple of years back, Volkswagen came up with a brilliant viral marketing campaign known as The Fun Theory. The basic idea being that “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better” (their words, not mine). The shorthand for the theory was the very public transformation of a subway stairwell into...

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Dec 16, 2015
Public Transit, Thoughts

How Not to Build an Urban Cable Car: Mississippi Aerial River Transit

Last week, Baton Rouge become the latest American city to announce plans to explore an urban gondola. This adds to the growing list of US cities such as San Diego, Seattle, Buffalo, Georgetown (Washington DC), and Staten Island (New York) who are actively considering/planning a Cable Propelled Transit system. In typical fashion, the public reacted with...

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Dec 15, 2015
Cable Transit Industry, Doppelmayr, Public Transit, Safety

Ropeway Redux: Highlights From Doppelmayr’s Comprehensive Magazine

Earlier this year, Doppelmayr Urban Solutions produced an attractively art directed brochure-cum-magazine called Ropeways in the urban environment. It compiles the many benefits of cable cars (or ropeways as they’re called in the industry) as urban transportation. The following is a summary of the magazine’s main points. The content is very useful for anyone looking...

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Dec 08, 2015
Maokong Taipei, Public Transit, Questions, Singapore Cable Car

How to Price Your Urban Cable Car

It’s hard to blame officials in some cities for treating the fare structure of new public transport line as an afterthought. It’s not sexy stuff. However, for urban cable cars, the failure to put the time and energy to develop a proper fare model may ultimately hinder the project’s success. Whether your envisioned CPT line...

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Oct 14, 2015
Public Transit, Site Issues and Updates, Updates

Update: Systems Added to Urban Gondola Map

— You know what they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Or in our case, the world’s first and most comprehensive urban gondola map (full map via Google) but that’s harder to rhyme. We’ve had a few requests the past week so we’ve gone ahead and made a few changes: Added two Algerian urban...

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Oct 06, 2015
Public Transit, Site Issues and Updates, Updates

Where to find existing and proposed URBAN GONDOLAS

— To further enlighten those interested in urban cable cars systems, the Gondola Project has begun mapping them out (link 1 – Gondola Project; link 2 – Full Map via Google). First, we’ve organized existing urban systems. You can navigate/locate these two ways: Visually locate the system and/or Zoom into system’s location and find the alignment...

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