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May 23, 2018
Economics, Thoughts

Should Urban Gondolas be Integrated into a Public Transit Network?

In a recent article, a Swiss transportation planning professor from the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil, suggested that to maximize its usefulness for passengers, urban gondolas should be fully integrated into a city’s transit network. While Professor Büchel does not precisely describe what he meant by integration, it seems logical to think that he is...

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May 03, 2018
Infrastructure, Thoughts

Has Urban Gondola Technology Finally Gone Mainstream?

By and large for the past quarter century, urban gondolas have been considered a fringe transport technology in the minds of many North American transit professionals. Over this past decade however, attitudes over its application in the urban environment have shifted dramatically and it seems that the tides are finally turning. Last week for instance, the...

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Mar 07, 2018
360° Videos, Education, Thoughts

Next-Gen Gondola Education: Virtual Reality and 360° Videos

— Perhaps it’s a little hard to imagine nowadays, but nine years ago when we first started this blog, easily accessible information on urban gondolas was difficult to find. Valuable materials were mostly hidden away in educational depositories such as the Colorado School of Mines and/or in untranslatable foreign language articles. However, as the internet has by...

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Oct 13, 2017
Questions, Research Issues, Thoughts

Being Feasible

Years ago, a colleague once remarked to me that feasibility analysis is nothing more than complex marketing — a tool used to advocate for that which has already been decided upon. It’s a comment that stuck with me over the years and has recently taken on new relevance to me. As we’ve repeatedly pointed out...

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Mar 12, 2017
Education, History, Media & Blogs, Research & Development, Thoughts

Reaction: Cable Cars Are Changing the World

It’s no secret that with the rise of the 24-hour news cycle and the collapse of advertising revenues, journalistic standards and intellectual rigour have been on the decline across the publishing spectrum. As such, when journalist Duncan Geere of How We Get to Next requested an interview of me on the subject of urban cable...

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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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Apr 01, 2016
3S, Infrastructure, Innovations, Technologies, Thoughts

The Irony of Cable Car Pranks on April Fools

For those who haven’t noticed yet, it’s April Fools today. Of course, this means that a few media outlets have gone to great lengths to have a little fun and punk their audiences. For gondolas, we’ve found two great stories so far: 1) A “green-lit” water-crossing cable car for the Isle of Wight, UK; and 2) A city-wide...

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Feb 04, 2016
Thoughts

Look How Far Cable Cars Have Come In Six Years

This website went live on December 1, 2009. In that time, a whole lot has changed (note: all numbers drawn from our own internal research, estimates and databases): Back in 2009, less than 10% of the world’s ropeway projects were built in the urban market. Today more than 20% of cable cars are built in...

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Dec 22, 2015
Thoughts

Thoughts for another year up in the air

We can’t believe it’s almost the end of 2015. It’s been a good year for urban gondolas as public transit. We at the Gondola Project thank all the members of the community who contribute regularly, helping to keep this site current and correct. Learning is a lifelong activity. For those stuck in hellish holiday traffic,...

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Dec 21, 2015
Thoughts

The Grandmother Test

I recently met someone who disapproves of this whole Urban Gondola concept – which is fine, you’re entitled to your own opinion. He said it’s hard enough to get his grandmother to ride the subway (because she finds it terrifying), let alone a gondola. According to The Grandmother Test (yeah, it should be called that)...

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