#Aerial Rapid Transit

May 25, 2011
Uncategorized, Vancouver/Burnaby Gondola

Gondola Transit on Burnaby Mountain: Public Engagement and Flawed Analysis

As most people know (or could easily assume), we’re pretty positive about the Burnaby Mountain Gondola proposal. We aren’t, however, zealots. We’re urbanists and planners first and foremost, gondola specialists second. We won’t mindlessly support any gondola that happens to be plunked down in any city. It’s got to make sense and be rationally thought out...

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May 24, 2011
Cable Cars

Cable Cars, Lesson 4: Dual By-Pass Shuttles

For our new readers: Despite the fact that systems like the planned London Thames Cable Car are often officially called “Cable Cars,” they are more often than not Gondolas. This can be confusing to cable transit novices. To make it easier: Cable Cars are supported from below (like cars) and Gondolas are supported from the top...

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May 23, 2011
May 22, 2011
Bus, Sunday Statshot

Sunday Statshot with Nick Chu

A quick look at some of the things that make intercity bus travel work (or not):   Fastest growing form of intercity travel: Buses Number of intercity bus trips in 1960: 140 million In 1990: 40 million % decrease in intercity bus service between 1980-2002: 50.6% “Curbside” bus carrier – Megabus – inauguration date: 2006...

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May 21, 2011
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup

A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit: It appears that the London Thames Cable Car may not be ready in time for next year’s Olympic Games – an odd development as it was originally conceived specifically because of the Olympics. That may not actually be a bad thing,...

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May 20, 2011
Complexo do Alemao Teleférico

Rio’s Complexo do Alemão Teleférico Open For Business (We Think)

We’re not 100% certain about this, but it looks like Rio’s new urban gondola, the  Complexo do Alemão Teleférico is finally up and running. The video we’re basing that assumption on is unfortunately unembeddable (let’s pretend that’s a word, okay), so you’ll have to follow the link here. This is an exciting moment for Cable...

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May 19, 2011
Just For Fun

The Bizarre Search Terms That Led People To The Gondola Project (This Month)

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to get a handle on our traffic here, where it’s been coming from and what people have been looking for. For that, I’ve obviously been using Google Analytics. Now there’s no question that Google’s presence and ubiquity have allowed sites like The Gondola Project to flourish...

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May 18, 2011
Oddities, Thoughts

Public Transportation’s New Years Mystery

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how the differing usage of the terms public transit, transport and transportation led to very different levels of interest across english-speaking cultures around the world. I had planned to follow-up on that post earlier, but such follow-up admittedly slipped my mind due to the large...

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May 17, 2011
Cable Cars

Cable Cars, Lesson 3: Dual Loop Cable Shuttles

For our new readers: Despite the fact that systems like the planned London Thames Cable Car are often officially called “Cable Cars,” they are more often than not Gondolas. This can be confusing to cable transit novices. To make it easier: Cable Cars are supported from below (like cars) and Gondolas are supported from the top...

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May 16, 2011
Oddities, Thought Experiments

Thought Experiment: Should Roller Coaster Designers Design Public Transit?

Disclaimer: This post in no way, shape, form or description advocates using roller coasters or thrill park rides as mass public transit. Should Roller Coaster Engineers and Theme Park Designers participate in the design of public transit? Probably an insane idea; no doubt completely and 100%. But also probably worth exploring, if only in a...

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