Posts Tagged: CUP Projects

23
Mar

2010

Medellin/Caracas, Part 6

Two weeks ago I travelled to Medellin, Colombia and Caracas, Venezuela to tour five of the most important CPT systems in the world. This is Part 6 where I discuss the technological innovations of the Caracas Metocable. Image by Steven Dale.

Like the Medellin Metrocable, the Caracas Metrocable is a MDG system, the most basic of aerial Cable Propelled Transit technologies. It is fully-integrated into the local Metro system, has a maximum operating speed of 18 km/hr, a capacity of 3,000 pphpd and is 1.8 km long. Vehicles can carry 8 sitters and 2 standees. The system has 2 terminals and 3 intermediary stations; a total of 5 stations. Unlike the Medellin systems, which were built by the French-Italian consortium of Poma-Leitner, the Caracas Metrocable was built by the Austrian-Swiss partnership of Doppelmayr/Garaventa.

The most important aspect of the Caracas Metrocable is its alignment. The Caracas Metrocable’s alignment includes two extreme 90 degree turns. That this was the first aerial cable system in known history to implement a 90 degree turn is impressive, that the designers had the guts to attempt two 90 degree turns is all the more so. With this single act, the cable transit industry has demonstrated their ability to adapt, innovate and improve upon their technology within the public transit market.

What’s more, engineers did not utilize a separate drive wheel at each angle station as is common in most corner-turning applications. Instead, engineers used a single, passive deflection bullwheel at the two 90 degree stations, dramatically reducing complexity, size and cost of the system. Only at the middle station is a second drive wheel utilized. This, in essence, means that the Caracas Metrocable is made up of two separate lines where vehicles switch automatically from one line to the second at the middle station.

A graphical representation of the Caracas Metrocable system. Notice how the system is made up of two separate lines (represented by two different shades of blue). If one line fails, vehicles can be re-routed back onto the original line. Image by Steven Dale.

Additionally, a mechanism was designed into the middle station that allows operators to divert vehicles such that they do not automatically switch onto the new line, returning instead from whence they came. This configuration creates enormous additional benefit from an operations perspective. In the even that either of the two lines were to experience mechanical difficulties, the second of the two lines would be able to continue operations.

This simple feature debunks the common (but provably misinformed) opinion that with cable technology when one part of the system goes down, the whole system goes down.

A passive deflection wheel at angle stations allow vehicles to make sharp, 90 degree turns. Image by Steven Dale.

Vehicles enter and depart one of two 90 degree turning stations. Image by Steven Dale.

Image by Steven Dale.

Further features add to the Metrocable's appeal: Two way intercoms are located in each vehicle to assist with safety and emergency situations. Image by Steven Dale.

Sylish wooden benches in each vehicle are a charmingly casual (though somewhat Spartan) method of dealing with seating. Image by Steven Dale.

8 spots on the floor cue passengers where to stand and how to cue up. It's a unique and incredibly cost-effective design feature that speeds loading and disembarking times. Image by Steven Dale.

Return to Part 5.

Move on to Part 7.



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21
Mar

2010

One time . . .

One time, it’s a fluke . . . The Roosevelt Island Tram.

Two times, it’s a fad . . . Medellin.

Three times, it’s a trend . . . Portland.

Four times, it’s a movement . . . Caracas.

Five times, it’s a force . . . Next?



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17
Mar

2010

‘Make No Small Plans’

That’s what the famous American urban planner Daniel Burnham is often-quoted as having said. Make no small plans. We teach our planning students this edict like its religion. But how many big plans, grand plans, enormous plans are ever actually realized?

Few, and rarely as per the original design.

Big plans are cumbersome beasts. They are easily thwarted by political inertia, economic change and elections. Big plans just don’t work in the financial, social and political reality of today.

Imagine if Medellin had tried to plan and build three Metrocable lines all at once. How long would that have taken to plan? How easy would it have been for opponents of the project to simply delay until a new Mayor came into office? What if the Colombian economy collapsed? How likely would that plan have fallen apart?

Instead, Medellin started small. One cable transit line, 1.8 kms long. Simple, easy and modest. Yet even still, from idea through to completion it took 6 years. But they got it done. They were successful precisely because they started small. And because they got it done, because they were successful, now they open a new cable line every other year with ease. Medellin’s a lesson not just for cable, but for public works projects in general.

To realize big plans, you have to accomplish small plans first. Stop planning the big. Start doing the small.



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16
Mar

2010

Building Transit

Beyond the obvious, here’s a few things I think transit should be:

  1. Free. Or close to it. Most businesses would pay millions of dollars for a captive market of individuals who predictably use the same two stations twice a day, five days a week. Transit operators should make their money not off of transit, but off the ancillary services people actually covet. The Freemium Model of Transit.
  2. Where people are, not where transit operators think people may sometime be. Expanding transit into a place that cannot support it in hopes that people will someday move to that place puts transit operators at risk of financial loss. If the bet you placed comes through, great! But what if it doesn’t? When you build transit where you suspect people will be rather than where people actually are, you’re engaged in speculation, not planning.
  3. Familiar. I want to see the same drivers, attendants and ticket takers working at the same place at the same time. This way, when I’m using the service, I’m being taken care of by the same people all the time. I want them to be familiar to me and me familiar to them. Over time, I’d like us to know each other by first name. Anyone whose a regular customer of a specific restaurant or bar knows the positive impact this causes.
  4. Automated. It’s easy to blame drivers and operators for the ineffectiveness of transit. But traffic and people are complex things not prone to follow rules and schedules. So instead of trying to legislate around the problem, let’s eliminate it entirely and switch to automated methods. That way, employees are freed of the hassle of driving and can focus on providing service.
  5. Fun & Comfortable. Many drivers drive because they enjoy the act of doing it. To get drivers to switch from the private automobile to public transit, operators must provide a means of travel that is more pleasant, comfortable and fun to ride than the private automobile. Start from there.
  6. Accepting of Humans. Transit should be designed around the needs and limitations of humans, not the other way around.
  7. Proud. People will take pride in their transit when they’re given a reason to be proud of it. It’s either a vicious circle or a beneficent circle, and its the service providers’ choice as to which it will be.
  8. Stylish & Attractive. For the obvious reason that what we ride to work every day has a direct impact on our emotional and psychological well-being as a population. Transit should make us feel better about ourselves, not worse.

There are so many things transit should be yet isn’t. What do you want transit to be?



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.

15
Mar

2010

Medellin/Caracas, Part 4

Last week I travelled to Medellin, Colombia and Caracas, Venezuela to tour five of the most important CPT systems in the world. This is Part 4 where I discuss the Medellin Metrocable's Linea L - Cable Arvi. Image by Steven Dale.

Medellin’s third and most recent Cable Propelled Transit line is Linea L – Cable Arvi. It is only a few weeks old and transports the people of Medellin up through the mountains and all the way to Parque Arvi (pronouned “Ar-bee”), a new nature preserve a few kilometres from the city. The park and transit line are part of a social project to help bring country retreats and nature to the masses, a privilege normally reserved only for the wealthy.

Despite the preserve being incomplete in time for Linea L’s official opening, the line has witnessed huge crowds, particularly on weekends. Unlike Medellin’s previous two cable lines, Linea L requires an additional fare to ride. To access Linea L, passengers must disembark at the Santo Domingo terminal of Linea K and cross over to another station and board Linea L. So while Linea L is very much a part of Metro Medellin as a whole, it is not “fully integrated” per se.

Authorities felt this lack of full integration was a necessary sacrifice. At 4.8 kms in length, Linea L’s USD$25 million price tag was rather affordable, however, were it fully integrated into the Metro’s single-fare zone, Metro Medellin did not expect this line to pay for itself. This is due to the very accurate assessment that users of Linea L will consist largely of local tourists. Full-integration was, therefore not necessary.

Nevertheless, transfers are relatively hassle-free due to an elevated cross-over connecting the two lines, and the system seems no more outside the scope of Metro Medellin’s mandate than either of its previous two cable endeavors.

A passenger cross-over connects the Santo Domingo terminals of the Arbi Linea L (left) and Linea K (right). Image by Steven Dale.

A passenger cross-over connects the terminals of Arvi Linea L (left) and Linea K (right). Image by Steven Dale.

As Linea L just opened, much civil work surrounding the terminals is ongoing. Also: Notice the solar panel affixed to the roof of the gondola. This feature powers interior electronics within the vehicles and is becoming very standard on all urban cable transit systems. Image by Steven Dale.

Ascending Parque Arvi from Santo Domingo. Image by Steven Dale.

En Route to the Parque Arvi terminal. Image by Steven Dale.

En route to the Parque Arvi terminal. Image by Steven Dale.

The Parque Arvi terminal is an elegant play of glass, wood and steel meant to reference the forest setting. Image by Steven Dale.

The Parque Arvi terminal perfectly demonstrates how the station architecture of cable is separate from the infrastructure itself. Stations are simply shells and can be as small, large, creative or bland as people desire. Image by Steven Dale.

Taking advantage of the space afforded by the maintenance facility, park designers integrated a farmers' market at the Parque Arvi terminal. Image by Steven Dale.

The Arvi Linea L affords riders an unrivaled view of the entirety of Linea K. Image by Steven Dale.

Return to Part 3.

Move on to Part 5.



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.

14
Mar

2010

Medellin/Caracas, Part 3

Last week I travelled to Medellin, Colombia and Caracas, Venezuela to tour five of the most important CPT systems in the world. This is Part 3 where I discuss the Medellin Metrocable's Linea J. Image by Steven Dale.

LINEA J

Unlike Linea K of the Medellin Metrocable, Linea J is much more actively involved in Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Linea K served an existing and extremely dense neighborhood lacking in transit. Linea J serves the barrio of Vallejuelos and the La Aurora development that is in the process of building and expanding.

This means that Linea J does not suffer from the overcrowding common to Linea K. Queues for vehicles are rare, and even when they do occur in rush hours, they are usually voided within a few minutes. Like Linea K, stations are enormous due to topographical, social and security concerns.

Compared to Linea K, Linea J is something of a let-down. Stations are sparsely populated and overall impact on the community is less than that of Linea K. That is, however, somewhat unfair a judgement. Linea K brought transit to one of the most dense, impoverished and least serviced areas of all of Medellin. Linea K was about servicing a crisis, whereas Linea J is about planning for the future.

Linea K is also 2 years older than Linea J. People need time to adapt. Linea K was also the first, dramatic incursion of cable transit into a city. Linea J has an almost “been there, done that” feel to it. It’s simply impossible to impress in the way that Linea K does. There’s only one “first.”

Nevertheless, one has to look upon Linea J as a success. Splashes of colour pepper along Linea J’s route, a sure sign of progress that is dramatically apparent on Linea K. Stations – while underutilized – feel safe and at a length of 2.7 kms, one has to be impressed by the sizable increase in scale Linea J has accomplished over its predecessor, Linea K’s more modest 1.8 kms.

The views, however, are far more dramatic:

Image by Steven Dale.

A vehicle departs a Linea J Metrocable station. Image by Steven Dale.

Linea J serves the less dense barrio of Vallejeulos, resulting in less over-crowding. Image by Steven Dale.

Linea J serves the sprawling hill-top barrio of Vallejuelos. As the barrio does not have the population of other more notorious areas, overcrowding on Linea J is rare. Image by Steven Dale.

Like Linea K before it, Linea J is being used to stimulate local investment, infrastructure and construction in the long-abandoned barrios along its route. Image by Steven Dale.

The La Aurora Metrocable station (foreground) and development (background). Metrocable Linea J is seen as more than just transit. It is an act of city-building and Transit Oriented Development. Image by Steven Dale.

Rush hour queues are rare on Linea J. Image by Steven Dale.

Due to a lack of population density, much of the social infrastructure designed into the Linea J Metrocable stations (such as this plaza) sits unused. Image by Steven Dale.

Image by Steven Dale.

Like Linea K before it, Linea J is inspiring civic pride in barrios around which the Metrocable plies its route. Decorative murals and colour are becoming more common a sight to see. Image by Steven Dale.

Image by Steven Dale.

Notice how the few splashes of colour that exist within the barrio gently mirror the route of the Metrocable. This was a similar phenomenon observed in Santo Domingo along Linea K's route. Image by Steven Dale.

An unanticipated consequence of the Metrocable's success: An increasingly severe Gringo problem.

Return to Part 2.

Move on to Part 4.



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.

13
Mar

2010

The Mark News & Cable Propelled Transit

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled Medellin/Caracas Photo Essay with this shameless bit of self-promotion:

The Mark News recently posted an interview segment on Cable Propelled Transit with myself and Dr. Eric Miller of the University of Toronto Cities Centre. Here it is:

The Mark also posted a related op-ed piece I wrote on the matter. Read the article: Take the Gondola to Work. Big thanks to Terese Saplys and Tony Ferguson for involving me in The Mark. It’s a great news publication. Unlike most other web-news sites, The Mark isn’t just another aggregator, it privileges new and original content. Please take the time to look them up.

The Medellin/Caracas Photo Essay will return tomorrow.



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.