This week I was interviewed by the awesomely-named Chikodi Chima of the transit site start-up AltTransport. Check out the results: Urban Gondolas Bound Over The Competition.
A week and a half ago, Tom Vanderbilt of Slate magazine wrote a fantastic article entitled Dude, Where’s Your Car? How not having a car became Hollywood shorthand for loser. It’s an eye-opening and persuasive article whose central thesis is this: Hollywood films depict characters who don’t own/drive cars as worthless human beings that are...
The Long Beach, California Press-Telegram is reporting that a group of companies presented to city council an Urban Gondola proposal to the City Council’s Tidelands and Harbor Committee. The committee was intrigued and forwarded the proposal to full council for consideration. The proposal is incredibly preliminary. No dates, routes or price tags are attached. Should...
Alex Dziuk (LX to comment readers) is a reader of The Gondola Project and a Masters student at the University of Stuttgart. Last week he sent me these images he prepared for his thesis on a potential London Cable Propelled Transit system. They’re witty, inspired and beautiful. And just to prevent any confusion they may...
A Thought Experiment: Imagine a world 30 years from now (not so far into the future) where there is no such thing as public transit in whatever city you happen to live in. How did it happen? Why? What caused public transit’s demise? Think it’s impossible? Ask Clayton County, Georgia. Or the flip side: Image...
A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT): Length of NY’s subways: 10 car trains Weight of each car: 40 tons Length of each car: 50 feet (15.24m) Top speed: 45 mph (72km/hr) Average number of jumpers per week in 2009: 3 Number of assaults on NY bus drivers in 2009: 51 Number getting spat on: 53 Average days taken...
Last week I asked readers to help find information about 9 virtually unknown cable systems around the world. Regarding the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway in Cairns, Australia, Matt of Wellington Cycleways contributed this guest post (with pictures): The first thing you notice about the Skyrail in Cairns, in Far North Queesland, Australia, after the initial shock of the...
Mid last year a company called Teleferic Valencia announced plans to build the world’s longest Urban Gondola system at around 13 km with 7 total stations. The announcement caused little buzz outside this seaside Spanish city and I just heard about this system the other day thanks to a kind reader’s email. According to Valencia...
While I’d hardly suggest using the Dursey Island Cable Car as any sort of promotional material for cable transit, it’s certainly unique for reasons beyond the fact that the primary users of the system are sheep: (video starts in German but quickly switches to English) Seilbahn von Dursey Island Watch closely and you’ll see something...
I was recently presented with the following argument against Urban Gondolas: “If it’s such a good idea, why aren’t there any famous urban cable cars?” Firstly, fame does not equal quality. There’s plenty of famous products, people and ideas that have been or are famous now but likely won’t see the light of day a...