If you’re the owner of a ski resort and you’re looking to buy a new lift/gondola/tram/whatever, you pretty much know who to call. For all intents and purposes, there’s only two companies out there and you’ve likely done business with one or both of them several times before. In other words, the lift companies’ respective...
Adding to the Western Canadian surge in interest in urban gondola transit (see here and here), frequent commenter Sean Turvey sends along the following link: Is it a good idea? Unlikely. There are clear problems with the concept – not the least of which is the 15 km long distance Colwood Councillor Brian Tucknott imagines....
Disruptive consumer products are naturally geared towards early adopters and spread because this small cohort of early adopting customers allow the products to get a toe-hold in the market. iPods, snowboards and microplane graters all benefitted from the fact that only a small fraction of the population needed to initially purchase them in order for...
Here’s how you do transit journalism: (Note: Some people have emailed me claiming the video to not work. If you’re one of those people, here’s the link.
A quick look at some of the things that make transportation subsidization work (or not): Transit subsidy: Difference between operating costs and passenger fare revenues Range of rail transit operating cost subsidies in US: 29-89% Bus transit: 57-89% Transit subsidy in LA: 82% Washington: 76% Average public transit operating costs per passenger mile for peak...
A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondola Transit and Cable Propelled Transit (there’s lots of good stuff this week, so read on): Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it: The CBC is reporting that residents under the proposed Vancouver / Burnaby gondola are upset to learn their homes are under...
Julia passes on a link to the Venezia Cable Car which reveals how that city is dealing with the visual pollution of elevated transit infrastructure. It’s pretty brilliant: As we’ve argued and demonstrated before, elevated infrastructure need not be ugly – and there’s absolutely no reason we can’t do something with gondola tower infrastructure.
ANY CHARACTER HERE One thing I love about cable is the questions and discussions it creates. Generally speaking, people are curious creatures and when confronted with the strange, bizarre and not-so-everyday, they want to know more. They ask questions, ponder and – for better or for worse – they come to their own conclusions. Those...
Considering how nascent the idea of urban gondola transit in Calgary is, it’s incredible to see how the media has pounced on it – and in some situations gotten the story completely wrong. More than likely, the media attention has been little more than a light-hearted distraction from the more serious business of Canada’s Federal...
Over the past week, we’ve been working on the site to make it more user-friendly and accessible to people. Regular readers will notice significant changes in the header bar, the drop down menus and the ability to access old posts. We’ve also opened the Gondola Project Forums, so for everyone whose been asking for them...