Tomorrow we return to “normal” operations here at The Gondola Project. Having just returned from a month-long sabbatical from the site I’m hoping to be refreshed, renewed and reinvigorated. Thanks so much to Julia, Nick and Ryan for keeping the site going while I was away and thanks to all the readers who stuck with...
In terms of financial viability, public transportation in North America is a perpetual loser. However, rumours have it that some transit agencies abroad break even or even make a profit. So let us take a closer look into one of these transit agencies – Hong Kong’s MTR (Mass Transit Railway) – and see if its...
Still a relatively sleepy summer for gondola news, but nonetheless, here’s what’s happening this week: Construction has finally started on London’s Thames Cable Car. Don’t cross your fingers too hard for a 2012 Olympic opening, officials reiterate that it’s not part of the Olympic transport plan. A quick overview of Rio cable car system after...
This week on the Gondola Project forum, in response to last week’s post about the future of aerial transit, there was a video response with the Jetson’s theme song displaying the idea of personalized flying mobiles. This got me thinking about both science fiction and outer space (since everything in that show appears to be...
Part 1 and Part 2 of this series discussed many of the pros to combining CPT with Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Today we’ll consider one of the major arguments against cable transit — security concerns, and how smart design and planning can help mitigate these issues. Gondolas may pass alongside private property, even when traveling...
On a recent trip to China, I had the opportunity to visit a site that few planners outside of China have yet to see. First announced in 2008, Tianjin Ecocity is a large, ecological development designed to encourage sustainable building and living practices and promote future “green” developments. Not to mention this is possibly the...
Last week, in Part 1 of this series, the idea of combining CPT and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) was introduced. Today we’ll look closer at this topic and explore the opportunities ropeway technologies present to TOD. While at-grade cable systems, such as funiculars have similar characteristics to LRT in terms of their impact on the...
How does the trend of increased ridership match up against the local gas prices in Toronto? Stuck between budget cuts and politics no one can ignore the increase in both fuel costs and public transit ridership. So the question is, how many riders will it take to shift attention over to public transit funding, infrastructure...
A quick look at some of the things that makes auto-rickshaws/tuktuks in your city work (or not): Auto-rickshaws/tuktuks: Half golf-cart, half motorcycle Origin: Daihatsu Midget & Piaggio Ape C Top speed: 40km/h Cost: $6,500 Cost of “green” tuktuks: $10,000 Largest producer of auto-rickshaws in world: India India’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit: “They (auto rickshaws)...