Are all three the same thing? Yes and no. Yes in the sense that they all generally describe the same item. No in the sense that different countries throughout the so-called Anglosphere have a clear preference for one term above all the others. Consider this graph: This is from Google Insight and shows the relative...
Likely one of the most awe-inspiring examples of Cable Propelled Transit and/or gondola transit are the deeply vernacular Meteora Cable Cars. A Unesco World Heritage site, The Meteora are a series of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Northern Greece dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. All are located hundreds of meters in the sky atop...
One thing we’ve noticed over the last year or so is that city-specific content rules. It’s all fine and well for us to talk generally about urban gondolas and cable-propelled transit, but it’s not until ideas specific to a given city are put forward that people really start paying attention. That doesn’t apply simply to...
Over the Easter weekend, a new urban gondola system opened in the Netherlands. This system, in the small city of Venlo, is the longest ever in the Netherlands at an admittedly modest 1.1 kilometers. As is becoming a common theme and narrative, there’s virtually no publicly available information on the system. What we do know...
A quick look at some of the things that make urban redevelopment work (or not): Definition of a “Spike”: A holdout threatening a larger development plan Percent of world’s population now living in urban areas: >50% Urban growth in Seattle between 2005-2008: 10,600 housing units Number of urban villages: 38 Ms. Edith Macefield: Seattle’s infamous...
A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondola Transit and Cable Propelled Transit: Simon Fraser University’s The Peak is reporting that Burnaby city council gives the go-ahead to the Burnaby Mountain gondola transit system in suburban Vancouver. Advocates are quick to point out that this does not ensure the construction of the system...
Now this makes sense . . . Japan’s Willer Express is offering plush first class seats that look more like business class pods on an airline. Equipped with wireless internet, reclining seats, LCD screens and blankets this could actually make long-distance bus travel palatable. Of course these are the premium coaches; Willer Express also has...
Right now, there are two groups looking at urban gondola transit solutions: Developing World cities and Developed World cities. Pretty broad classification, I know, but bear with me. Curiously, in the Developed World the technology gets little attention from the public sector. Typically it’s the private sector that pushes these systems as little more than...
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s Sony and JVC waged a war between their respective Betamax and VHS video cassette formats. Early consensus (my dad included) favoured the Betamax format and its superior image and picture quality. Beta also had the advantage of a two year head start over the VHS format. And yet,...