Posts Tagged: Urban Design

08
Sep

2015

Reviewing Good Advice: Low Profile Urban Gondolas

This piece was first published on The Gondola Project in 2010 but it is still highly relevant and useful. It’s about keeping your head low to the ground being unobtrusive; useful advice from a Canadian.

There’s a story about Cable Propelled Transit, Aerial Ropeways and Urban Gondolas that only hurts the technology’s future. Unfortunately, the industry does little to stop the spread of this story.

The story is simple: If you build an urban gondola, you’ll have vehicles flying over tall buildings, hundreds of feet in the air!

This story is bad for cable. Here’s why:

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Urban Planning & Design
7
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06
Sep

2010

Elevated Beauty

Chicago's 'L' elevated subway system is one of the most well-known elevated subway systems in the western world. Image by clarkmaxwell.

Elevated roadways, busways, light rail lines, subways, automated people movers and cable cars are far cheaper to build than underground systems. They’re not as cost-effective as street-level systems, but street level systems are subject to all the whims and unpredictability of intermingling with other forms of traffic.

Problem is, most architects, urban designers and politicians will complain about elevated systems as an eyesore; detrimental to the urban fabric. It’s an argument that has little merit, least of all because they have so little evidence of it.

They’ve seen how ugly, elevated infrastructure can abuse a neighborhood and have decided (yes, decided) that all forms of elevated infrastructure are ugly and abusive. It demonstrates just how little imagination and creativity our existing planning regimes possess.

Just because most elevated infrastructure is ugly doesn’t mean it must be ugly. At worst, ugly is a choice. At best, ugly is an opportunity to be beautiful.

An ancient Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain. Image by Éole.

See what I mean?



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Urban Planning & Design
2
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03
Jun

2010

The Gleagle Has Landed

The Gleagle IG

Recently the Chinese motor company Geely showcased their Gleagle IG concept car at the Shanghai Auto Show. This three-seater is made of steel, is equipped with a solar panel hood and will cost only $2,250 USD.

It’s said to be the cheapest car on the planet, 10% cheaper even than the Tata Nano (formerly the cheapest car on the planet).

Economic scarcity is a funny thing. When something that’s scarce (expensive) becomes abundant (cheap), that abundance simply causes something else to become scarce. Caracas may have the cheapest gasoline on the planet . . . but they also have some the worst traffic humanity’s ever seen.

So what happens when our cars become cheaper than expensive bikes? Better yet: What happens when they become cheaper than public transit?

Will never happen, you say? When was the last time you saw a transit operator drop their fares?

As long as transit operators keep raising their fares (and lowering their level of service) and car companies keep driving down the price and size of vehicles, eventually the price of a car is going to be cheaper than an annual transit pass.

And that changes everything. Make an electrically-powered Gleagle and suddenly transit loses whatever moral high ground it once had. It’s at that point that scarcity kicks in again. After all, when cars are abundant, road space becomes scarce.

The scarcity of roads is one of the only things that will keep public transit alive (at least in its current form) to see the 22nd Century. But once roads are that clogged with micro-cars, vespas, cyclists and pedestrians how are Light Rail trains, Streetcars and Buses going to get around? They won’t.

At that moment transit will be forced to make a decision: Do we go below or above the traffic? There’s no other option.



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.

Analysis
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18
May

2010

Calgary’s Plus 15 Network: The Key to Urban Gondolas?

The Calgary Plus 15 Network. Public Domain.

A Plus 15 bridge with abstract metal sculptures in Calgary's downtown core. Image by Spatial Mongrel.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada is a city of around 1 million people. It’s the financial centre of Canada’s petrol economy and is very, very cold. Average temperatures range from a low of -15°C (5°F) to a high of 10°C (49°F).

Calgarians are therefore blessed with a network of elevated walkways called the Plus 15 System. This network enables movement throughout the financial district and downtown core without stepping outside. The Plus 15 network’s 16 km of length and 59 bridges make it the largest such system in the world.

The Plus 15, whose name refers to the height at which these bridges are above street level, is not without controversy. Some feel that the network’s 16 km and 59 bridges rob the street of pedestrian traffic and life. But that’s not the point or reason I wish to draw attention to this system.

Instead, consider the following images:

A multistory bridge is just one of 59 bridges that make up Calgary's Plus 15 Network. Image by the Calgary Downtown Association.

Image by John Vetterli.

Image by fredthechicken.

Image by kootenayvolcano.

Some of the bridges are purely utilitarian and others are architectural marvels. But again, that’s not the point. In yesterday’s post we discussed the new Baden Gondelbahn proposal. One of the images from that new proposal was this:

Image by PD via Tages Anzeiger.

See the point now? Integrating Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit into dense urban environments may not be so difficult after all.



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Analysis / Design Considerations
3
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17
May

2010

The Baden Gondelbahn

Image by PD via Tages Anzeiger.

This is the Baden Gondelbahn in Baden, Switzerland. It is a concept by Stephan Kalt, director of Regional Transport for Baden-Wettingen. Kalt’s concept connects the spa town of Baden with a local train station via Urban Gondola.

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Baden Gondelbahn / Design Considerations / Gondola / Proposals & Concepts / Urban Planning & Design
2
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15
May

2010

Ugly is an Opportunity to be Beautiful

The Parthenon. Image by roblisameehan.

2,500 hundred years ago a Greek sculptor crafts an enormous statue of the goddess Athena out of gold and ivory. They need to build a roof to shield her from the elements. So how do you build a roof that large that long ago?

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Design Considerations
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19
Apr

2010

Congratulations to the Ryerson Cable Propelled Transit Team!

The Ryerson University School of Urban Planning's Student Lounge, February 2010. A team of 9 students from the School became the first team of planning students to tackle the oftentimes difficult topic of cable transit in the urban realm.

For the last 3 months, myself and a team of 9 students from Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning have been working through the implications of what cable transit could mean for their city. A week-and-a-half ago, the team presented their findings in front of their colleagues, faculty and a 5-person panel of engineers, planners and architects.

It was a fascinating presentation and an afternoon of lively discussion. Sometimes conversation was heated and confrontational; other times, conciliatory and understanding. It was a great experience for the students to wrestle with a technology they’d never even heard of and inform the cable industry about how to better fit the technology into the urban environment.

One of their reports was so well-received, it generated talk of converting it into a primer text on the technology. As far as I know, this is the first ever group of urban planning students (not engineers or civil engineers) to actively work with this technology and the steep learning curve made for hard work. They did a great job and should be commended for their work.

Their insight, advice and imagination should go a long way to improve cable transit for the urban realm.

The Ryerson team laid essential groundwork, but there’s far more that needs to be done. Hopefully, other university planning programs are interested in continuing the team’s work. So let me put it out there: Are you or your university’s architecture, civil engineering and/or urban planning program interested in working on such a project some time in the future? If so, drop us a line at gondola (at) creativeurbanprojects (dot) com .

No commitments necessary, obviously. Let’s just start a dialogue.

Special thanks to Ryerson University; the cable transit team; faculty supervisor, Tom Ostler; the School’s Director, Mitchell Kosny; and panel members, Don Verbanac, Paul Bedford, Doug Jin and René Boiselle.



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Research Issues / Urban Planning & Design
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