Take a minute to think about that question . . . what do you hate about your city’s transit system? With transit fares rising and the price of automobiles dropping (can a $1,000 car from China really be that far away?) our public transit systems are going to have to do a lot to convince...
I’m traveling today and am out of internet contact (why can’t more airlines fix that problem?), so we’re going to watch a video (like when your high school history teacher was sick with strep throat) It’s short, it’s in French, and it should inspire the transit wonk in all of you (especially starting at 0:56)....
Way back in the day (we’re talking 1872 here) Cincinnati, Ohio was clustered at the base of several small mountains. As the city grew and expanded up the sides of the mountain city officials had a problem: How were people and goods to be moved up and down the mountains? This was, of course, before...
Here’s an example of how not to implement Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) in an urban area. The Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) desired a direct connection between their two campuses in Portland, Oregon; one at the bottom of a mountain, another at the top. A CPT system was a logical choice. I won’t discuss what I...
There are two minor sub-groups of CPT technology: Aerial Trams and Funiculars. Aerial Trams are like larger Gondolas. I’ll discuss this technology in greater detail later. Generally speaking, however, Aerial Trams are (relative to Gondolas) an out-dated mode of Cable-Propelled Transit. Compared with Gondola technology, Aerial Trams exhibit longer wait times between vehicles; lower line...
Sometimes people want to answer complex questions when most people looking for answers just want the basics. When I first began this work, there was one really basic question about Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) that dogged me and no one could answer it. It was a question that also dogged the think tank that first sponsored...