The Gondola Project
2010
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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2010
(This post was a little late coming in today. So much going on. Please accept my apologies.)
It’s been a good week for Cable Propelled Transit and Urban Gondolas:
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2010
One Sunday last month, I was standing at a subway station and the overhead monitor informed me that the next train was to arrive in 9 minutes. 30 seconds later, it anticipated an arrival in 7 minutes. Two minutes later the monitor said the train would arrive in 6 minutes. 3 minutes later, the train arrived, but was out of service.
Hint: If your solution to a problem is to actively broadcast the degree to which you’re deviating from a planned action, ensure that your description of the deviation is more accurate than the deviation itself.
Better yet, stop wasting time and money on systems like this that are designed solely to respond to symptoms of a problem. Attack the problem, not the symptoms.
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2010
Idea Suppression is the Gatekeeper’s business and it used to be a good business to be in. The pay was good and the costs were low. If you were in the Gatekeeping business, you really didn’t have to do a whole lot of work to do your job well. To suppress an idea all you had to do was prevent the idea from having a platform.
Idea Suppression and Platform Prevention went hand-in-hand.
As I’ve said before, this whole Urban Gondola / Cable Propelled Transit idea didn’t have a hope 20 years ago. 20 years ago there were just too many Gatekeepers.
Today there’s still too many Gatekeepers, but the tools we now use to maneuver around them has increased exponentially. Use these tools properly and Gatekeepers cease to matter. Today, everyone’s got a platform, everyone’s got a voice.
Gatekeeping is now a lousy business to be in:
I’m sure this is upsetting to the Gatekeepers Union (how awesome would it be if such a thing actually existed?) because it makes their job irrelevant. Why bother hiring a Gatekeeper – or building a gate in the first place – when everyone’s just going to hop the wall anyways?
Not everyone’s going to agree with Urban Gondolas, just as not everyone’s going to agree with LRT, PRT or BRT. And that’s a good thing. But the fact that some fool from Toronto can shout “gondola” and have people pay attention shows just how ineffective and worthless Gatekeeping is as a profession nowadays.
Today any idea has a fighting chance and there’s not a Gatekeeper in the world who can do anything about it.
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.
2010
A comment from Wednesday’s Post made me realize that not everyone who encounters this site for the first time are aware of the arguments that are buried in posts from half a year ago. That’s a mistake I made; and I apologize to any readers new to this site.
With that in mind, here are 10 more posts from the first 3 months of The Gondola Project that help to clarify my position on the topic:
New material tomorrow, I promise!
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.
2010
A comment from Wednesday’s Post made me realize that not everyone who encounters this site for the first time are aware of the arguments that are buried in posts from half a year ago. That’s a mistake I made; and I apologize to any readers new to this site.
With that in mind, here are 10 posts from the first 3 months of The Gondola Project that help to clarify my position on the topic:
We’ll have another 10 posts tomorrow just to round out your weekend reading. New material Monday, I promise!
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.
2010
Construction of Toronto's Bloor Street Viaduct in 1917. Public Domain image from the Toronto Archives
Toronto’s Prince Edward Viaduct (most commonly known as the ‘Bloor Street Viaduct’) is one of my favorite pieces of infrastructure in all of my hometown.
This 1918 Art Deco masterpiece was the cornerstone of the city’s plans to connect the growing metropolis with disconnected suburbs across the Don Valley River system.
Is it functional? Yes. Is it beautiful? Absolutely. Most importantly, it’s one of the best examples of transit planning foresight I can think of.
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.
