Gondola Stations as urban transportation option?

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Here in Vancouver a long time ago we decided to build a university literally on the top of a local mountain and students and faculty have been paying the price ever since when it snows (and just generally burning oil and brake pads going up and down in cars and busses). It's now official that we're going to be building a direct gondola connection from the closest Skytrain station to the top of the mountain in what seems like the biggest no-brainer transit project in the region. The biggest hurdle we found during public consultation here were NIMBYs complaining about people looking down on them but luckily it seems like they didn't stand a chance. Other cities would probably have to tackle this issue as well. For any city where the topography demands transit at significant grades, gondolas seem like they make a lot of sense. For transit in relatively flat areas, why not just build a train or have dedicated bus lanes?

Burnaby Mountain Gondola project site.



Image from: CTV News

Good thing the NIMBY'S didn't get their way.

[mhays]

Vancouver does so many things well...but it's amazingly bad at siting universities.

SFU is exactly the sort of place I can see doing a gondola. Much like Portland's hard-to-get-to OHSU hospital and life science center with its gondola.

Pittsburgh is an interesting idea. But aren't its hilltops generally either reasonably accessible or pretty low-density?

[giallo]

Originally Posted by mhays

Vancouver does so many things well...but it's amazingly bad at siting universities.

SFU is exactly the sort of place I can see doing a gondola. Much like Portland's hard-to-get-to OHSU hospital and life science center with its gondola.

Pittsburgh is an interesting idea. But aren't its hilltops generally either reasonably accessible or pretty low-density?

I agree. Having the two major universities in the region far away from the city centre wasn't very well thought out.

Having said that, UBC is becoming an interesting "far flung" urban area.

[ocman]

Here’s the proposal from Union station to Dodger stadium, with a station in between at Chinatown. The criticism that it flies over so many residences and is an invasion of privacy is valid. I also wonder how efficient it is with transporting potentially tens of thousand of people in small personal cabins.

I’d also like to know how many people are coming from Union station or Chinatown station on a typical game day. But I also like the idea that it would be a visual aid for passerbys to locate the stadium, Chinatown and Union Station as well as Broadway.

And apparently, this is becoming somewhat of a trend. The Oakland As and Washington Nationals are thinking about gondolas too.

[Dariusb]

Originally Posted by ocman

Here’s the proposal from Union station to Dodger stadium, with a station in between at Chinatown. The criticism that it flies over so many residences and is an invasion of privacy is valid. I also wonder how efficient it is with transporting potentially tens of thousand of people in small personal cabins.

I’d also like to know how many people are coming from Union station or Chinatown station on a typical game day. But I also like the idea that it would be a visual aid for passerbys to locate the stadium, Chinatown and Union Station as well as Broadway.

And apparently, this is becoming somewhat of a trend. The Oakland As and Washington Nationals are thinking about gondolas too.

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by ocman

Here’s the proposal from Union station to Dodger stadium, with a station in between at Chinatown. The criticism that it flies over so many residences and is an invasion of privacy is valid. I also wonder how efficient it is with transporting potentially tens of thousand of people in small personal cabins.

I’d also like to know how many people are coming from Union station or Chinatown station on a typical game day. But I also like the idea that it would be a visual aid for passerbys to locate the stadium, Chinatown and Union Station as well as Broadway.

And apparently, this is becoming somewhat of a trend. The Oakland As and Washington Nationals are thinking about gondolas too.

I think it could work well. But overall I agree, how much use it would get would really depend on how (what mode of transport) most fans actually get to Dodger Stadium and where they're coming from.

It would also be more useful if there were other things at the Dodger Stadium parking lot that could attract people on non game days.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by mhays

Vancouver does so many things well...but it's amazingly bad at siting universities.

SFU is exactly the sort of place I can see doing a gondola. Much like Portland's hard-to-get-to OHSU hospital and life science center with its gondola.

Pittsburgh is an interesting idea. But aren't its hilltops generally either reasonably accessible or pretty low-density?

New Orleans built one across the Mississippi to Algiers for the World's Fair in the 1980s. It was really a pretty good fit - a point-to-point connection with fairly low volume. There's always been a ferry crossing at this point, but probably the gondola would have a lower operating cost and higher frequency/convenience than the ferry.

Unfortunately the 1980s system didn't hold up well in the humidity and the cars were tiny, basically just enclosed ski chairlifts. The endpoints of the system were also poorly chosen as a transit route, with low-density industrial areas on each end, whereas the ferry goes from the foot of Canal St/CBD/French Quarter to the densest part of Algiers. The modern "aerial tramway" systems are much larger and more comfortable, basically comparable to minibuses or airport people movers.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Unfortunately the 1980s system didn't hold up well in the humidity and the cars were tiny, basically just enclosed ski chairlifts. The endpoints of the system were also poorly chosen as a transit route, with low-density industrial areas on each end, whereas the ferry goes from the foot of Canal St/CBD/French Quarter to the densest part of Algiers. The modern "aerial tramway" systems are much larger and more comfortable, basically comparable to minibuses or airport people movers.

Yeah, regular gondolas with 6-8 person cabins would suck for public transit.

The Burnaby Mountain Gondola in Vancouver is planned to use a tri-cable gondola which normally have 26-32 person cabins.

The huge aerial tramways cabins are great but being reversible only really limits their capacity.

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by Dariusb

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

If it all comes together, they could knock it out of the park. Having a link like this would be a home run.