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I rode an urban gondola in Chongquing China one time, spanning a river, it was so cool! I also rode one in Kunming, China.
I've ridden gondola's, while traveling in South America, where it's quite standard to build a statue of Christ on one of their higher hills, fed by a gondola ride. I recall riding them, for this purpose, in Cochabamba/Bolivia, Salta/Argentina.
I think they'd work great, spanning the rivers in NYC.
Last edited by tijlover; 03-09-2012 at 08:18 PM..
Reason: edit
NYC has a fairly well used one to connect Manhattan to Roosevelt Island. London is building a new one to open in time for the Olypmics to connect to the O2 Arena. It already shows up on on-line the tube map as under construction.
One time I was in Aspen (CO) with a friend from back home. I remarked how Aspen sort of looks like Beaver Falls, with a main street and then the town sloping down to the river. My friend pointed to the gondola at the foot of the mountain and said (sarcastically), "yeah, and a gondola too!" DH pointed out that there used to be an incline up the hill to connect d/t Beaver Falls with Patterson Hts.
I think they'd work great, spanning the rivers in NYC.
New York already has one, connecting Roosevelt Island with Manhattan. For a while, until a subway stop was open; it was the only direct connection between the island and Manhattan.
The problem with it, and any other gondola or incline, is it only connects two points; for example with the Roosevelt Island tramway, what if you wanted to go somewhere else in Manhattan; you'd have to switch to the subway. The frequency is also low because it's one line (once every 15 mins). Still makes more sense than most because one end is a small island, with most nearby the stop.
Gondolas (known as aerial trams in the USA) are not a viable solution for general mass transit because they are slow, limited in application to point to point, though less expensive to construct and maintain.
As to elevated mass transit, suspended monorails, or elevated trains are far more cost effective.
For land transportation, steel wheel on steel rail trumps other forms.
As to propulsion, electric traction is most efficient. Cable cars (i.e., San Francisco) and funiculars are another solution, when the grade is too steep for traction, and / or when cogwheel is impractical.
As to snow, it depends on depth. Trains can handle deeper snow than cars, in general.
Capacity and speed - these are currently limited more by norms and regulations than effective limitations , gondola with >7000 pph pd and 45 kmh/27 mph are already feasible.
Safety : Gondola and ropeways are roughly 8 to 10 times safer respect railways,for accidents and deaths/people transported statistics could be found on the Swiss Statistics bureau sites , btw we are talking on 2,5 million people/year for rope transit respect 4,3 million people/year , with data reported over 20 years. Statistique suisse - Accidents et impact sur l'environnement Here the documents.
Efficience : Gondola are to be seriously evaluated in an urban environment when there are
- Inclines, rivers, highway or railways on the projected trace
- People transport demand not enough for a subway
- rectilinear line possibility
- Not many stops
In these cases, a Gondola could offer a Light Rail service on transport capability at a fraction of the cost, with a much better availability (a cab every minute) and another big advantage : a Gondola could be dismounted , relocated (even sold) and doesn't require irreversible environment modifications.
Nothing beats a full-scale subway on speed and mass transport capability, unfortunately the related costs are also very high, as the operational costs: worldwide there's no mass transport system paying by itself- all rely on heavy subsidies to run, and this is not fresh news, but are at least 40 years that works like this.
Instead, Gondola are worldwide a 95% private enterprise market, thus the pressure for increasing capability and reducing costs are and were real from long time...
If I was and Urban Planner, I would give a serious look to the opportunities and limitations , as well also look to the monorail systems that are currently gaining the market in an hard , harsh and competitive environment like mining...
I think the problem is it has to go not just across or up geological features, but from high traffic area to high traffic area since there are no interim stops. Otherwise, what's the draw of getting to point B?
They just can't throw a ladder down for you to get off?
They just can't throw a ladder down for you to get off?
How about a fireman's pole instead?
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