Steven Dale, founding principal of Creative Urban Projects, has launched the Gondola Project to inform the public about cable-propelled transit and how it can be used in urban environments.
“In order for transit to function effectively, it has to be multimodal—you have to be able to use multiple technologies, in multiple environments, in multiple situations, to get the job done,” says Dale.
Current gondola technology can transport as many as 6,000 persons per hour per direction and provide access to places that would otherwise be difficult to get to with common transportation methods.
“Generally speaking, that is where we see them implemented most often ... in places where street cars or light rails are not physically capable of going,” says Dale.
One example of how a gondola system could benefit the city is to use it in place of the proposed Downtown Relief Line.
The relief line, a new subway line cutting through downtown Toronto in the busiest section of the subway system, has been something that the city has been talking about for many years, and was originally meant as a means to relieve congestion on the TTC Yonge line.
“The problem with the Downtown Relief Line has always been that it would be too expensive to build for too few people to ride it,” says Dale.
“So in essence, what we would be doing is mimicking the Downtown Relief Line and doing it for a fraction of the cost.”
If implemented, the proposed gondola system would serve as another mode of transport that would link into existing subway stations and possibly office towers, and relieve congestion on subways as well as street cars.
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