Yep, you heard us, Toronto just keeps getting higher and higher. Or, at least aspirations of our city’s urban planners do. Yesterday, CBC News reported that gondola transit could be on the horizon for Toronto. We thought this was pretty neat and decided to investigate.
The final phase of Steven Dale's conception for a gondola transit project in Toronto. Image c/o gondolaproject.com
Gondola Transit in Toronto?
On October 12th, the CBC News reported that urban planner Steven Dale was advocating for the installation of gondola transit lines in Toronto. Dale believes that gondola transit will provide city planners with a cheap and effective option for transit expansion (not transit replacement).
Dale would like to see the implementation of a system of enclosed ski-lift style gondolas, supported by steel cables, that carry between 10 and 35 people. He centered out some key locations, including a connection between the Toronto Island Airport and the mainland and another connection along the Don Valley Corridor (a place that is difficult to add sufficient transportation infrastructure).
Above, we presented you with the image for the final phase of Steven Dale’s conception of how Toronto’s gondola line could shape up. For the full conceptual process, please visit: http://gondolaproject.com/2010/05/31/a-toronto-gondola-system/
The Gondola Project
A cable car to Sentosa in Singapore. Image c/o gondolaproject.com.
Steven Dale is the founder of Creative Urban Projects, a group that does consulting for agencies on gondola systems. He is also the founder of gondolaproject.com, which is in its 712th day. The Gondola Project is an ongoing participatory planning project to help explain and spread the idea of Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit throughout the world.
Dale admitted in his Wednesday morning interview with the CBC that even he thought the idea of gondola transit was crazy at first. Yet, he said once he began to undertake research on the initiatives and examine the case history of past projects, he started to realize the benefits. What are these benefits? Gondola transit is a cost effective and efficient method of transporation (wait times of less than a minute? Zero traffic to deal with? We’ll take it!).
So, exactly how cost efficient is gondola transit? Dale estimates that for Toronto, the cost of installing a gondola line would be between one- and two-thirds of that of a light-rail line. More specific costs are listed on the website. There, the price to build a single gondola cable cab is listed as $15-45 million in USD. This is comparable to the estimated $30-75 million it costs to build a kilometer of light rail.
Okay, so it’s cost efficient, but is it really that effective a method of transportation? Interestingly, according to Dale’s website, gondola transit has the capacity to transport 6,000 people per hour, per direction. This number far outshines the current light rail system, which maxes out at 3,500 people transported per hour, per direction.
If you have questions, or just can’t see the potential utility in a gondola system, check out the site’s 5 Most Common (and Cynical) Arguments People Use Against Urban Gondola Transit:
So far, gondola transit projects have been implemented in many cities in South America, including: Medellin, Colombia, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and Caracas, Venezuela. Many of these systems have been implemented to service areas with a history of economic disparity and crime.
Medellin is the star pupil of this project so far, with three fully integrated gondola lines and more to come. In case you’re interested, after the installation of the gondola line in Medellin, crime rates began to plummet, while investment rates skyrocketed and jobs have increased by 300%.
A gondola line in Medellin, Colombia. Image c/o Steven Dale.
Dale realizes that installing gondola transit lines in Toronto will not be a cure-all and believes that the project should be seen as complementary to, rather than better than the LRT system. He believes the TTC should branch out into other transportation modes as they used to in the past. He worries that projects of this nature will be sidelined for years, given the political climate in Toronto and says that current talks with city officials have not progressed.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/12/gondola-transit-toronto548.html
Weekly Roundup: 12 Urban Gondolas in Makkah? « The Gondola Project says:
[...] throughout Canada, spawning multiple online conversations and stories about the topic (here and here, for example). It also led to a massive jump in readership throughout the week. So that’s a [...]
13th October 2011 at 11:33 am