Up, Up and Away in a Cable Car
April 7, 2010
Megan McConville
Read More: http://thecityfix.com/up-up-and-away-in-a-cable-car/
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Cable cars, also known as ropeways or aerial tramways, don’t get much respect. These types of transportation systems, in which a cabin or other conveyance is suspended from a fixed cable and pulled by another cable, are often thought of as tourist-movers. But cable cars can have some practical applications in urban settings. They are especially useful where inclines are too steep for conventional mass transit and where they can serve as feeders to bus and metro systems. They have been successfully applied in growing cities of the developing world, where slums are often clustered on precipitous hills surrounding urban centers.
Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group, a ropeway engineering company, published a brochure, “Aerial Ropeways as an Innovation Solution for Urban Transport,” that outlines many of the benefits of cable car systems, including the following:
* They are a low-emissions form of transportation, as their motion generates less resistance than land-bound transport, so less electrical power is required to drive the ropes. Additionally, less energy is required for start-up because they move continuously.
* Their aerial position means they can be readily integrated into the cityscape and combined with other elements of the public transit network without encountering obstacles on the ground.
* They don’t compete with traffic.
* They provide no-wait service, moving continuously without interruption. Service frequency can be adjusted to suit demand by varying the speed of the circulating rope, eliminating empty runs in off-peak times and waiting times during peak periods.
* They require little space.
* They are accessible to passengers with impaired mobility and wheelchair users because the cabin floor is level with the platform.
* They can be equipped with wireless connection allowing direct audio/CCTV communication between cabins and stations.
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