County Supervisor Ron Roberts has been tossing this idea around for a while. He wants to build gondolas in San Diego as public transportation options. Besides the bus and trolley and driving yourself, getting from here to there could entail boarding a cable sky transport, if Roberts has his way. Roberts says that he got his idea from the gondola rides at the San Diego Zoo. Most people think of gondolas as being frivolous or having very specific purposes. They're used for ski lifts or to delight tourists. Nicole Capretz of the Climate Action Plan dismisses the idea of gondolas used for public transportation as being, "kind of a fancy new bright and shiny object." But to such critics Roberts cites some of the advantages of moving people around with gondolas. The estimated cost of a gondola route is a fraction of installing a trolley. With a smaller footprint, the environmental ramifications are less and there is less use of eminent domain. And other obstacles are dealt with easier. "Wherever you've got grade, and you've got freeways and other things you've got to cross or you've got traffic, just fly over it!" says Roberts.
This idea is not entirely new. Portland (Of course it would be Portland!) has a gondola that is used by 10,000 riders a day. Thoughts? Pie in the sky? Boondoggle? Or an innovative approach to transportation and climate change?
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorPaul Hormick is the founder of South Park Climate Solutions. He sees climate change as one of our central concerns, for ecologies as well as societies. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University |