Cities In Western Canada Consider Gondolas As Part Of Transit Tourism Plans

A 350-meter-long urban rope, also known as a gondola, has been proposed to connect the Red Deer business district with the Bower Ponds recreation area. “In Red Deer, it’s very simple. There are two stations. It crosses the Red Deer River,” said Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, president of Prairie Sky Gondolas, who said she would invest $ 25 million in the project. This sketch of the Prairie Sky Gondola Red Deer proposal shows what the Capstone station would look like. (Prairie Sky Gondola)
The Prairie Sky also wants to take the cable car to the North Saskatchewan River between downtown Edmonton and Whyte Avenue, a popular street with bars, restaurants and shops. Geotechnical and environmental assessments are made and public input is gathered through meetings with indigenous communities and other stakeholders. The projects are two of the many proposed across North America as a way to get people on waterways or to take tourists to the mountains.

Growing interest in urban ropes, says the town planner

Steven Dale is a town planner who created The Gondola Project and has consulted many suggestions. He said interest in urban ropes is growing steadily. “Five years ago, the vast majority of my business was outside of North America,” Dale said. “Today, it’s probably 85 to 90 percent in North America. “Apart from the systems you have heard about, there are many other cities that are looking at it and discussing it very seriously.” Dale said cities are beginning to realize that gondolas can be cheaper than other transportation, can be built in less time, and can be used to move people quickly from one place to another. “Nobody likes to make a move. So the shorter and more predictable it is, the better.” Toulouse, Grenoble and Paris in France are fully integrating gondolas into their transit networks, Dale said. A similar idea is being considered in Burnaby, BC, where the city council in January approved a gondola connecting the SkyTrain expressway with Simon Fraser University. “The gondola project will create a safe and reliable transit option for Burnaby residents traveling to and from Mount Burnaby,” Mayor Mike Harley said in a press release at the time. The project is part of the 10-year vision of the municipality that guides the priorities and investments in transit. Dale said gondolas in Latin America “spread like wildfire” as soon as the first built-in ones were built. “Right now, North America is starting to dominate and it is starting to spread here.” The SJC Alliance, the company where Dale works, is involved in a gondola project in Los Angeles and a study for another in Tampa Bay, Florida. “Think of this nonsense. We are talking about using a cable car as a public transit in Florida,” he said. “It’s completely ridiculous, but in fact it’s good, because its ridiculousness catches people’s attention.” Ironically, Dale said, only Canadians say, “We have snow. We have ice. We have wind. We have winter. How does winter work?” “It’s a ski lift. How do you think it works in the winter? You take it out of the mountains and put it in a city and people’s minds are broken.” There are already gondolas in Western Canada for tourists and skiers, but others are being explored in the mountain towns of Banff and Canmore in Alberta. The developers want to build cable cars that will transport people to the tops of the mountains from the cities. At Canmore, a proposal for a gondola at Silvertip Resort is open to the public until mid-June to set the stage for an environmental review. The project will connect the resort with the top of Mount Lady MacDonald. A gondola to transport skiers and hikers from the city of Banff to the top of the Mount Norquay ski resort was rejected in 2019 by Parks Canada. The resort’s owners, however, told Banff City Council last August that they still hoped to build a smaller version of the city at the base of the mountain. Back in Edmonton, Hansen-Carlson said an urban gondola can be a tourist attraction, but it can also be a transportation solution. “As a piece of infrastructure that just moves people, the day has come,” he said. “Today there are about 200 urban ropes that work successfully. “Well, we are not world leaders, but we are definitely in the context of North America.”

title: “Cities In Western Canada Consider Gondolas As Part Of Transit Tourism Plans Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-21” author: “Jesse Dominguez”

A 350-meter-long urban rope, also known as a gondola, has been proposed to connect the Red Deer business district with the Bower Ponds recreation area. “In Red Deer, it’s very simple. There are two stations. It crosses the Red Deer River,” said Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, president of Prairie Sky Gondolas, who said she would invest $ 25 million in the project. This sketch of the Prairie Sky Gondola Red Deer proposal shows what the Capstone station would look like. (Prairie Sky Gondola)
The Prairie Sky also wants to take the cable car to the North Saskatchewan River between downtown Edmonton and Whyte Avenue, a popular street with bars, restaurants and shops. Geotechnical and environmental assessments are made and public input is gathered through meetings with indigenous communities and other stakeholders. The projects are two of the many proposed across North America as a way to get people on waterways or to take tourists to the mountains.

Growing interest in urban ropes, says the town planner

Steven Dale is a town planner who created The Gondola Project and has consulted many suggestions. He said interest in urban ropes is growing steadily. “Five years ago, the vast majority of my business was outside of North America,” Dale said. “Today, it’s probably 85 to 90 percent in North America. “Apart from the systems you have heard about, there are many other cities that are looking at it and discussing it very seriously.” Dale said cities are beginning to realize that gondolas can be cheaper than other transportation, can be built in less time, and can be used to move people quickly from one place to another. “Nobody likes to make a move. So the shorter and more predictable it is, the better.” Toulouse, Grenoble and Paris in France are fully integrating gondolas into their transit networks, Dale said. A similar idea is being considered in Burnaby, BC, where the city council in January approved a gondola connecting the SkyTrain expressway with Simon Fraser University. “The gondola project will create a safe and reliable transit option for Burnaby residents traveling to and from Mount Burnaby,” Mayor Mike Harley said in a press release at the time. The project is part of the 10-year vision of the municipality that guides the priorities and investments in transit. Dale said gondolas in Latin America “spread like wildfire” as soon as the first built-in ones were built. “Right now, North America is starting to dominate and it is starting to spread here.” The SJC Alliance, the company where Dale works, is involved in a gondola project in Los Angeles and a study for another in Tampa Bay, Florida. “Think of this nonsense. We are talking about using a cable car as a public transit in Florida,” he said. “It’s completely ridiculous, but in fact it’s good, because its ridiculousness catches people’s attention.” Ironically, Dale said, only Canadians say, “We have snow. We have ice. We have wind. We have winter. How does winter work?” “It’s a ski lift. How do you think it works in the winter? You take it out of the mountains and put it in a city and people’s minds are broken.” There are already gondolas in Western Canada for tourists and skiers, but others are being explored in the mountain towns of Banff and Canmore in Alberta. The developers want to build cable cars that will transport people to the tops of the mountains from the cities. At Canmore, a proposal for a gondola at Silvertip Resort is open to the public until mid-June to set the stage for an environmental review. The project will connect the resort with the top of Mount Lady MacDonald. A gondola to transport skiers and hikers from the city of Banff to the top of the Mount Norquay ski resort was rejected in 2019 by Parks Canada. The resort’s owners, however, told Banff City Council last August that they still hoped to build a smaller version of the city at the base of the mountain. Back in Edmonton, Hansen-Carlson said an urban gondola can be a tourist attraction, but it can also be a transportation solution. “As a piece of infrastructure that just moves people, the day has come,” he said. “Today there are about 200 urban ropes that work successfully. “Well, we are not world leaders, but we are definitely in the context of North America.”