This would be an excellent idea! It’s not for all cases but this could be adopted where it makes sense 👏

  • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    Sure, it’s been done. It has worked well in Medellin and now several Latin American cities are starting to get them. There’s a proposal to do one in Burnaby, BC to go up Burnaby Mountain.

    It seems like mountainous terrain is a requirement. Are you thinking about anything specific, or is this just a shower thought?

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Mountainous terrain isn’t required, but it’s the situation in which cable cars make the most sense because “better” options that require relatively flat ground aren’t available.

      Remember, the big selling point of a cable car is that it’s cheap, but it’s also lower-capacity than more usual kinds of transit. It’s more legit than some gimmicky ‘gadgetbahn’, but not by much.

      • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        Yeah I shouldn’t say a requirement, but it’s certainly more likely to be considered in elevated terrain.

    • Value Subtracted@startrek.website
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      4 days ago

      There’s a new CBC Radio article that OP may have forgotten to link to.

      It does seem like there’s not much of a use case if you don’t have the requirement to cover a large change in elevation in a relatively short distance - mountains, or to get up and over a shipping lane, or something like that. The article argues for them to be inexpensive, which…I’m sure they are, but they seem to be relatively low-capacity, and pretty limited in terms of the number of stops you could include on a route. But I’m not an expert, and maybe I’d be surprised.

    • ragingHungryPanda@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com
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      4 days ago

      Not just mountainous terrain. Mexico City has one that goes over some densely packed naighborhoods. The roads are not good for buses, so the cable cars go over the town and connect to the BRT

    • engene@lemmy.caOP
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      4 days ago

      Yeah I read the same article and thought I included the link but silly me 😝 I assumed a mountainous terrain was a requirement but appears to be doable here in the GTA too. I was surprised to learn a project is already underway in the Oshawa region.

      • JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        You can edit your post and add a link, and articles should be link style posts, not image style posts.