Urban Sparks
Aerial Tram Study Intern June 2009 to January 2010
Urban Sparks, Seattle, WA
Urban Sparks, Seattle, WA
- Compiled information and data for a comprehensive study on the feasibility of using aerial tramways as a means for public transportation in the Seattle area.
- Initial report contained items such as comparisons to currently used transportation methods, various forms of analysis, survey of Seattle neighborhoods and potential installations according to travel patterns, compilations of sourcing and pricing.
Excerpt from Aerial Tram Study
For full report, please contact Urban Sparks
TS.1 Introduction
For decades Seattle has tried to build an efficient and connected transportation system. Seattle’s hills, lakes, dense neighborhoods and existing highways create challenging obstacles for new lines of surface transportation. Seattle also has an unfortunate history of severing neighborhoods with freeways and highways, making it nearly impossible to walk what were once short distances. Burying freeways, bus lines and trains helps avoid this problem, but is very expensive and takes years to complete. An effective and low cost solution is needed to solve these problems now in order to make significant progress on reducing greenhouse gasses.
Aerial trams are an effective solution which compliments existing and planned transportation systems. To produce this preliminary report, Urban Sparks has looked into past and potential uses of aerial trams for urban transportation to see how they might serve Seattle. These systems have many benefits:
For decades Seattle has tried to build an efficient and connected transportation system. Seattle’s hills, lakes, dense neighborhoods and existing highways create challenging obstacles for new lines of surface transportation. Seattle also has an unfortunate history of severing neighborhoods with freeways and highways, making it nearly impossible to walk what were once short distances. Burying freeways, bus lines and trains helps avoid this problem, but is very expensive and takes years to complete. An effective and low cost solution is needed to solve these problems now in order to make significant progress on reducing greenhouse gasses.
Aerial trams are an effective solution which compliments existing and planned transportation systems. To produce this preliminary report, Urban Sparks has looked into past and potential uses of aerial trams for urban transportation to see how they might serve Seattle. These systems have many benefits:
- Very low cost per passenger mile
- Eco-friendly, efficient operation with a light footprint
- Ability to quickly double the public transportation capacity in Seattle for less than 10% the cost of presently planned Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail (See A.3.2)
- Short build cycle of 18 months. Many routes could be in place within 5 years
- Minimal disruption to neighborhoods served
- Negligible wait times for passengers (cabins depart every 12 seconds)
- Extension of Public Transportation into neighborhoods and across terrain making all modes more attractive
- Aerial trams can even be moved and reused should their routes be served by light rail in the coming years.
While Aerial trams aren’t the fix-all solution, they can be used to extend the reaches of our existing modalities as well as provide new low cost connections. Aerial trams could provide solutions inexpensively, elegantly and years earlier than other forms of public transportation.
For Seattle, where wait times and transfer times are primary impediments for the use of public transportation, we recommend the use of Gondola style aerial trams. Individual gondolas depart every 12 seconds and can carry 4-8 passengers as well as bicycles and passengers using wheelchairs inside every gondola. This provides a continuous and immediately available mode of transportation. For more detailed descriptions of gondola aerial trams, as well as the other types of aerial trams, see Appendix Section 4.
