A Gondola Future

From the AP-

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Instead of fighting traffic or waiting for a taxi, rail travelers arriving at New York's capital may one day soar across the Hudson River in glassy pods suspended from cables.

That futuristic image could become a reality if an engineering firm's urban gondola plan comes to fruition. It's one of several aerial cable projects being pitched in cities from Austin, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to solve public transportation problems by going above the existing maze of congested highways, bridges and rails.

"We haven't seen any major adoption in North America, but there has been so much change and such growth in the technology in the last decade that it's only a matter of time," said Toronto-based urban planner Steven Dale, who created The Gondola Project to provide technical assistance for such ideas.

Cable-propelled urban gondolas are similar to those used for decades to transport skiers up mountains. While there are only a couple used for public commuter transit in the U.S. - Portland, Oregon's Aerial Tram and New York City's Roosevelt Island Tramway - the technology is quickly gaining traction in European countries such as Italy, Germany, Portugal and France.

Medellin, Colombia, launched the first aerial gondola mass transit system in South America in 2004, and Mexico City inaugurated its new Mexicable gondola transit system in October.