Transit Talk: Going, going, gondola

Welcome back to another edition of Transit Talk! I've enjoyed reading the conversations sparked by my calls for an extended T and public water taxi, but today, we're elevating things by imagining another way to get arahnd tahn that's not as pie-in-the-sky as you might think: a gondola system soaring majestically over Pittsburgh’s green hills.

Like the water taxi idea, this is something the city has actually studied. Austrian ski lift and cable-car company Doppelmayr (“the world’s largest manufacturer of ropeways”) put together an entire prospectus on the subject at the city’s behest in 2018 that outlines the various benefits and pitfalls of building an aerial tramway or gondola lift over the Steel City. It’s an interesting read that takes a clear-eyed look at what this novel mode of transit could and couldn’t do for us in the ’Burgh.

Gondolas are another transit system with a proven track record elsewhere. As Doppelmayr points out, mountainous La Paz, Bolivia, is criss-crossed by a network of them, and, here in the States, Portland, Ore. has one that connects a university campus with a riverfront business district. In these and other examples, gondolas — like our two inclines — fulfill the dual purpose of serving commuters and giving tourists a bird's-eye view of the city.

But while inclines are limited to serving a single hillside, gondolas get to soar without a care above it all. Possibly the coolest part of introducing such a system to Pittsburgh would be catching our city’s unmatched river views from directly over the water.

One of the main gripes people have had with my previous Transit Talks (or really any local infrastructure project real or imagined) is the cost. Great news for the budget-conscious: building an aerial tram is fairly cheap. Portland’s, for example, cost just $57 million, and while that’s not nothing, Pittsburgh’s current bus rapid transit expansion clocks in at $300 million before federal help. The cost of maintenance and upkeep for buses is also far higher. This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, of course, but a Pittsburgh gondola would probably pay itself off faster than, say, a T extension or additional busway.

While American gondolas tend mainly to be built in parks and ski areas, cities such as Paris have begun adding them as an additional way to move people without cars — the key to this approach is connecting with existing infrastructure (much as the Mon Incline connects with the T at Station Square). Paris is deliberately planning its new aerial tramway as a complement to the city’s extensive metro.

So the question becomes: where would you put a Pittsburgh gondola, exactly?

One obvious choice would be to locate one terminal in Oakland and another on the South Side, giving college students a picturesque way to get back from a night of revelry. One could also build a terminal in the Hill District that connects to the North Shore via the Strip, or that travels from Mt. Washington via the Hill to the North Shore.

Where exactly a gondola would run comes down to a balancing act between site feasibility, ridership potential, and aesthetics — this last factor takes on an outsized importance given that a gondola would be visible from far away and local leaders would rightfully want to protect the amazing centerpiece of town that is the Point.

But setting aside the details, it’s almost surprising that the city has never attempted something like this. Given how much infrastructure has to pass through such tight spaces here (e.g., the West End railway bypass), one would think we’d have started building upward much sooner.

Just imagine taking a cable car over Mt. Washington and the Seldom Seen Greenway to Beechview. While you take the direct route, you could laugh at the fools sitting in their hot cars along 376 as Sawmill Run flows far beneath your feet. Or, take in the skyline as you sail smoothly from Pitt’s Upper Campus into Downtown via the historic Hill. Just think of what Dave DiCello and other eagle-eyed photographers could do with that vantage point!

While I’m not fully certain where I’d put a Pittsburgh gondola if I were some sort of Sim City god with infinite resources, I do feel certain one would be a big draw for locals and outsiders who appreciate our many attractive angles. Meanwhile, closer to earth, I’ve been thinking a lot about traffic calming. From where I sit, a gondola would certainly be much calmer than driving local roads with all these jagoffs! I'll have more to say about our traffic issues in a roundabout way soon ...