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Austin Gondolas/ The wire

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Gondola transit system considered in Round Rock. Typically found at ski resorts, high-flying gondolas may be in the future for the City of Round Rock.

Gondola transit system considered in Round Rock

City leaders in Round Rock are in talks with an Austin-based design company that has big ideas for alternative modes of urban transportation. Dubbed The Wire, Frog Design plan would include a series of gondolas on high wires, well above the traffic below. Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw loves the unique concept. "After you sit down with these guys and you actually go through some of the details of it, you walk away, instead of laughing about it, you walk away with asking the question, 'Wel, why not? '" McGraw said. If Round Rock chooses to move forward with the idea, it would be the first cable system to run on a citywide scale.

Designers say one of the best features of The Wire is that it can go anywhere. "The cable doesn't matter if it's going over a building, a river, a green belt,” designer Michael McDaniel said. The gondolas can also be added and removed as needed. Gondolas Could Be the Next Great Urban Transportation Device. While F1 fans flocked to Austin last weekend for the inaugural USGP, a team of industrial designers were hard at work on plans for a series of aerial gondolas to connect the city.

Gondolas Could Be the Next Great Urban Transportation Device

It may sound futuristic, but it isn’t as far-fetched as you might imagine. Already, gondolas have become popular ways of connecting destinations across rivers, valleys and areas were major altitude differentials make other forms of transport untenable. Roosevelt Island in New York; Medellin, Colombia; and Portland, Oregon, all use some form of gondola as public transit systems. Gondolas in Austin: creative transportation ideas emerge - Austin Business Journal. An overhead wire system could move 10,000 people an hour, Frog Design's Michael McDaniel said.

Gondolas in Austin: creative transportation ideas emerge - Austin Business Journal

What if Austinites rode gondolas to work? Admittedly, the question sounds a little far fetched, said Frog Design Inc.'s Michael McDaniel. But it, and other questions like it, should be explored as Austin develops a comprehensive transit system to carry the city into coming decades. McDaniel and San Francisco-based firm Frog Design — a product and Web design and consulting firm that employs 150 people in Austin — recently presented a plan at a conference in California for a series of cable car systems called gondolas that could carry commuters across Austin. Click the slideshow to see more. “People look at it and say that is the stupidest, most bizarre thing,” McDaniel said, “but once you get past the shock, it’s very feasible.” In addition, the cable cars could travel over natural barriers like the Barton Creek greenbelt and Lady Bird Lake without disturbing them. Wear: A tram instead of a roller coaster. When my boss first mentioned to me that someone at a recent conference in San Francisco had suggested using gondolas for mass transit in Austin, I thought he was talking about boats.

Wear: A tram instead of a roller coaster

You know, the graceful, skinny canoes from Venice, piloted by jovial guys wearing red-and-white striped T-shirts and straw hats. Sure, just put a flotilla of those on Lady Bird Lake, and traffic congestion on Interstate 35 and MoPac Boulevard would melt like a Popsicle in August. After all, Austin used to have a Hotel Gondolier at I-35 and the river, and old postcards for it featured a gondola floating by. Turns out I was wrong. Weird Austin Idea of the Day: Trying to get across town? Hop a Gondola. - News Blog. Aerial solution to mass transit? Council hosting public forum to examine feasibility of gondolas The leaders of Round Rock are looking in a new direction—literally—for options in developing a mass-transit system to cope with the city’s expected continued growth.

Aerial solution to mass transit?

Rather than regurgitating traditional transit options such as trains or buses, the city’s public officials are taking an active interest in a revolutionary “aerial-based mass-transit system” that would lift users from the ground in ski lift–style gondolas and drop them off at destinations throughout town. The system is referred to as The Wire and is the brainchild of a team of planners from Frog Design, an international innovation firm with offices in 14 locations worldwide, including Austin. “Once we got into some of the design research of it and really started investigating the technology, it quickly went from an office joke to, ‘this is really plausible and really viable,’” said Michael McDaniel, principal designer at Frog Design’s Austin studio.

Local viability. Gondolas in Round Rock? City Council members say they love the... Will airborne gondolas one day ply the skies of Round Rock, shuttling passengers on a transit-system-of-the-future?

Gondolas in Round Rock? City Council members say they love the...

That was the pitch made Thursday to the Round Rock City Council, whose members said they loved the idea, even if for now it is just that. Frog Design’s Austin office came up with the idea last year and has unsuccessfully sought an audience with Austin city officials. “Who wants to be the test case for some completely new technology?”