How does the cost of this compare to elevated rail? Here in Miami we have a very very limited 2 line elevated rail [0] that the estimates to expand it run in the tens of billions of $. The idea of building retail into the parking garage structure/stations is intriguing as it could get private developers to underwrite the costs.
My other question would be (since I'm thinking Miami here), how would these cable systems fare against hurricanes? I assume the cars would just be docked in a safe building (parking garage structure).
Elevated rail, even monorail, is considerably more expensive, but also provides far higher capacity. You can also increase capacity on a train line relatively easily with shorter intervals and longer trains, while a gondola's carrying capacity is essentially fixed.
Rough comparison between three recent 3rd-world systems:
- La Paz gondola: 3000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd), ~$10m/km
- Mumbai Monorail: 10,000 pphpd, ~$20m/km
- BTS Skytrain, Bangkok: >30,000 pphpd, >$100m/km (on recent extensions)
Gondolas make sense in hilly locales where hurricanes are not a threat (like La Paz), they'd be a non-starter for both reasons in Miami.
I'm pretty sure a gondola can hold its own in a hurricane (as long as it isn't running). Most urban systems use the same technology as alpine systems, which have to withstand harsh blizzards.
My other question would be (since I'm thinking Miami here), how would these cable systems fare against hurricanes? I assume the cars would just be docked in a safe building (parking garage structure).
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrorail_(Miami)