Monorail? Booooooring.
You want to find us a cool public transportation idea that's gonna cut down on traffic? You better be thinkin' about a gondola, son.
There was a while there when it seemed like someone wanted to put a gondola over a different part of Seattle. First it was to connect Capitol Hill with Seattle Center. Then it was to ease the Montlake Mess. Then Kirkland tried to get into the gondola game.
The latest proposal for a gondola? The Griffith family, otherwise known as the folks behind The Great Wheel, are unveiling plans today for a gondola that would run between the Seattle waterfront and the Washington State Convention Center.
Initial concepts call for gondolas similar to those currently in use on the Great Wheel traveling by cable above the middle of the street, suspended by crescent shaped poles that look like a whale's bone. In addition to stations on each end, initial plans call for a stop at Pike Place Market. We'll have more details as we learn them. Critics will be sure to point to the fact this would be yet another mode of public transportation completely unconnected to the many other forms of public transportation in Seattle. However, given the foot traffic (and car traffic) expected to be generated in the coming years, maybe it's the one gondola idea that will finally stick.
· Gondola Rides! [Curbed Seattle]
· Is An Urban Gondola The Solution To The Montlake Mess? [Curbed Seattle]
· Does Kirkland Need A Gondola? [Curbed Seattle]
· Seattle Great Wheel developers to launch downtown gondola line [MyNorthwest]
· Why Does Seattle Hate Connective Public Transit? [Curbed Seattle]