Aerial Ropeway Transportation Systems in the Urban Environment: State of the Art

The evolution of public transit modes has been remarkable, fueled by the need for different transit modes to handle different demand levels, urban environment patterns, and natural constraints and barriers. One of these needs is the desire to overcome geographical and topographical barriers such as mountains, valleys, and bodies of water, which cannot be conquered by conventional transit modes without very large investments and changes made to the natural topography. Aerial ropeway transit (ART), a type of aerial transportation mode in which passengers are transported in a cabin that is suspended and pulled by cables, is one of the solutions to such cases. ART has its origins in aerial lifts that have been used for decades in Alpine ski resorts to transport skiers and tourists in cable-suspended cabins. The use of aerial transportation in the urban environment, which was once considered an unlikely possibility, has gained more attention worldwide, and it is now used as a public transit mode in several terrain-constrained urban areas around the world. This article describes the origins of aerial transportation and its advantages, components, service characteristics, available technologies, and applications around the world. The paper concludes with a fair assessment of the existing ART technologies. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000330.(C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.